Alcohol Fermentatio n

The alcohol we use in mixed drinks is Ethyl Alcohol, or ethanol. We can create alcohol
through the process of fermentation, which is the name we give to the chemical
conversion of sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide by yeast.

Example: Wine
To make wine we press grapes to get grape juice, which contain naturally occurring
sugars. Once we have this sugary grape juice we can transfer it into a container, such as
a barrel, and the bacteria (yeast) that exists naturally will come along and start to
interact with the sugars, eventually converting them into ethyl alcohol (ethanol) and co2
(and, most importantly in this case, wine!).
Example: Beer
Fermentation allows us to make beer (through the process of brewing malted barley),
wine, cider (using the sugar in the apples, pears etc), and similar alcoholic beverages up
to an ABV (alcohol by volume) of around 15%, before a number of natural factors come
along and stop the process.

Ethanol can be produced by fermentation of sugars. The raw material

sugar (from sugar cane or sugar beet) is mixed with water and yeast at just above
room temperature in a reactor vessel (a big vat!). The yeast contains an enzyme
called zymase which acts as the biological catalyst to convert sugar to ethanol in
fermentation, it works best at an optimum of pH ~4. Under anaerobic conditions
at an optimum temperature of 30oC to 40oC, the sugars react via the enzymes in
the yeast cells to form ethanol and carbon dioxide gas ...

The fermentation reaction of the sugar obtained from the sugar cane or sugar
cane is ...

glucose (sugar) == enzyme ==> ethanol + carbon dioxide

o C6H12O6(aq) ==> 2C2H5OH(aq) + 2CO2(g)

The carbon dioxide is allowed to escape and air is prevented from entering the
reaction vessel to stop oxygen oxidising ethanol to ethanoic acid ('acetic acid' or

vinegar!) ensuring the reaction occurs under anaerobic conditions. The acid
would also lower the pH lowering the effectiveness of the

When the reaction is over, the 'yeast sludge' settles out and the mixture decanted
off prior to distillation

Yeast is killed by ethanol concentrations in excess of about 15%, and that limits
the purity of the ethanol that can be produced. The ethanol is separated from the
mixture by fractional distillation to give 96% pure ethanol. E ethanol is separated
from the fermented reaction mixture by fractional distillation.

For theoretical reasons, it is impossible to remove the last 4% of water by

fractional distillation.
Distillation

Distillation is the the process in which the alcohol made through fermentation is
separated from the rest of the non-alcoholic liquid. The more we distil, or the closer we
get to pure ethanol, or 100% alcohol, the less of the original flavours from the
fermentation remain we end up with a neutral spirit, as it is relatively odourless
and flavourless.
.
How?
Water and alcohol have different boiling points of 100 and approx. 78.4 respectively. A
way to make use of different boiling points and named, Simple Still, or Pot Still.
.

Pot Still

The pot still has two main components the boiler and the condenser. In the boiler we
place the fermented alcohol then heat it up. Once the liquid inside raises in temperature
and reaches the boiling point for alcohol, the alcohol will change from liquid to a vapour
and rise up through the swan neck and along the pipe into the condenser. As the
condenser is not heated the alcohol will start to lower in temperature and eventually
change back into a liquid again, and in the process weve now moved the alcohol while
leaving (most) of the other liquid behind. There are some other compounds that come
along for the ride as well, so distillers will break the liquid into cuts, with
the heads and tails being the first and last parts of the distillation that can contain
some pretty nasty compounds so need to be discarded. The body, making up around
80% of the total distilate, is what we will actually use.
.
This process is repeated to get almost pure alcohol.
.Column still
.

A pot still is great as it allows us to boost the alcohol while retaining flavour from the
original ingredients but its not the most efficient way as its very much a stop/start
process. Luckily A column still lets us continue to add the fermented alcohol/ mash
while the distillation process is taking place, so the still can operate for far longer
periods of time.
.
The actual distillation is a little bit more complicated than the pot still but basically the
still is set up as two large stacks (or columns); one column acts as a still and one as a
condenser. The still has a series of bubble plates metal plates with small holes in them.
The mash is added from the top and steam is forced in from the bottom. As the mash
fights its way down through the holes the steam, moving up, heats the alcohol and
seperates it from the mash, which allows us to collect just the alcohol vapors at the top.
Through this process we up to around 96% pure alcohol. (effectively making a
odourless, flavourless, neutral spirit).
Spirits
The pot and column stills have allowed us to take our fermented mash and concentrate
the alcohol. The result is that we have made spirits. Spirits is the term we use for
distilled alcoholic beverages with an ABV >20%, with very little added other than water,
colouring or sometimes a very small amount of sugar. E.g. regular whiskies, vodkas,
rums, brandies are all examples of spirits.
.
Spirits can be made in pot stills (where flavour tends to be more important whiskeys,
cognac and similar), column stills (where we want a more neutral flavour, so vodkas,
gins etc) or using both pot and column stills as a blend, for a sort of best of both worlds
approach (getting flavour from the pot still, but bulking it out with the cheaper to
produce column distilled alcohol).
.

Adding Flavour to spirits

Once our spirit has been distilled there are still a couple of extra ways we can add
flavour.
Oak Barrels
The most well known method is by storing the alcohol in oak barrels. Originally used as
a method of storage and to help with transportation, early distillers noticed that the
alcohol they placed in barrels often ended up tasting much better than it had when it
was first put in.
.
Alcohol that has been stored in a barrel will take some of the colour of the barrel, so
depending on how long its been stored, will be anywhere from a light, straw yellow to a
deep dark brown colour Along with the colour it can take on flavours; if youve tried
aged whiskeys, brandies or rums you may notice flavours such as vanilla, or kind of
woody, smokey tastes.
.
Ill go more in depth about barrel aging and its role in specific spirits in later posts.
.

Filtration
Another way we can change the taste of our spirits post-distillation is by filtration.
Filtering the alcohol through activated carbon or something similar can help to remove
contaminants or impurities that may be left over during the distillation process, but it

can also remove some of the very precious taste t filtration is usually done on neutral
based spirits, things like vodka or gin, where this isnt so much of a problem.

Flavoured Spirits
While they may seem like a new trend people have been flavouring spirits almost as long
as they have been distilling them. One of the earliest and most common uses of distilled
alcohol was as medicine and it was thought that flavouring alcohol with herbs, berries,
flowers and similar could have a positive effect on your health .
While liqueurs tend to get their flavouring added to the spirit after distillation, some
flavoured spirits actually get their flavour during the distillation process, by putting the
flavour (whether its raspberry, lemon) in with the mash during distillation.
E.g. of spirits flavoured during distillation are most good dry gins.
Sites Used:
http://www.docbrown.info/page04/OilProducts09.htm
http://makecocktailsathome.com/easy-guide-to-alcohol-pt-1-fermentation-distillationand-spirits/
http://www.chemguide.co.uk/organicprops/alcohols/manufacture.html