Module 3
Distillation Basics
Learn a practical model for where flavors show up during distillation—so you can cut for the spirit you actually want to make.
This module builds a simple, usable distillation model: what a still is doing, why a stripping run is different from a finishing run, and how heads/hearts/tails show up as fractions that you can select (or avoid) based on flavor goals.
What you'll learn
- A simple mental model of how distillation separates liquids by boiling points
- Why the first run (stripping) and second run (finishing) have different goals
- How heads, hearts, and tails appear during a finishing run
- How to think about “fractions” as flavor decisions, not just yield decisions