Alcohol Distillation and Its Impact on the Economy

Distillation is a key step in the production of alcoholic beverages like whiskey, rum and fruit distillates. It transforms grains such as rye, wheat and barley as well as fruits like apples into spirits that can then be packaged and transported for market. Distillation also allows farmers to preserve perishable crops by turning them into alcohol that can be stored and sold throughout the year – something especially helpful during the 1700s when many farmers established their own distilleries to create alcohol products and earn an income this way.

Beginning the process involves adding water to a sugar-containing substance known as mash, such as grain or fruits/root vegetables/potatoes etc. and stirring or mixing to make its sugars accessible for yeast to ferment into alcohol. Next step would be distillation using either a pot still or more commonly, continuous distillation column for collecting any by-products that remain.

Pot stills consist of large enclosed vessels heated either directly by fire at their base, or indirectly via steam coils located within. A bulb at the top leads to a partially-cooled vapour line from which distillate can be collected below it. Sometimes multiple stills are connected so any condensed vapour that falls short of reaching desired alcoholic concentration levels will be sent through these multiple stills for concentration, ultimately producing pure alcohol at the end of this process.