• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Japan Distilled logo in black.

Japan Distilled

Home of the Japan Distilled Podcast

  • Home
  • Podcast Episodes
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Show Search
Hide Search

Going Deep Inside the Pot Still (ep. 65)

September 13, 2023 · Leave a Comment

INTRO

In episode 65 of the Japan Distilled podcast, we discuss something that is often overlooked in discussions of distilled spirits production. What’s happening inside the pot still?

CREDITS

Theme Song: Begin Anywhere by Tomoko Miyata (http://tomokomiyata.net/)

Mixing and Editing: Rich Pav (https://www.uncannyrobotpodcast.com/)

HOSTS

CHRISTOPHER PELLEGRINI Vermont born and bred, long-time Tokyo resident and author of The Shochu Handbook, Christopher learned about delicious fermentations as a beer brewer at Otter Creek (Middlebury, VT). He now spends most of his waking hours convincing strangers that shochu and awamori are unlike anything they’ve ever tried before. 

STEPHEN LYMAN discovered Japan’s indigenous spirits at an izakaya in New York City. He was so enthralled that he now lives in Japan and works in a tiny craft shochu distillery every autumn. His first book, The Complete Guide to Japanese Drinks, was nominated for a 2020 James Beard Award.

Stephen and Christopher sometimes pretend to be chemists even though they are not.

If you have any comments or questions about this episode, please reach out to Stephen or Christopher via Twitter. We would love to hear from you. 

SHOW NOTES

The Pot Still

When it comes to distilled beverage alcohol, there are two primary still designs. The pot still and the column still. A column still is what’s used to turn crude oil into high-test gasoline and that’s about as much as you need to know about how its used to make beverage alcohol. Think vodka, soju, and most budget minded gins, rums, and whiskies.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=UW1mkA9N0ho%3Fsi%3DE3NrkKEdqsARXlhG

The pot still is where things get interesting (and more expensive). The fermentation is boiled and evaporated out of the still one time for each run. In this batched process, the alcohol yields are lower, but much more interesting flavors and aromas are retained. Think Jamaican pot still rum, single malt Scotch, mezcal, and, of course, Honkaku Shochu and Ryukyu Awamori.

inside the pot still
The copper pot stills at Kanosuke Distillery in Kagoshima Prefecture.

What’s Happening Inside the Pot Still?

This is where things get endlessly complex, confusing, and interesting. This is also where many people decide to just enjoy the beverages rather than understanding their production process in a deeper way. And that’s okay.

A fermentation, whether it be a “simple” rum molasses fermentation, a “beer” for whisky making, or a porridge-like sweet potato shochu fermentation, is a complex community of living organic matter, dead organic matter, liquids, solids, sugars, starches, proteins, fats, and myriad other things.

Each and every one of these things has a vapor point, or the temperature at which is will convert from liquid form to gaseous form. This is what will determine when that particular compound will escape through the neck of the pot still only to be re-liquified in a cooling apparatus to become part of the resulting spirit.

As you may recall from high school chemistry class, the boiling point (vapor point) for water is 100 degrees Celsius. For ethanol (the “goal” of beverage alcohol distillation), it is around 78.4 degrees Celsius. Therefore, to extract the spirit from the fermentation, you want the temperature inside the pot still to be somewhere between 78.4 and 100 degrees Celsius.

This is not to say that anywhere between those two temperatures is fine. It’s not. All of the other compounds inside the pot still will be evaporating or not depending on the temperature and this can change the flavor and aroma of a spirit in profound ways. And this is where the art comes in. The distiller who knows what she’s doing will optimize the temperature inside the still to capture the maximum ethanol yield in perfect harmony with the ideal flavor and aroma profile for what they are trying to make. That’s where the magic lies. Everything else is just chemistry.

Ethanol Phase Diagram
Ethanol Phase Diagram courtesy of MoonshineDistiller.com

Just Scratching the Surface

To learn more, check out the Moonshine Distiller website, which is chock full of some of the best English language descriptions about what’s happening inside the pot still.

Kanpai!

Podcast

Follow Japan’s Spirits

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

japandistilled

Happy Shochu & Awamori Day. Grab a glass of your f Happy Shochu & Awamori Day. Grab a glass of your favorite and Kanpai! Oh and tell your friends. They need to know. Cheers!
Instagram post 18028580335658017 Instagram post 18028580335658017
Episode 55 covers our $200 home koji spirits bar c Episode 55 covers our $200 home koji spirits bar challenge inspired by one of our favorite drinks podcasts, #fixmeadrink with Noah Rothbaum (@street_bottle) & David Wondrich of @flaviar_com - since pot distilled koji spirits cost a bit more we gave ourselves a bigger budget than they had. Have a listen to find out what @shochu_danji & @christopherpellegrini chose. Kanpai!
Episode 54 tackles the topic of dilution in spirit Episode 54 tackles the topic of dilution in spirits. With the obsession with cask strength something may be lost. And that is the texture that can be brought to a spirit with really nice spring water, which is abundant in Japan. Cheers!
Episodes 52 & 53 were a 2 part episode on the life Episodes 52 & 53 were a 2 part episode on the life and legacy of Jokichi Takamine, easily the most influential Japanese immigrant to ever inhabit America. @altmattalt & @shochu_danji cover Takamine’s life from his early days in Japan to his fateful trip to New Orleans to his life in Chicago and then New York. If you flip through these you’ll see some of the places he lived from Denis House in NOLA to @sho_fu_den in the Catskills to his current resting place in @thewoodlawncemetery in the Bronx. We are obsessed with this man. No doubt. 

Why is a Japanese spirits podcast obsessed? Because he was the first Japanese person to ever make whisky. A full generation before Taketsuru. Takamine was the OG.
Episode 51 was about a year of drinking less dange Episode 51 was about a year of drinking less dangerously. @shochu_danji and @christopherpellegrini discuss mindful drinking and how to pace yourself. One way, of course, is copious amounts of hydration. Drinking other fluids helps slow you down. Another is to drink premium products and savor them for what they are rather than rushing through as many glasses as possible. One great drink is worth far more than many lesser ones. Kanpai!
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Never miss a new episode. Subscribe now

Japan Distilled

Copyright © 2023 · Log in