Separation & concentration

At its simplest, distillation is heating of liquids and collecting vapors from those that have different boiling points. The art of making whisky involves separating harmful and bad-tasting components, while collecting and concentrating intoxicating ethanol. It requires knowing how those compounds, which may not be so delicious when initially coming off the still, may combine with barrel extracts years down the road to make better-tasting compounds.

The good stuff, the stuff distillers want to collect, is ethyl alcohol or ethanol, which boils at 172.6°F (78.1°C).

In a pot still, this separation is achieved quite differently than in a Coffey still, or continuous column still. In a pot, all the liquid is heated together. As the temperature in the pot increases, lighter, volatile