Still

A still is an apparatus used to ethyl alcohol.

Application

Main article: distilled beverage

Since ethyl alcohol sulfur-based compounds from the alcohol that would make it unpleasant to drink. Modern stills are made of stainless steel with copper innards (piping, for example, will be lagged with copper along with copper plate inlays along still walls). Using this combination of metals is much cheaper as it prevents erosion of the entire vessel and lowers copper levels in the waste product (which in large distilleries is processed to become animal feed). All copper stills will require repairs about every 8 years because of copper erosion from the compounds it is designed to remove; this erosion is therefore unavoidable. The alcohol industry was the first to use anything close to a modern distillation apparatus and led the way in developing what is now a large part of the chemical industry.

The simplest standard distilled beverages.

If a purer distillate is desired, a fractionating column, commonly created by filling copper vessels with glass beads to maximize available surface area. As alcohol boils, condenses, and reboils through the column, the effective number of distillations greatly increases. Vodka and rum are both distilled by this method, then diluted to concentrations appropriate for human consumption.

Alcoholic products from home distillaries is common throughout the world, but is sometimes in violation of local statutes. The product of illegal stills in the United States is commonly referred to as moonshine.

See also

• Distillation
  • Retort
  • Alembic
  • Column still
  • Pot still
  • Reflux still
  • Solar still