Distillation

The whole trick rests on ethanol boiling at 78.4°C and water only at 100°C. The vapour rising over a heated mash is therefore richer in alcohol than the liquid beneath it. All you have to do is collect and condense it.

The vapour rises from the boiler up the column, where the dephlegmator returns the heavier part and lets the richer part through. Then it reaches the condenser, turns back into liquid and runs into the receiver — where it is divided into fractions.

One pass will not turn mash into rectified spirit. Something in the teens goes to something in the forties, and that is that. Going higher takes repetition — that is what rectification is for. The ceiling stays the azeotrope at 95.6%.

The legal side

In Poland, producing ethyl alcohol is regulated by the laws on spirit drinks and on excise duty, and production for personal use is not exempt. Rules differ from country to country and are strict in many of them. The material here is historical and educational; responsibility for staying within the law rests with the reader.