Whiskey 101: Know Your Stills to Know Your Whiskey

Without stills, there’s no whiskey. Learn the difference between pot and column stills, how they work, and why those nuances matter for the whiskey’s ultimate flavor.
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[@sowlegwhiskyreview5501]

Fine communication😊 I would love to see you do something similar on different pot still types👍

[@whiskyloversencyclopediae]

very good video for students o whisky lovers , thanks

[@Saintsbakes]

Great video!

[@barrygiddey9139]

Very cool video-I enjoyed it!

[@vance7354]

Just out of curisoity, is there any way to know how to make cuts based on timing vs by taste if someone is using something like an electric 1 gallon air cooled still? If I was going to distill, My taste buds are not sensitive enough to taste the difference between heads, hearts and tails and need a way to go by times at least roughly. For example, "first 8 mins is heads, next 12 mins is hearts, last 15 is tails". Is there some sort of rough guess timing like this that someone with very insensitive taste buds can go by?

[@ryansomthing5805]

I’d say the next thing for you right now would be too take samples whilst trying to pull heads and burning them, about a spoonful, if it burns with an orange glow it’s methanol but if it burns with a nearly invisible blue flame it is ethanol. The only other way I’d say for timing would be to get too know your still by measuring out quantities of liquor pulled off 🤷‍♂️

[@user-or7xo2yf1o]

Так не получиться. Вы можете ориентироваться по температуре в шлеме

[@nextlifeonearth]

There is no way to make these calls like that. It depends on your mash, temperatures of everything involved, your target flavour etc.
Best you can do is measure the alcohol content in small batches during the run, but that says nothing about the flavour.
Maybe get someone to help you taste it. The smell is the most important, if that still works.
It's just not ideal if you can't taste or smell the batches. Can a blind man paint a masterpiece? Never say never, but sight helps a lot.

[@kirkstinson7316]

It's a 1 gallon still. Your not gonna get enough out to really make cuts other then four shots heads and tails.

[@vance7354]

@@kirkstinson7316 thanks!

[@ClickClack_Bam]

Great video.
Just to throw my .02 cents in here:
There is also what's called a 'reflux still' that wasn't mentioned.
Now with whiskey/whisky, distilleries generally stick to the pot still because, like you said, it maintains the flavor profile.
Now with a reflux still, the alcohol comes out at such a high purity that there's literally no flavor or very little flavor left because it's been stripped out during distillation.
Yes that flavor that people like in whiskey/whisky (or whatever) is actually impurities when you're talking about distilling just pure alcohol.
So with a reflux still you get high purity alcohol but low flavor. But be not afraid, you can always age it in oak barrels or use oak chips & other methods to add back in that lost character etc. It won't be exactly the same as if you had not stripped out the actual flavor, but honestly with my moonshine whiskey/whisky NOBODY has ever noticed a thing either way!
I make my own moonshine & when you actually learn what the rules are for what constitutes an alcohol, say whisky vs whiskey, imo it's almost a damn joke!
Certain brews can't be called what it really is if it's not made in a certain country EVEN if you've followed the recipe 100%! Look up what the difference between whiskey & whisky that I keep saying is. See what I mean? Look up what constitutes tequila. Look up bourbon next. Imo it's all a damn joke.
Follow the recipe & you've got what you've made. It's ALL just a money-scheme really.
Even aging is a big joke. I've 'aged' my whiskey in about a week & 'experts' NEVER could tell a damn difference between my other longer year aged stuff or aged store bought stuff that's a decade aged. Yes time matters but you can DEFINITELY cheat some with it...

[@robertoaortizjr9601]

REd h0t chili

[@terrortower666]

Never underestimate casks influence though

[@lufbjytjfdg]

Aha

[@mariapereira3221]

imagine this guys face is the last thing you see

[@AidanMcCormick-ur2jx]

Wild 😂

[@jamesarnold4671]

I want him to pull my hair and whisper in my ear.

[@yunfella11]

Great video.
Remedial level for me but fun still.
Dude on the right needs to dial down the nerdyness.
All that dungeons and dragons shit was cringe