Distilling: Pot Stilling Unplugged

[Capn Jimbo]

Whatsa pot Still? The Artic Wolf: "It's just a matter of semantics..."

Not.

I really thought the notion of a pot still was rather simple and abundantly obvious to all, even a Compleat Idiot like me. I guess I was wrong. This thread came to be when the Frozen One - who likes to be called "Wolfie" - was, as usual, disagreeing with me over the Spam of Spirits, aka Canadian Whisky.

Now the two distinguishing features of Canadian Whisky is (a) that it can be made out of practically anything (legally) and (b) it is light. The objective is simply making it easy drinking and "tasty". Thus it usually has a significant base of nearly neutral spirits, usually produced with column stills, which is then tricked up with flavoring elements, including some pot stilled whisky.

Of course Wolfie disagreed.

He maintained that most of his hometown whiskys, "more than 50%", were made with only "pot stills", which implied very flavorful brown spirits with high congeners. Knowing he was wrong I challenged him to name some CW's that were so made. In doing so - and once again - he stepped on his own paw and admitted that the really, really big producers (Canadian Club and Crown Royal) - who by far account for the most of the CW sold - did in fact use continuous column produced thin product. He referenced a boutique distiller - John Hall of Forty Creek CW - who does in fact use pot stills, but who on his website admits that "...most CW is made using column stills" (paraphrased).

Poor Wolfie.

He then became completely entangled in his own extremities when he linked an article he'd posted about his tour of the "Highwood Distillery", as his Exhibit "A" of the use of pot stilling in Canada. When of course I checked this reference (most argumentative posters simply love to throw out cites thinking that you'll never check, or simply misunderstand them) - I discovered that the "pot stills" he cited were anything but!

The wash or beer still he pictured was a column (!) designed to capture lighter alcohols, which were then batched in a second "pot" which - surprise - was topped with another tall rectifier column to further lighten the spirit. This second pot was really a big stainless boiler whose function was simply to batch the first column's output through a second column. When I pointed out how far from pot stilling this was, his answer...

"It's just semantics!". Sure. Like an old saying I remember "How are an apple and an orange the same? They're both orange, except for the apple.", lol. And as far as "modified pots" are concerned, I'd point out that a modified horse and buggy is a...

Lotus Elan - ergo this post. Wolfie, pay attention.

Pot stills - "chaudière" or "bouillotte" in French Canadien - are really pretty simple and very old devices. One of the finest spirits in the world is single malt whisky: made with beautiful and tradition all-copper pot stills for hundreds of years, preceeding rum and still used today in Scotland to produce some of the finest, tastiest pure spirits known to man-and-wolf-kind. Simple pot stills were famously used to make moonshine here, and almost everywhere on earth. The components:

1. A pot,
2. A thin lyne arm (tube) to carry away the spirits,
3. A coiled and water cooled "worm" (really small tube) to condense the spirits.

Pot stilling is a batch process and - here boy! - with a single take off point. It's up to the master distiller to separate out the good stuff. To make a fine spirit requires at least two distillations - the first to simply increase the alcohol content, and the second to capture the most flavorful part (the "hearts", and often with a bit of "heads" and "tails"), along with an additional increase in alcohol content. The output usually goes straight to a barrel - or your stomach if you can't wait. The Irish are known for a careful third distilling for their lovely lighter whiskys.

So where did the Frozen One go astray?

He believes distiller hype, and the fact that the stainless boiler under his pictured second column is labeled "pot still and rectifier". Black is white, or do I have that backwards? The problem is simply semantics and labeling! Like when I questioned my father about why I had to mow more lawn than my younger brother: "Because I say so!". I mowed.

The Frozen One said so, so it must be a "pot still". Just ignore the columns.

Keep in mind that the finest spirits are still made in traditional pot stills (pot, lyne arm, worm or condenser) and requiring two or three distillations. Slow, costly and requiring the skills of a master distiller who literally tastes and smells the output to determine his/her "cuts", and what portion of the "hearts" will be kept.

Completely different from the industrial, continuous, turn-it-on and watch-it output. The former requires artistry, the latter an engineer.

Here's where it - and the Wolf - get fuzzy:

It was not long before distillers wanted to make more product, cheaper and faster. Double and triple distillations took longer, and the product was variable. Some rum distillers discovered that you could feed the output from one pot still into a second one to speed up the process a bit. Some directed the pot's output to bubble up through "retorts" (plain pots) that contained a bit of earlier distillation, improving the output and again, eliminating the need for a second distilling.

But still (if you'll ignore the pun) - one input, one output. And it's still the distiller at the exit, deciding what to keep.

But along came a guy named "Coffey" who made a giant leap (forward or backward, you decide) and developed the first more-or-less continuous process. Two columns containing multiple levels of perforated trays. The raw wash is introduced into the top of the first column (called the "analyzer") while steam is introduced into the bottom of the column. Wash drips down, steam rises to meet it, and vaporizing the alcohols.

The magic is that only the lighter spirits make it to the top, while the heavier and less volatile tails (unwanted) end up at the bottom.

The lighter spirits making it to the top are now piped to the bottom of the second column (the "rectifier"). This second column contains a coil of copper containing cool wash (on its way to the first column), and again, a series of perforated plates. The rising vapors contact the cool coil and condense, dripping down to be re-vaporized repeatedly until finally the pressure builds and a highly purified vapor works its way up through the perforated plates - finally - to the top of this second column. And again, it's the lightest, cleanest, most volatile vapors that make it.

Repeated manipulations and separations of vapors/spirits in the uncountable thousands - within the column.

They are then captured and voila! Continuous light spirits. The only difference between the columns: in the first, the liquid wash moves down by gravity and is vaporized and separated by rising steam; in the second the rising vapor moves up through plates where the heavier elements condense and move down. Only the lightest alcohols make it through. The result:

Light spirits produced cheaply and continuously. No cuts, no agonizing distiller at the end watching each drop.

Modern versions of this early invention use three or more columns, with one feeding another. These modern columns have been further modified so as to be able to draw off product at various levels. For example, medium vapors can be drawn off at the middle of the column, heavier (less volatile) vapor closer to the bottom. Some of these are removed, some are recyled. It can get quite complicated.

Completely unlike the simple, classic pot still.

Although the differences between column stilling and pot stilling should be obvious to even man's best friend, for the stubborn among us I'd add yet another distinction. Pot stills are simple: heat the wash in a pot, and condense the vapors through a single output. No manipulation of vapors. Its up to the master distiller to actually decide when to start collecting and when to stop. Result: rich, hearty and complex heavy spirits.

Compare to complex and sophisticated columns where the vapors are separated and/or recombined repeatedly by multiple columns, multiple outlets, and uncountable multiple distillations - all occuring at once. The separations are achieved by the columns and there are multiple outputs. Once set, it's turn-it-on and watch-it. Mass production of lighter spirits.

One final note: it matters not whether the process is continuous or not. Whether you pipe the output from the first column to the second, or transfer it in batches - the multiple column output is exactly the same.

Summary:

1. A pot still is a simple, heated pot where everything takes place. The wash is heated and is vaporized right there - once - in the pot. All the vapors leave via a small tube, condensed and - only then, at the exit of the process - is the liquid output separated and collected by the master distiller, the magician. Only a portion - the "hearts" he selects - is selected and barreled.

2. A column still, whether or not continuous, is entirely different. In this complex process at least two columns are required. Both the wash and vapors are repeatedly manipulated, and separated and passed from the first column to the last. Only the desired, lighter vapors make it through and at the exit, all the liquid is simply collected. All the processing and separation have been done by the still.

Got it?


*******

Final note: One of my pet peeves (sorry Wolfie) is the vast amount of misinformation posted by otherwise well meaning, but occasionally commercial misrepresenters, that we - the poor, hungry and thirsty masses - are led to swallow, believe and pass along.

Or by new commentators that are simply ignorant.

The humbled and misled hoi polloi then find themselves even more confused and subservient to the marketing mavens. For example, in this case, they might be misled to buy a relatively light and flavored Canadian whisky, rather than the hearty pot-stilled product they were expecting.

As for the Wolf's fauxpot (pun intended) goes: Pooh on your "pot"! And as for "pooh"? It's just a matter of semantics...

[Capn Jimbo]

A quick 'n dirty guide to recognize a pot still

You know it's a pot still if...

1. It looks like a pot.
2. See rule (1).

That's it. "What!?", you say. Yup, that's it - the whole enchilda. It's a pot and looks like one. Some are squat, some are taller. Some have flat tops, some have rounded or onion tops. Some are made of stainless, the good ones are made of handworked copper.

But it's a pot. Period. Not a series of tall, industrial looking columns connected with a spaghetti mass of connecting pipes, valves, sight plates, and instrumentation. No columns on top, no columns whatever.

Nope a simple, dumb pot - no different than the stockpot on your stove - where everything happens - the wash boils and vapors are created. A thin tube carries these away to the side where the the vapors condense and the alcohol exits, drop-by-drop or in a small stream into a bucket.

Next to the pot you'll find a man or woman - the master distiller. He/she is watching intently, smelling and tasting the output to decide when to start the cut to save the best part. The early stuff is horrible and is diverted. The good smelling and wonderfully rich middle part is recognized and saved until more unfit stuff shows up.

There you have it. A pot and a distiller, side by side and engaged in a magical and artistic process that has been done, and done with skill for hundreds of years. That's all there is.

[Capn Jimbo]

A Canadian "pot still"...

After all this spew, I know some of you are just dying to know why I feel our Canadian reviewer is so misguided. Here's what the Artic Wolf calls a "pot stilled whisky" in Canada...


This is Wolfie's "beer still", used for the first run.

As should be abundantly obvious, this is a typical column still. It is stainless, composed of multiple levels and plates and creates a lot of what's call "reflux". The whole idea is to use column processing to achieve a purer first run than can be achieved with an ordinary pot still. The output from this column then goes to...


Look closely and you'll see what is a three story copper column atop this boiler.

This is Wolfie's spirits "pot still", used for the second and final run. Had it been a real pot still, it would be a simple copper pot whose output is closely regulated by the distiller to achieve a desired final "cut" and profile.

Instead - look closely - what the Frozen One is trying to call a pot is actually a huge stainless boiler whose sole function is to provide rising vapors for the very tall copper rectifying column atop it. This column, like all of them, is again composed of multiple levels, bubbling plates and the like, which serve to fractionate and purify the spirit. Again, and like all columns, this arrangement creates signfiicant reflux and multiple distillations within the column.

Not a pot still, not even close.

Actually the Canadian name for this arrangement is called a "kettle and column". What the Wolfmeister wants to believe is a pot still (which are almost always copper btw) is actually just a big boiler. In conjunction with the column beer still this system is fairly described as a "batch column" (rather than a continuous column still).

Both are column systems and both produce the same kind of lighter, fractionated product - completely unlike classic pot still systems. Thanks to the Artic Wolf, to whom most rums are "bitter", wood aging is an afterthought, and column and pot stills are one in the same.

It's really a parallel world up there...