If oxygen gets in, the ethanol will oxidise into ethanoic acid and the drink will taste like vinegar. Methanol is used as a chemical feedstock. It’s toxic, so it is added to industrial ethanol ...

Fermentation is a slow reaction and takes several days or weeks to finish. If air is present, the oxygen causes the ethanol to oxidise to ethanoic acid, so the drink tastes of vinegar.

More OlegEvseev / Love Employee/Getty Images / Canva Like ethanol, methanol reacts with oxygen in the body. In the case of ethanol, this process makes acetaldehyde—a toxic chemical—and then acetate, ...

The difference is in how methanol is metabolized, or broken down in our bodies. Ethanol is metabolized into a chemical ...

Ethanol is metabolised into a chemical compound called acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is toxic, but is rapidly converted to acetate (also known as acetic acid, found in vinegar). Generating an acid ...