Column still

Can you make mezcal with a column still? Yes. Certified mezcal can legally be made with a column still. But this is only true of the “mezcal” category. Column stills may not be used to make artisanal or ancestral mezcal. Column stills are not a common sight at mezcal distilleries.

So what is a column still?

Column, or continuous stills, came into play in the early 1830s. Today, big distilleries use column stills to efficiently produce massive volumes of tequila. But even in the tequila industry, the majority of distilleries rely on pot stills.

As Clayton Szczech describes in A Field Guide to Tequila, “A distillation column houses dozens of copper plates, arrayed along the height of the column. At each plate, evaporation and condensation occur. This allows the distiller to precisely isolate the various compounds spread along the continuum of vapors and pull them out in a pure form. A single pass through a column could just as accurately be described as either a single distillation or several simultaneous distillations because microdistillations are happening at each plate.”

This technology gives distillers greater control over the process and the ability to efficiently distill away impurities. However, distillers can take this process too far. Szczech notes “There is a risk of neutering the spirit to the point where it isn’t interesting to drink.”