Spirit Stills and Reboilers?

[Davin de Kergommeaux]

Hi All,

I'm not sure there is a point or a place where "distillation" occurs;
that is if distillation is the separation of a mixture or solution
into its parts.  As I understand it, from reading Ake's excellent
reference and a few bourbon books, as the vapour rises in the column
there is a continuum of increasingly rich vapour (rich in alcohol).
Similarly as the beer descends there is a continuum of decreasingly
rich beer.  The ethanol that comes out the top of the column still
contains lots of water, other alcohols and all kinds of congeners.

I think we are used to coulmn stills being used to strip all the
congeners out of the wash (called beer in bourbon) to produce
so-called flavourless grain alcohol, but in the bourbon industry they
tune the column stills so that a lot of the congeners survive
distillation.  That is one of the reasons some distillers brag about
the low proof of their new make (white dog), because the less "pure"
the stuff is going into the barrel, the better the potable end product
is supposed to taste as more flavourants have been carried into the
barrel.

The early virtues of the column still were that you could have
continuous distillation which is way more efficient and therefore much
less expensive than batch distillation.  Using a column still to
distill in batches would not be efficient, but there are such stills
available for low-volume batch runs.  Properly tuned the output could
be expected to be just as flavourful as from a pot still.

My two cents worth.

Davin

On 8/3/06, Kraaijeveld A.R. <A.R.Kraaijeveld at soton.ac.uk> wrote:
> OK, got you!
>
>
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> Fly, you greatest fool
> Why can't you say what they want you to
> Why can't you do what they taught you
> And show what they wanted of you
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> Dr Alex R Kraaijeveld
> School of Biological Sciences
> University of Southampton
> Bassett Crescent East
> Southampton
> SO16 7PX
> tel: (+44)-(0)23-80593436
> fax: (+44)-(0)23-80594459
> http://www.sbs.soton.ac.uk/staff/ark/ark.php
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: MALTS-L at RZ.UNI-KARLSRUHE.DE [mailto:MALTS-L at RZ.UNI-KARLSRUHE.DE] On Behalf Of Åke Johansson
> Sent: 03 August 2006 15:40
> To: MALTS-L at LISTS.UNI-KARLSRUHE.DE
> Subject: SV: Spirit Stills and Reboilers?
>
> Of course you are right there about where distillation takes place. There is
> part of the separation process happening there otherwise the pot would have
> been empty when the run is finished. What I meant, though badly expressed,
> was that differentiating it from the continuous still, a batch operation
> demands a proportionally larger vessel to accommodate the fluid to be
> distilled to its full volume as nothing is fed during operation.
>
> Åke
>
> -----Ursprungligt meddelande-----
> Från: MALTS-L at RZ.UNI-KARLSRUHE.DE [mailto:MALTS-L at RZ.UNI-KARLSRUHE.DE] För
> Kraaijeveld A.R.
> Skickat: den 3 augusti 2006 16:17
> Till: MALTS-L at LISTS.UNI-KARLSRUHE.DE
> Ämne: Re: Spirit Stills and Reboilers?
>
> That gets us into an almost metaphysical discussion as to where exactly the
> distillation takes place, i.e. where (in pot or column) alcohol molecules
> are separated from water molecules. My feeling is in both, in which case the
> pot does more than simply hold the volume of liquid.
>
>
> Cheers, Lex
>
>
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> Fly, you greatest fool
> Why can't you say what they want you to
> Why can't you do what they taught you
> And show what they wanted of you
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> Dr Alex R Kraaijeveld
> School of Biological Sciences
> University of Southampton
> Bassett Crescent East
> Southampton
> SO16 7PX
> tel: (+44)-(0)23-80593436
> fax: (+44)-(0)23-80594459
> http://www.sbs.soton.ac.uk/staff/ark/ark.php
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: MALTS-L at RZ.UNI-KARLSRUHE.DE [mailto:MALTS-L at RZ.UNI-KARLSRUHE.DE] On
> Behalf Of Åke Johansson
> Sent: 03 August 2006 15:08
> To: MALTS-L at LISTS.UNI-KARLSRUHE.DE
> Subject: SV: Spirit Stills and Reboilers?
>
> Could it be that it just is simpler and cheaper to operate the column
> batch-wise than in a continuous process and the pot has to be there only to
> house the necessary volume?
>
> Åke
>
> -----Ursprungligt meddelande-----
> Från: MALTS-L at RZ.UNI-KARLSRUHE.DE [mailto:MALTS-L at RZ.UNI-KARLSRUHE.DE] För
> Kraaijeveld A.R.
> Skickat: den 3 augusti 2006 15:57
> Till: MALTS-L at LISTS.UNI-KARLSRUHE.DE
> Ämne: Re: Spirit Stills and Reboilers?
>
> >But why bother with a pot still for first run if you in fact have a
> >continuous still afterwards in the line?
>
> But isn't that what happens in Holstein stills, which are essentially
> pots with a column on top? AFAIK, most whisk(e)y distillers using
> Holstein-type stills only have one distillation run
>
>
> Cheers Lex
>
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