Alcohol Distillation and Its Impact on Fashion
Alcohol distillation is the process of extracting alcohol from other components present in liquids to produce high-purity, ready-to-drink spirits that can be used as cocktails or fuel, and even solvent to extract other chemicals from raw materials. Numerous ingredients can be used in this process including cereals (barley, rye and wheat), fruits such as grapes or other berries; sugarcane or molasses (rum); or potatoes (whiskey).
Distillation begins when water molecules in a mash are heated to evaporate them and allow alcohol molecules to boil off into vapour form. Because different alcohol molecules have differing boiling points, their vapour will contain more alcohol than its original liquid source mixture. Through controlled cycles of evaporation and condensation, equilibrium is reached when liquid-to-vapor ratio equalizes; this is known as distil-lation equilibrium.
As the vapor evaporates, it breaks down into both desirable and undesirable elements. The first to evaporate are known as heads; their unpleasant odor has been likened to nail polish remover. They’re separated from next-evaporating hearts which have desirable flavors; finally tails which taste similar to rubber or overcooked broccoli are created at this point and collected or discarded respectively. Only desired heart alcohols should be collected for sale or reuse purposes while undesirable head and tail alcohols should be discarded.
Filtered, aged and flavored (or any combination thereof), the ethanol distillate is then processed further by filtering, ageing or flavoring it (or all three). Some beverages like whisky, bourbon and rum get their color from wood barrels while absinthe and liqueurs obtain their hue from herbs or spices.