A Tale of Two Stills

by ,

A Tale of Two Stills

It’s been brought to my attention that some people in the industry are proposing differentiating rums based on the type of still used for their distillation, the choices being “Pot Still” or “Column Still.” While I know that there are a few, educated, technical people behind this notion, most of the noise is coming from un-educated, non-technical “followers” who lack the knowledge to understand how far to push the concept.

Those who assume that all pot stills produce heavy, congener-rich distillates, forget (or conveniently ignore) the fact that many small (“craft”) distilleries actually use pot stills to produce vodka and other light/neutral spirits. Many distill multiple times, others have one or more columns attached to their pot stills, a small number of them even purchase “low wines” (low ABV distillate) from large distilleries and re distill in their pots, claiming the result to be “pot-distilled”.

For example, to claim that the distillate (rum, in our case) coming out of a simple pot still (round copper bottom, onion head with swan neck) and an Adams Pot Still with Two Retorts is the same, in alcohol strength and congener level, is simply wrong. To further assume that the distillate coming out of a “beer” or “stripping” column is the same as that coming out of a rectifying column is even more ridiculous.

How then, is one to differentiate the rich, congener-laden distillate from its lighter counterpart? The answer is simple: quantification of congener per volume! Unfortunately this is not as easy as simply mentioning the equipment owned and operated by the producer, but it is scientific and, as such, unquestionable.

Any decent alcohol beverage lab can test the alcohol and produce a report, usually in a matter of hours. If consumers demand to see this information, or if trade associations demand it of their members, perhaps someday we’ll see a meaningful identifier on the labels.

Until then, I’ll caution consumers, bloggers and industry members from attaching too much meaning to a piece of equipment. I’ve had my share of horrible and beautiful distillates, all along the congener spectrum, coming from both pot and column stills.

Cheers,

Luis Ayala, Editor and Publisher