Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol

[Tropheus76]

Are they distilling it or fermenting it? If fermenting then wood alcohol wouldn't be an issue. With the skins and seeds I would be more worried about contaminations, fungal blooms, or just bad tastes getting into it. If they are distilling it then hopefully they know not to take the first ten percent or so.

[Kada]

well it seems in much of the places i have traveled and lived in Asia its less of a science and more of a whim when it comes to distilling haha, so its a real concern in my opinion.  wood alcohol starts being a problem when fermenting, albeit in lesser quantities.  distilled it gets concentrated.  so worse.  but i would prefer people who understood mashing and converting things when fermenting.  but its not common so i rarely drink local brews now until i know their process.

i wonder though, how much of a difference seeds make?

i quite like infusing, but maybe that's not the topic makers purpose of this thread.  but many fruit flavors seem not to carry over to the final drink.  but love reading all you guys suggestions, have lots of good new things to try now

[zands]

Take ripe mangoes and remove flesh from the seeds and skin. Pulp it with a potato masher and/or optimally run through a green power juicer to mash it.
Hi brix mangoes flesh (pulp) should ferment into a decent alcohol product without having to add any sugar to the recipe. You can't squeeze any liquid from mangoes but a nice mash of mango pulp that you add some yeast too should do OK. It would have to be in and out of the refrigerator to keep it cool. A cool basement would be ideal for fermentation but there are none in South Florida, all is built on slabs.

End result: A fermented alcoholic pulp not a fermented liquid.

[Tropheus76]

I dont doubt you but I have never heard of wood alcohols being an issue in fermented drinks and one of my groups I belong to makes a lot of home brewed drinks.

[mangaba]

I would caution somebody using wood alchool for mixing with fruits  and consuming the drink. Does consumation of methylated spirits not lead to blindness ? Ethyl alchool or alchool extracted from orange peel does not pose these problems.

[palmcity]

I dont doubt you but I have never heard of wood alcohols being an issue in fermented drinks and one of my groups I belong to makes a lot of home brewed drinks.

I agree that not a problem in normal home wine making; so wood alcohol (methanol) is not a issue to consider. Distilling any  alcohol without a permit is illegal in U.S. and more chance of problems of poisoning people depending on what material is used to make the still.

Minor minor amounts per what little I could google and I would not be concerned for my health in drinking my home brew wine as I am now doing while typing... Here is one site saying similar: http://www.abc.net.au/health/features/stories/2013/09/10/3845522.htm

"Methanol is formed in very small amounts during fermentation, the process by which alcohol is made from plant products like grape juice or cereal grains. There are small amounts in wine and beer, but not enough to cause problems when these products are made at home, says Leigh Schmidtke, a senior lecturer in wine microbiology and production at Charles Sturt University."

[KarenRei]

Methanol comes from fermentation of pectin (methyl esters of galactose).  Decomposition of pectin yields methanol and pectate.  It's not usually a problem for non-distilled alcohols, but if you distill wrong you concentrate the methanol fraction.