ttps:////»https://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd»>
It is a process divided into four phases: milling, purification, fermentation and distillation. In the milling, the sugarcane is squeezed to obtain the juice, which then goes to purification, where it is sieved, receives a little lime, is heated and finally deposited in large silos to cool. This stage is used so that the impurities in the broth, after binding to the lime, accumulate at the bottom of the silos and are removed. It is with this purified broth that sugar is made. But, if the idea is to transform it into alcohol, the next step is to put it to ferment in contact with the fungus Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the same fungus used in the production of beer. Fermentation lasts about eight hours. After that, the fungus is separated in centrifuges to be reused. What remains is a liquid that technicians call wine, with about 8% alcohol.
“The wine is then distilled countless times, separating the alcohol from the water until it reaches between 97% and 99% alcohol content”, says agronomist André Alcardi, from the Luiz de Queiroz Higher School of Agriculture (Esalq ), in Piracicaba, SP. This last step is carried out in distillation columns 8 meters high, where the alcohol is evaporated and condensed in a series of 90 overlapping trays. The production of fuel alcohol and cachaça is practically the same. When making the drip, however, the purified sugarcane juice ferments for several days and not hours. Furthermore, as cachaça has an alcohol content of at most 50%, it does not need to be distilled so many times.