Alcohol Distillation and Its Relationship With Gastronomy

Distillation of alcoholic beverages concentrates their alcohol content, yielding a higher quality and more potency beverage. Distillation plays a key role in beverage production whether the result will be enjoyed neat, over ice or mixed into cocktails. Distillation creates various spirits like vodka, whisky, rum and gin; with increased percentages of ethanol leading to classification as liquor or hard alcohol in certain markets.

Fermentation involves yeast eating sugar to produce alcohol, creating what’s known as the wash – an aqueous solution of water and alcohol. Distillation separates out the alcohol by vaporizing and cooling back down to condense it back into liquid form – this ratio of liquid-to-vapor returns is known as the reflux ratio and controls both product purity and energy usage.

Initial vapors known as foreshots contain high alcohols and off-tasting compounds known as congeners that create an unpleasant flavor profile, including toxic methanol, hangover-inducing acetaldehyde and paint thinner smelling acetone. Furthermore, some desirable flavour components like esters (fruity floral aroma) may also be present in this mixture of foreshots that has yet to be consumed.

Distillation involves heating and vaporizing multiple glass plates known as a fractional column. Each successive plate is slightly further away from its heat source than before, allowing heavier molecules to condense further down while lighter vapors rise upward and are collected for collection.