[throwaway0a5e]

>Methanol is easily accidentally produced when using a poorly calibrated still and not throwing out enough of the early product,

Easily? Yes.

Easily done unintentionally? No way in hell.

You don't even need to calibrate anything, just throw out the first bunch of stuff that comes out of the still. There's a ~10deg hop after the methanol is done boiling during which the still almost stops producing. You just throw out everything that comes before (and during) that reduced flow.