still, types of.

still, types of. The designs of devices used to separate ethanol from water are legion, but ultimately the vast majority of them fall into just a handful of categories. The oldest and simplest is the pot still, of which the iconic copper pot with bulbous cap and cooling coil is just one of a great many very diverse types. See still, pot. Then there are the continuous still, the column still, the Coffey still, and the patent still, all of which denote the same thing. See still, continuous. The hybrid still, or Capel still, as it is known in Chile, after the massive cooperative distillery where it is featured, is a pot still with an attached column. See still, hybrid. The three-chamber (or just chamber) still is very rare these days but was formerly quite important in North American distilling. Finally, there is the vacuum still, which comes in large and small sizes, the former being used chiefly in Japan for making shochu and the latter being a fixture of high-end cocktail bars of a certain type. See rotary evaporator (rotovap); shochu; and vacuum distillation.

See also retort.

By: David Wondrich