What is the difference between brew and distill

To do so, brewers create a mash by mixing the grains with hot water. Hard alcohol can be made from either the wine or beer method. Bourbon , for example, is made from a grain mash, and eau de vie comes from fruit — but the process of strengthening the alcoholic content of spirits is what makes distilling different from other production methods. Distilling is that process, and it takes advantage of the different boiling points of water and alcohol.

As yeast eat up the sugars to make beer or wine, e. But the more alcohol and CO2 they create, the less sugar there is for them to feed on. To get high ABV alcohol, we have to actually physically separate alcohol from water using evaporation and condensation—aka distilling. Because alcohol has a lower boiling point than water F vs. In all of drinking history, just two methods of distilling have evolved:. Ethanol evaporates before water, traveling into a cooling tube and back into another vessel to condense.

Just like kit brewing, it is the simplest to learn and get right, and allows you to become comfortable with the overall process.

Reflux is most commonly used for distilling neutral spirits vodka , some rum, and in more advanced procedures and equipment, gin. Most of the guesswork is removed, as you aim to collect a single component- ethanol alcohol. This will be diluted with water, and can be used as-is for vodka, or you can add flavoring to create anything under the sun. By aging we do not simply mean setting the product aside and waiting, but actually aging in oak barrels, or in containers with oak, other wood, fruit, etc.

This can take a varying amount of time, and is generally only done for certain types of distilled spirits, such as whisky, and for wine. It is not part of the home brewing process. To review, a typical all-grain brewer will go through about 5 steps to craft their beer mashing, lautering, boiling, fermenting, bottling , whereas an all-grain distiller will only go through 3 mashing, fermenting, distilling.

Kit brewers will go through only 2 fermentation, bottling , which is the same number of steps needed for a similar distiller fermentation, distillation. Given the overlap in the steps, I would think that most home brewers could easily learn how to distill. In the case of alcohol, you are working with a flammable product, so extra precautions must be employed, but most people that can safely work a stove or oven should be able to safely operate a distillation unit as well.

Scroll down for chart with side-by-side comparison. Malting Malting is the process where grain, usually barley, is soaked in water, germinated, and dried. Milling Milling is a fancy word for crushing the grain.

Sparging aka Lautering Sparging is a fancy word for rinsing, and is done to separate the sugar from the solids, and also reduces the potential alcohol. Fermentation cannot produce a higher alcohol content than can be tolerated by the yeasts.

However higher alcohol content can be produced by heating the mixture and then condensing the resultant vapors, a process called distilling. The distillation of beer wort produces whiskey. The distillation of wine produces brandy.

And so on.