Distillation Explained

Distillation is a physical separation technique. Ethanol boils at 78.4 °C and water at 100 °C, so if we heat a fermented liquid ("wash") gently, ethanol vaporizes first. We cool the vapor back into a liquid — now more concentrated in alcohol and aromatic compounds.

Two main still designs shape 95% of the world’s spirits:

Pot stills are simple copper kettles. You fill them, heat them, collect the vapors, and start again. Each pass raises the ABV modestly and keeps a lot of flavor. Scotch single malt, cognac, and traditional rums use pot stills. You need at least two passes to reach spirit strength.

Column stills (a.k.a. continuous stills, Coffey stills) are tall towers with internal plates. Wash enters continuously; steam rises; alcohol vapor is redistilled dozens of times inside the column. The result is very high purity — up to ~95% ABV — and a cleaner, lighter spirit. Vodka, most bourbons, and grain whiskies rely on columns.

During any distillation the distiller separates the run into three parts:

• Heads — first vapors, high in unwanted compounds (acetone, methanol). Discarded.
• Hearts — the clean, drinkable core. Kept.
• Tails — late, oily, low-alcohol vapors. Usually discarded or recycled.

This "cut" is where craft lives. Two distilleries with identical wash can make very different spirits depending on where they choose to start and stop collecting.