Distillation

How does mash become a fine fruit brandy? It is heated in a pot still, usually made of copper, which binds sulfur compounds and makes the distillate cleaner. Alcohol boils before water and rises as vapor. In the condenser it turns back to liquid and drips out as distillate.

A rectifying column mounted on the pot cleans and concentrates the vapor, so that a single pass already yields a high-strength distillate. Those working without a column distill twice: first a stripping run, then a spirit run. Both methods are permitted, as long as each distillation stays below 86% ABV, since this preserves the fruit's aroma in the brandy.

The distiller divides the distillate into three parts. First comes the heads, which smell sharply of solvent. The hearts carry the aroma, and the tails are oily and reminiscent of fusel oil. Only the hearts go into the finished brandy. Cutting off the heads only partially reduces methanol — it does not eliminate it entirely.

Reisetbauer's first still, from 1994, was built, according to the estate, by plant engineer Christian Carl to the founder's own designs. Every producer tunes pot, column and cuts to their fruit — a quince brandy calls for different handling than a Williams pear brandy.

There's a reason this is only being explained here. In Austria, distilling must be registered with the customs office, and illicit distilling remains banned. The quantity a farmer with flat-rate rights may produce is limited, and higher tax rates apply beyond that.