All over the world home distillation is produced with simple equipment. This follows the same patterns as is used with commercial distillation.

Distilling at home is simple, although some common sense is needed to do it properly. We start by doing a "wash" by fementation of an alcoholic base. For any form of distillation we need some alcohol to be present so we can extract just the alcohol (this is distillation) and increase the strength by leaving behind the water. A "wash" for distillation could be a sugar and water mix which is fermented with yeast. This is the most common base for home distillation. We will create in this "wash" 10-20% alcohol perfect for the distillation process.

Alternatively this could be a fermented wine about 10-18% alcohol which is great. By using a base that already has some flavour will then give the distillation a taste which could be good or bad. Let's hope its good or the home distillation process will be a failure. This alcohol base is then feed into a still which is the start of the process. As we said earlier distillation involves separating the alcohol from the water and an efficient still will then end up with 80-96% alcohol. Having successfully done the distillation the alcohol can then be treated with carbon to clean the alcohol. This will remove any off flavours and colour from the spirit. The cleaned spirit can then be diluted with water (this can be tap water if it's good quality or distilled water) and flavouring can be added to the diluted spirit and then be bottled ready to be drunk.

The only way we can get alcohol above about 20% is through the distillation process as yeast will not tolerate high levels of alcohol. The principle in home distillation is the same as commercial (although they will get the 96% ABV). You will find that in the home distillation you will not reach the 96% ABV alcohol as the equipment is not so sophisticated and therefore will not be as efficient.

However the good news is the cost of the home distillation equipment will not be as high as the commercial. You will also find the home equipment will not be as large. Some of the commercial distillation equipment is over 200 metres high. This is often referred to as the distillation column and this is what does the work of extracting the alcohol so it's worth spending a good part of the budget on this essential part of the distillation process. I don't think that the average person doing home distillation would welcome a 200 meter column in their house!!!