Spirits are also known as hard liquor, distilled drinks and firewater. There are some requirements that must be met for its production in order to achieve the desired taste and colour and a suitable alcohol content. Stainless steel tanks are best suited to production.

Producing spirits

The base ingredient for schnapps is usually different varieties of fruit or barley. The sugar they contain is converted into alcohol and carbonic acid through the addition of saccharomyces albicans. Similar to beer or wine production, a mash is produced. The anaerobic digestion process generally takes several weeks and slows down over time. During this process, two different types of alcohol – methylalcohol and ethylalcohol – are produced. The former is generally separated off during the process, as it’s not edible.

Following anaerobic digestion, the mash is distilled. This happens in the alembic or rectification systems.

A spirit tank is therefore not just a foodstuff tank but also an anaerobic digestion or mash tank. This depends on what stage of the production process the spirit is at.