Seven years ago, according to Bill Owens, who heads up the micro-distillers trade group, American Distilling Institute, there were 30 craft-sized pot stills operating in America.
To achieve that "particular quality, " most craft distillers employ variations on small-batch pot stills, the kind of homey, copper kettle--looking devices you find at single-malt scotch distilleries, as opposed to the giant, continuous-process column stills of the big-volume liquor brands.