"Paul Arthur" wrote in message
om...
On 2010-12-21, Spamlet wrote:

"john robinson" wrote in message
...

Does anyone have any information about making a simple *distilling*
apparatus that they can share? My friend is thinking of trying to
distil some ginger beer.

A problem with distilling is that if 'successfully' done, one ends
up with alcohol and no flavour, so you would not get ginger spirit
from your still. The flavour in gin is added afterwards, and that in
whisky comes from the barrels it is aged in.

Sorry, that's just wrong. Raw whisky has plenty of flavour; some of
the flavours come from the barrel, but others (like the peatiness in
some Scotch) is there from the get-go. You only get no flavour if you
distill it several times (a column still does this internally, while
with a pot still you would have to do multiple runs).

As for gin...gin is made in several ways. "The flavour is added
afterwards" is a good description of compounding, which is the least
popular. London gin is the most popular type of gin and is required by
law to be produced in a more traditional manner, where the flavour is
added before the final distillation.



I believed or read that the difference was that compounding means "dump it
in" whereas distilled means more like infused with vapor of