Gripsholm Distillery
At Kanon we pride ourselves on creating an impeccably smooth and tasty vodka, not only because of the organic ingredients that go into it, but also because of our signature single distillation process. Perhaps this phrase brings back awful memories of high school chemistry (you know – bunsen burner mishaps, raccoon-like goggle marks and the like), but rest assured, dear friends, our single distillation is actually a very beautiful thing. Since we believe that to truly appreciate something to the highest potential, you need to know where it came from, we broke it down for you below with a little assistance from our CEO Andreas Johansson. Still got questions after this? Well, feel free to shoot us a line over on Facebook and Twitter.
So first off, what sets the Gripsholm distillery apart from your average vodka distillery?
Your average distillery has a focus on yield and economy, meaning grain/wheat with the most starch content and redistilling the bi products (= heads, tails and fusel in our terms) in order to extract more alcohol. They also tend to distill excessively and charcoal filter as they value starch content more than the actual raw material, which in our case is wheat. Of course, yields and economy are in our scope as well, but we also have a focus on preserving the heritage of the organically grown wheat. By distilling one time only, we preserve the aromas carried by organic fermented mash in the final product and in our distillery we still get the purity that is required for vodka. Futhermore, we only use organic and non-gmo process aids (if aids are needed), which separates us from the vast majority of distilleries.
How does one separate the heart from the head and tail?
To keep it simple – [it's possible] because heads and tails have different boiling temperatures than the product we want. Hearts is ethanol + the aromas that share this property, boiling point/volatility with ethanol.
Can you talk more about charcoal filtering and what that entails?
What happens when you filter through activated carbon is that, as stated above, higher alcohols and organic (much hydrocarbons) molecules will be trapped on the activated carbon, i.e. impurities and other unwanted chemicals will get stuck on the activated carbon filter. Activated carbon filtration is frequently used by distilleries where they have no idea how to build a distillery, and hence they will end up with a bad product which in turn needs to be filtered through activated carbon.
An unpleasant consequence of filtering through activated carbon is that the method do NOT distinguish between what is unwanted and what gives the product a positive contribution to the character, or taste, of the finished product. The only way to get a good product is actually to build a distillery CORRECTLY from the beginning so that the "good" organic (positive character contributors) can be preserved throughout the process. Using charcoal filtering is for me a silent "I surrender, I didn't succeed in my quest for building a vodka distillery," and a "let's turn our weakness into a strength" attempt. Also, activated carbon do NOT remove impurities like methanol as the molecule is too small.
Would redistilling the heart make a more pure spirit?
I would put it like this: redistilling would make the heart tasteless as the aromas that share the approximate same boiling/volatility property as ethanol would be lost and you'd get "closer" to a charcoal filtered product.
What is responsible for causing the subtle hint of sweetness in Kanon's vodka?
Well, the heart contains fractions of aromas (not visible in any chemical analysis but obvious to the human senses) that share the same property as ethanol, as stated above. In our case, I believe that it is a synergistic combination of the aromas being of organic heritage and the absence of chemical pesticides and synthetic fertilisers that are used in the production of conventional vodkas.
