Distilling
The vapours rise and pass over the neck of the still and through a condenser, then it goes on to the low wines reciever, the spirit, now known as the low wines, is now at around 20% abv. From here the liquid is pumped into the next still, the spirit still, and the same process is repeated but the spirit coming off this time varies between 40% and 80% abv.
The first liquid to run off the spirit still and into the spirit safe, the foreshots, contains the higher alcohol and is too pungent. The end of the run, the feints, contains the weaker alcohol and is also too pungent. Both the foreshots and feints are kept and go through the spirit still again with the low wines of the next run. The liquid left in the still after are the alcohol has been drawn off is known as the spend lees. |
Two types of copper still are used in every distillery, wash stills and spirit stills. The wash is pumped into the larger of the two stills, the wash still, and is either heated directly by coal or gas fires or indirectly through the use of steam coils in the bottom of the still.
The stillman carefully monitors the spirit being produced by the use of hydrometers and wants to only remove the “heart” of the run for filling into casks.