This is distilling 101 - when you start distilling you want to throw away the first part of your batch as methanol. There is a formula to tell you how much, but it can be deadly if you don’t do it.
https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-avoid-methanol-in-my-alcohol-destillation
Holding at 153-155F is crucial, it drives the methanol out. Throw this condensation out like the poison it is. This can be 15% 0f the total alcohol, once that stops boiling increase the temp to 171-175F and you get the ethanol. If you don’t do that first step at 155F and monitor it closely you’re playing a risky game and making hangover hell in a bottle if not worse. Fruit based mash’s can have even higher methanol content, and many of these mash’s are tropical third world countries making their own backyard hootch, which is primarily fruit, not grain.
“This is distilling 101 - when you start distilling you want to throw away the first part of your batch as methanol.”
From my NC bootlegging relatives or years gone by I learned that the first part is called the “heads”, and distills at a lower temperature. It is discarded. The middle part is what you want, ethanol, and distills at a relatively middle temperature. The last part of the run distills at a higher temperature and is called the “tails”, and is also composed of dangerous chemicals and is discarded. To be safe, distilling temperatures must be carefully controlled by someone who knows that they’re doing. Some amateur who tries to distill spirits without controlling temperatures produces bad booze, usually the first and last parts of the run. So, the #1 rule followed by NC moonshine aficionados is: KNOW THY BOOTLEGGER.