Pot still
An internal bladder ( fired furnaces ) is usually made of copper shaped hollow body, which for distillation , in this case one speaks of burning , of low alcoholic and cloudy liquids having 5 to 15 vol .-% (eg. As beer or wine ) to clear liquor such as whiskey or cognac is used.
Burning process
The liquid in the internal bladder is so strongly heated by continuous heat supply, that the various alcohols and aromatic substances evaporate and depending on the severity of the substance on the inner wall of the internal bladder condense again and flow back so either in the Blasenfuß or corresponding to the characteristic buckling for further use in Collection container (e.g. a spirit safe ) flow.
Often the resulting distillates are strengthened by several distillation processes in succession. Scottish whiskeys are mostly distilled twice, Irish whiskeys three times. After the first pass, the distillate is approximately 25 to 35% by volume. Before being bottled in barrels, the whiskey distillates then have around 70% by volume.
Some stills have small windows in the throat that the master distiller can use to ensure that any foaming liquid does not boil too high. Since this can only happen if there are still enough proteins in the liquid, only the stills that are used for the first distillation process are provided with a window.
From a technical point of view, has pot still some drawbacks:
- It does not allow continuous distillation
- For each Brennlos must pot still be refilled and heated
- Due to the low reflux, fractionation , i. H. the sharpness of distinction between the desired and undesired components, not particularly good. This requires double or triple firing in order to achieve a sufficiently pure and powerful fire. In the case of high-quality mashes, however, many components that are desirable in terms of taste are retained precisely because of the weak selectivity. Therefore, the classic is alembic still used for high-quality spirits such as malt whiskey.
shape
Pot stills can differ significantly in their shape and dimensions. In general, however, they have a massive, spherical foot, from which a neck of different lengths extends upwards. The neck and foot are usually separated from each other by either an additional bulge or a waist. The neck itself tapers more and more towards the top and finally bends downwards by over 90 °.
Legal
The operation of a distillery is subject to the alcohol tax regulation in Germany. The Alcohol Tax Act in conjunction with Section 68 of the Alcohol Tax Ordinance exempts private individuals from registering firing devices with the main customs office, provided that a maximum volume of 2 l is not exceeded. However, this does not mean an exemption from the spirits tax. The amount of the spirits tax can be obtained from the responsible main customs office.
See also
- Alembic , for developing the still
