The Art of Pot Stills

Mastering the Craft: The Heart of Distillation

At Heart River Spirits, our commitment to quality starts at the very core of our process—our pot stills. Distillation is both an art and a science, and every decision we make in designing our equipment impacts the flavor, smoothness, and character of our spirits.

The Distillation Process: How Pot Stills Work

Pot still distillation is a time-honored method used for crafting rich, flavorful spirits. The process begins with heating the fermented mash in the still, causing alcohol and other compounds to evaporate. These vapors travel through the still, cooling and condensing back into liquid form in the condenser. Unlike column stills, which focus on efficiency and high-proof distillation, pot stills typically run at a lower temperature thus retaining more flavors, resulting in a bold and complex spirit.

What Makes Our Stills Unique?

At Heart River Spirits, we don’t use off-the-shelf equipment. Instead, we custom-designed our stills to align with our unique vision for craft distilling. Our stills are built to emphasize flavor over proof, capturing the deep character of our ingredients while allowing for precise control over cuts and separation. The result? A spirit that stands out with smoothness, depth, and authenticity.

A smooth rum was relatively unheard of when Scott Beierle, owner and master distiller, stepped in to the wide world of distilling. But nothing motivates the crew at Heart River Spirits like a challenge, so Scott set his sights on making a product unlike anything else.

Designing Our Own Still: The Process & Challenges

Building a custom still isn’t easy—it takes time, trial, and innovation. When we set out to create our own, we focused on balancing traditional craftsmanship with modern precision. This took months of calculations to come up with a working design. But once we had our plans we then had to find a place that would be willing to bring it to life. This proved to be a bit of a challenge.

We wanted a custom still right from the start and this is a very uncommon practice. It’s often thought that to begin with a distiller should work on a standard still until you are more experienced. Distilling can be a dangerous craft and has been known to result in serious accidents. Our master distiller didn’t let that thought deter him though. He wanted a custom still and after being turned down by a few companies he finally got in contact with Chris from Rocky Point Copper Stills.

Rocking Point Copper Stills, which hails from Boaz Kentucky, has been making stills for almost 20 years and are known for their custom stills. Chris and his crew makes everything by hand. They were open to what we wanted to do and how we wanted to do it.

Why Our Stills Are Built This Way

Our goal has always been to create spirits with rich body, a full character taste but we wanted a smooth finish—and our stills are designed to help make that happen. The craftsmanship and unique design ensure we can retain and refine the best parts of our mash, creating a superior final product that can be enjoyed straight. By embracing a more handcrafted approach, we allow our spirits to shine in their purest form.

The trick is in the copper tubing and overall height. In order to cut out the burn in our distilled spirits we needed to limit the amount of time the alcohol is in vapor form. This is a difficult balance as we also need the vapor to spend enough time in the copper to pull out any sulfides present. Scott put pen to paper to find the perfect combination, then Chris put copper to to welder and brought it all to life.

How it Effects the Product

Heart River Spirits products are exceedingly smooth even sitting on average at 80 proof. Beyond that we produce a cleaner product through this change in standard equipment. Running with copper equipment reduces sulfides that naturally occur in distilled spirits. By shortening the headpiece and choosing a pot still we are able to operate our stills at a lower temperature thus making our rum smoother than our competitors. All of these methods come together to make the magic that is Heart River Spirits.

Heart River Spirits is a product unlike anything that has come before. We pride ourself on the craftmanship found in every bottle. We stand by the ideal that everything is handcrafted from the stills to the product itself.