Hello all,
Last year I started chasing my dream of distilling eau de vie on a commercial scale - currently I am operating out of a friends distillery - he makes vodka from grain and whiskey, primarily. The whole fruit distillate thing is new to him, (he gets a chuckle out of my "efficiency", and the fermentation times for spontaneous yeasts... you might get the picture).
Every bit of knowledge I glean from eau de vie distillers I admire includes something along the lines of "the mash but be heated as slowly and evenly as possible". All the whiskey distillers I have rubbed shoulders with have a different take on things. Perhaps there is something cultural here.
This distiller tells me there is no difference in running a fast versus slow stripping run - that there are no chemical changes taking place. The little science knowledge I have tells me that heat+time+alcohol+copper might very well be the basis for some chemical changes, and that changing any of those factors - including time - might have a different outcome. Just to be sure, we are talking about duration of heating being here - not speed being a factor in making cuts. It is also worth noting that I pay this friend by the gallon, not by the hour.
Hoping some experienced voices can chime in and give some validation to this second and third hand knowledge. Thanks for your time.