What Are The Different Types Of Stills And OC blue?
The distillation process is used to produce alcoholic beverages. Still are used in the distillation process and they have different designs. A still has four parts: the pot, swan neck, lyne arm and the condenser. The different types of still are pot still, column still or fractionating still, continuous still and reflux still.
The process starts when the liquid mixture is put into the pot and heated. It can be heated using direct fire, gas, steam or wood. The swan neck is placed at the top of the pot. Usually, the swan neck is tapered as it allows better separation and better enriches the alcoholic beverage.
The lyne arm is placed at the top of the swan's neck. It can be held straight or tapered or tilted up or down. It is mostly tapered down. The condenser is used for cooling the spirits and providing a way to collect the spirit.
Whiskey is produced by distillation, and one of the Indian whisky brands is Officer’s Choice (OC). The premium version is called OC blue whisky which is a blend of fine Scotch malts and Indian grain spirits.
Different types of still
Pot still
This is the most basic design of a still. It consists of a pot with a pipe leading from the lid to the condenser coil. The condenser coil can be long enough to allow the air to cool the vapours or shorter and immersed in a water jacket. It offers minimum separation as there is no separation of vapours once they leave the boiler.
Column still/Fractionating still
This still is used for fractional distillation and uses a high-separation still design. It is used to produce pure ethanol for vodka, gin and pharmaceutical use. In small fractionating stills, the vapours rise from the boiler and pass through a column that is packed with inert materials. Large fractionating stills use baffle plates in the column.
The vapour is condensed into a liquid by using a heat exchanger with cold water running through it. The condensed liquid goes back into the boiler where it is reheated and again it moves up.
At equilibrium, the more volatile components go into the vapour phase and the less volatile components go into the liquid phase.
Continuous still
This is the continuous-run design of the fractionating still. The fermented mash is added to the boiler and vapourised immediately. The different components of the mash are drawn off at different heights along the column. The residue is drained off. This process can be carried out continuously.
Reflux still
This has a similar design to that of a fractionating still except that it does not have a heat exchanger. All the vapour that reaches the top is condensed and received as output.