Only a few years after Germany's car manufacturers were held responsible for Diesel-Gate, do we now have German still manufacturers creating the next big deceit? Stills should work for many years, but that does not seem to be the case with German copper stills anymore. Does the craft distiller, purchasing a traditional German still get the required quality, or do these still manufacturers underperform in quality and material thickness?

An interview with Patrick van Zuidam, managing director and master distiller at Zuidam Distillers, by WhiskyPassion teaches us the following (translated from Dutch) and may serve as an example of how poor things have gotten:

"The sours and acids in the wash eat away the copper with each and every run, basically dissolving part of the still. Fortunately weak parts can be replaced. The copper in our lyne-arm was gone in just five years. The copper was, at some places, as thin as paper."

Shouldn't a still last longer than that? Here at iStill we strongly feel it should. But how can we hold other manufacturers responsible for delivering at higher quality levels? We can't, but you can. All we can do is inform you. It's the craft distillers that need to take it from here onwards.

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