log still
From The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails
is an unusual form of steam still made from one or more hollowed-out logs. The original design was patented by an American inventor named Robert Gillespie in the early nineteenth century. Variations on the theme were used by some early rye whisky and bourbon distillers, and the name was retained in industry usage to describe the large, wooden three-chamber stills used by many American distillers until Prohibition. See still, types of; whisky, rye;, whisky, bourbon.
Insert-Figure ID="acref-9780199311132-e-688-figureGroup-51"?
The two-chamber steam still built by Richard E. Wathen of Marion County, Kentucky, out of poplar logs.
Wondrich Collection.
!log still Primary Image
The two-chamber steam still built by Richard E. Wathen of Marion County, Kentucky, out of poplar logs. Source: Wondrich Collection.
This definition is from The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails, edited by David Wondrich (Editor-in-Chief) and Noah Rothbaum (Associate Editor).