Extracting Spiritual Essences: Distilling Alcohol from Wine
Experiment Directions
Although separation of volatile components using distillation was performed well before the Renaissance using the alembic (see picture in the upper left) or a retort, improvements in the apparatus made it possible to finally obtain alcohol (ethanol) in high enough purity that it would burn. This was viewed as proof that it contained some of the essence of life. The alcohol could also be used as a solvent for other separations, and to prepare medicines.
In this country, a person may brew up to 100 gallons of beer per year for personal use. However, distilling alcohol to make "hard liquor" (or even to make a fuel!) requires a license, even if you are old enough to drink it afterward. We will not attempt to do either of the above, only distilling enough to measure its purity in order to better understand the processes employed by the iatrochemists and alchemists.
To that end, each group will be given 50 mL or so of wine (usually it contains from 8 - 12% alcohol which is as high as the yeast can go before dying off). You should distill over about 5 mL of alcohol. The density of ethanol is 0.789g/mL at 20 deg., (water is 1.00) and its boiling point is 78.4 deg. at sea level. At this altitude (lower pressure), we expect it to boil over at a slightly lower temperature. Weigh the collection flask and then collect the liquid that comes over up to about 80 deg. Weigh it again and calculate the % alcohol in your wine.
Use a 1 or 2 mL volumetric pipette and a covered weighing bottle to weigh the liquid to get its density (and hence its purity). Finally, "proof it" by seeing if it will burn.
The steps for how to properly assemble a distillation apparatus should be reviewed before coming to lab, and links are provided there for the safe handling of glass and volatile chemicals in the lab. We may use a different collection flask and a heating mantle instead of a steam bath, but everything will be very similar otherwise. To return to this page afterward, use your back button at the top of the screen.