How Absolut is made

The whole-grain wheat is milled using a hammer mill and mashed by low-temperature cooking with added enzymes. The sweet mash is then fermented with a proprietary Swedish cultivated yeast to produce a sour mash of 9% to 10% alc./vol.. Fermentation normally takes a little over 48 hours, but when the grain is newly harvested, this can take as long as 55 hours.

The wash is then distilled to a strength of around 90% alc./vol. This base spirit is then rectified through four different column stills to around 96% alc./vol. Interestingly, Absolut wanted to build this rectifying column towering 40 metres high, but due to the local airport and planning restrictions, it still had to be split into two 26-metre columns.

The first column strips alcohol from the mash to produce a raw distillate at around 35% alc./vol., which feeds directly into the second rectifying column to produce a distillate around 85% alc./vol.. Although both these columns are of stainless-steel construction, importantly, the top of the second column is packed with hundreds of pieces of chopped-up copper pipe, each cut and shaped to maximise surface area. Known as "sacrificial copper packets", these remove sulphuric elements as the vapours come into contact with the copper during distillation. Known as "copper catalysation", this interchange between copper and spirit plays an important role in the finished vodka's character, and to ensure maximum catalysation, these copper packets are replaced each time the still is stopped for maintenance. A further column removes methanol and a fourth column is used as a recovery column.

A little 'character' is added to this very pure and almost neutral spirit with the addition of a more characterful spirit. This is made from specially selected grain that undergoes a different and separate wash process before being distilled to a slightly lower proof. Although comprising a low percentage of the bottled vodka, this spirit helps give Absolut its distinctive bready character.

Absolut's flavoured vodkas are made by blending natural flavour extracts with the very pure neutral spirit, and most are made without the additional character spirit used to make original Absolut being added.

The final spirit is diluted to bottling strength using demineralised water drawn from the distillery's own wells. Unlike many other vodkas, Absolut is not charcoal filtered and does not undergo any other form of chemical filtration.