iStill Innovation: ABV Control!
22 February 2019
Introduction
Today, we help take the craft distilling industry take another leap forward. How? By introducing a new and amazing innovation called "ABV Control". This iStill Blog post will explain what it is and how it helps you out.
Traditional pot distilling and column distilling
Traditionally, pot distilling is the best approach to most flavorful spirits. Brandy and Cognac are distilled in a potstill, and so is single malt whisky. The advantage of pot distilling is that you work with batches. Batch-wise production allows the craft distiller to cut for heads, hearts, and tails, giving him control over the endproduct's flavor composition. Also, the relative crudeness of this old design enables many flavors to come over in the end product. Downsides can be that heads and tails cuts translate to alcohol losses, and that a double distillation is needed to get the drink to proof.
Tall columns have always been used for vodka making. They hit 190 proof and that is it. Or a lower proof when tuned down to less tall columns. Batch (as the typical fruit brandy still) or continuous (as the now often used continuous strippers used in Bourbon production) approaches are possible.
Taste-wise, a potstill is amazing for pulling over flavors, where columns distill either very pure at high proof, or at lower ABV with compromises in cuts (on a continuous still) or early tails smearing (fruit brandy still). Technically, a potstill has a steady output and a dropping alcohol percentage during the run, where column stills have a steady alcohol percentage at the cost of dropping yield. Like this (yield in green, ABV in red):

- Efficiency: iABV Control means you can take your wash directly to finishing strength. No more need for a stripping run;
- Taste: Since you can now distill your final spirit directly from an organically active boiler charge, more flavor will come over with this one distillation approach;
- Yield: Higher reflux ratios towards the end of the run will push tails back and increase total hearts yield.
This new iStill 5000 has ABV Control ...

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