In Reply to: Arak or Araq? posted by shell on Friday, 9. December 2011 at 23:21 Bali Time:
in the last few years Shell. Back in circa 2004-05 there were 2/3 deaths in Singaraja (I believe from memory) from methanol laced arak.
These were Indos so not much was made of it-like it didn't make big news as the latest cases. In distilling, methanol is a lighter (as in weight) oil and is the first to be produced from a still. This should be collected separate to'the good oil'-ethanol.Once 50-100ml (depending om size of still) of methanol is collected, what follows is ethanol. My personal view is that, for 'locals' to gain an income they may double distill from original arak. By this I mean mix 1 part arak to 1 part water and re-distill (to put it in layman's terms). This does increase the alcohol content, which you then cut down with water to the strength one desires. Due to lack of knowledge, they would not be aware methanol comes off first-nor would they wish any ill will/health to drinkers. Statuatory/long term (legit) distillers are still producing arak and these are available in supermarkets, liquor stores etc..... and are very safe. One must be aware of the larger bars/clubs who are after big profits who do not verify their source of supplies of this product.