A pot still is using a kettle to purify a liquid, employing the principle that ethanol vaporizes at 173.1˚ F while water vaporizes at 212˚ F. Using this principle, a wash containing a small quantity of ethanol can be purified, isolating the ethanol and removing the impurities (heads and tails) that will be naturally present.
As the wash is heated the first substances to volatize and then condense are the heads, which are collected and removed. The next substances that come from the still will comprise the heart of the run, forming the spirit that will be kept. This “heart” will be followed by the tails which are also removed. Often, the heads and tails are returned to the next batch to be distilled and run through the still again.
It is most common for pot stilled spirits to be passed twice through the still in order to improve the purity of the distillate. Occasionally they are even distilled three times. This method of distilling is not the most efficient – it is time consuming, labor intensive, has low throughput, and the distillate is lacking in purity. These impurities (called congeners), however, add character to the distillate.
|
Wine Regions of the World
