ENG3- Steph Boucher

STILLS

There are many different kinds of stills; column still, pot still, reflux still, solar still. The pot still has a single heated chamber and a vessel that collects purified alcohol. It only has one stage of distillation, which will create an incomplete separation of the alcohol but for some distilled beverage such as whiskey it tastes better this way.  The reflux still is the most popular still; it has a fractionating column, which is made by filling copper vessels with as many glass beads that can fit, to create a greater surface area. This column allows the alcohol to boil, condense, and re-boil. The most common types of alcohol made this way are Vodka and Rum. They make many different types of whiskey in still, such as, corn, grain, and sour mash. 

One of the processes the ethyl alcohol, in the still goes through is distillation. Distillation is used to produce strong alcoholic drinks. The stills are best if made out of copper because it removes sulphur-based compounds from the alcohol, which would otherwise have a bad effect on the taste of the alcohol. Although, modern day stills that you would see today are actually made out of stainless steel, but they do copper plates on the insides of the walls. There is more than one advantage to the modern stills; the copper only needs repairs every 8 years due to erosion that is unavoidable, but if the entire still is made with copper than it would need repairs more frequently, and the cost of making and maintaining the still is much cheaper. 

Whiskey is made through pot stills, in which is goes through batch distillation. During batch distillation heat is directly applied to the pot which contains the whiskey. Alcohol boils at 78 degrees Celsius, which creates a lot of vapours in the alcohol, and with these vapours the liquid itself actually contains more alcohol. In the pot still, the alcohol and water vapours, combined with the many other aromas of the components like esters. This gives alcohols, such as wine its aroma, it evaporates and flow from the still through condensing coils. 

The largest pot still in the world, making whiskey is in the Old Middleton Distillery in Ireland. It has a capacity of 140,000 litres; unfortunately it is not in use anymore. 

In the 1920’s in America, the consumption of alcohol was being prohibited so they started to revoke alcohol license from big companies and organizations. At first it seemed to work, but then as more and more illegal supplies were being brought into the company, the consumption started on its way back up to where it had been. They had tried to reduce the consumption of beer, but what they actually did was increase the consumption of hard liquors. If you ask me, their efforts didn’t accomplish too much.