July 3, 2019 at last marked the opening of the new teaching distillery at Hochschule Geisenheim University's Beverage Technology Center, which was funded by resources for ensuring quality in teaching and studying.

The 50-liter copper still at the center of the operation was produced by the well-known copper-smith Arnold Holstein, from Markdorf on Lake Constance, and is flexibly designed to allow production of fruit distillates and spirits, while also enabling the extraction of botanicals for the production of gin. This means that students in the modules, "Alcoholic Beverages" and "Spirits Projects", in semesters 5 & 6 of the Beverage Technology B.Sc. degree program can learn about the production supporting the hyped drinks of the moment: gin, whisky and rum. The 50-liter production operation is a practical teaching size but at the same time gives sensory results which correspond to larger production facilities. Scientific work will also be undertaken, combining instrumental analytics of the Department of Beverage Research. The activation of the system takes place as part of the bachelor theses of two Beverage Technology students, Hannes Mühl and Cedric Metzmacher, who have both already completed apprenticeships including work experience in distilling.

The lockable facility is the responsibility of the team of Prof. Frank Will and Michael Ludwig from Department of Beverage Research.

You can watch a short video about the new distilling facility here.