A still is an apparatus used to distill liquid mixtures by heating to selectively boil and then cooling to condense the vapor. A still uses the same concepts as a basic distillation apparatus, but on a much larger scale. Stills have been used to produce perfume and medicine, water for injection (WFI) for pharmaceutical use, generally to separate and purify different chemicals, and to produce distilled beverages containing ethanol.
Swan-necked copper pot stills in the Glenfiddich distillery
Column still from Kilbeggan Distillery in County Westmeath in Ireland.
Old Ukrainian vodka still
Zambian artisanal Kachasu still and cooler
Distillation, also classical distillation, is the process of separating the component substances of a liquid mixture of two or more chemically discrete substances; the separation process is realized by way of the selective boiling of the mixture and the condensation of the vapors in a still.
Distillation equipment used by the 3rd century alchemist Zosimos of Panopolis, from the Byzantine Greek manuscript Parisinus graces.
Hieronymus Brunschwig's Liber de arte Distillandi de Compositis (Strassburg, 1512) Science History Institute
A retort
Old Ukrainian vodka still
