Greetings fellow Wausonians! Dan here to continue our journey into world of craft spirits and how they are made. Obviously with LOVE but there is more to it! Last month we looked at a broad view of the mashing and fermentation process of grains, fruits, and sugars. Now we will take a quick look at the different style of stills are most common in your local distilleries.
There are two different traditional Still types. The First invented was the “Pot Still”, and its about as simple as the name is. Typically pot stills are large round pots with a funnel like top to concentrate the vapors from the wash you are separating the alcohol from. These traditionally will allow more compounds and oils to make it through the distillation process as its basically a free for all of what makes it out first, how hot the still is, etc. These will usually require a few distillations to refine into a quaffable spirit. Pot still are traditionally used in Whiskey, Brandy, Rum, and Tequila production.
The Second type of still is called a “Column Still.” These were designed after pot stills with the intention of being able to more efficiently extract alcohol, and cut down on multiple distillations. These are traditionally tall columns often 20 feet or more with “plates” with small holes separating chambers inside. Column stills are especially good for making Neutral Grain Spirits as each of those plates/chambers purifies the spirit stripping out more and more until you are left with a product that is 196 proof or 98% alcohol. This is the product that is a precursor to vodka’s and Gins. The benefit is being able to strip out flavor and have high efficacies in often one distillation is a big time saver. Column still can also be turned into a continuous still where you can continually pump mash through instead of the pot still were you can only do limited batches one at a time.
These have served as great inventions for the distilling world but like all industries there is evolution. Many distilleries including Timekeeper here in town use what is known as a Hybrid Still. We have a 1,000 Liter pot still with a 4 plate reflux column. So basically, it is a pot still that has the ability to go through a short column and reduce the needs for multiple distillations to make our artisan Whiskeys, brandies, and rums. This still style is very good for being able to make a variety of products in the traditional style of still. I can by-pass the column to make a traditional pot still, or I can utilize my column with plates and it will take me 6 separate distillations but we can make Neutral Grain spirits.
Hopefully the readers have a little better understanding of how distillation works and the equipment we use. This will be useful information as we take a deep dive into different spirits origins, processes, and flavor profiles. I hope to layer in information about different spirits, cocktails, ingredients, pairings and anything you might have questions about. Feel Free to email me at Dan@timekeeperdistillery.com with topics you might like covered in the future.
Cheers!
Daniel J Weber
Head Distiller/ Owner