Alcohol Distillation and Its Impact on Agriculture

Alcohol distillation involves providing yeast with access to sugar-containing molecules so they can ferment them and produce alcohol. The process starts by milling and mixing grains or mashing root vegetables and fruits into a soupy mixture that will be fed directly to yeast for consumption of sugars and alcohol production. Once fermentation has taken place, both are separated through distillation for separate use.

As with a cup of hot tea or soup, the vapors rise when heated in a still. They move upward and re-condense at its neck before the distiller adjusts their reflux ratio; as alcohol concentration decreases but energy costs go down accordingly.

As the vapors ascend the neck of a still, they pass through a column filled with special material such as finely ground cornmeal. This material helps collect lighter alcohol vapors so they can be condensed back into liquid, often known as hearts, which contain mostly ethanol but may contain volatile compounds (acetaldehyde–which has been blamed for hangovers–and less desirable aldehydes such as furfural which has an unpleasant odor of metallic green apple.)

Skilled distillers know when and how to adjust their still output from heads, hearts and tails by altering the reflux ratio in order to maintain product purity while managing costs and energy use. Furthermore, they must be capable of distinguishing subtleties of flavor between individual components of a distillate product.