Alambique

The alambique is the copper pot still: a hammered or rolled copper vessel (the pot or cuerpo) set over a fire or steam jacket, topped by a copper head (the capitel) that channels rising vapor through a copper or copper-clad condenser. The condenser is most often a coiled tube ("worm" or serpentín) immersed in a tank of cold water. The architecture is of Arabic-Spanish origin: the Spanish word alambique descends from the Arabic al-anbiq, itself from the Greek ambix. The technology arrived in New Spain in the 16th century, and by the 18th had become the dominant artisanal still type for distilled agave spirits.

Copper does important chemistry in the still. Copper ions catalytically remove sulfur compounds (hydrogen sulfide, dimethyl sulfide, methanethiol) that would otherwise carry through to the distillate as cooked-onion or rotten-egg off-notes, and copper helps to convert some aldehyde precursors into less aggressive forms. A stainless steel still can run to spec on temperature and cut points, but a stainless distillate often lacks the soft fruit and sulfide-clean profile that copper gives. The alambique is the default still architecture for tequila, for most mezcal artesanal under NOM-070-SCFI-2016A regulatory-standard NOM is a federal Mexican product norm. Unlike facility NOMs (4-digit identifiers of specific distilleries), a standard NOM defines the rules for an entire category of product: which raw materials are permitted, where the product may be made, how it must be processed, and how the bottle must be labeled. Standard NOMs are written as "NOM-XXX-SCFI-YYYY" where XXX is the standard number and YYYY is the year. NOM-070-SCFI-2016 (Mezcal). The official Mexican standard for mezcal production. Defines three production tiers (Mezcal Industrial, Mezcal Artesanal, Mezcal Ancestral) with specific equipment and method requirements for each, lists the permitted agave species and states, and governs labeling. Enforced by the Consejo Regulador del Mezcal (CRM)., and for raicilla, bacanora, and most contemporary sotol. The ancestral exception is the olla de barro, the clay-pot still required for Mezcal Ancestral. The full still-architecture comparison sits in the distillation chapter.