Techniques for producing the first ethanol, were discovered 3,500 years ago by Middle Eastern and Far Eastern cultures.   The word alcohol is of Arabic derivation.  Ancient Egyptian papyrus scrolls exist with directions for making beer from dates and other plant foods. The alcohol in these drinks is ethanol (ethyl alcohol). Pure alcohol could not be made at that time; it was always mixed with the water, flavorings, and plant residue from the original fermentation. Almost all the ethanol produced was used for drinking, consumed as is perhaps after filtering or allowing the sediment to settle.

Fermentation, the oldest kind of alcohol production and possibly the oldest yet the most efficient chemical technology in the world, is the action of yeast on sugars in solution. When fruits, vegetables, honey, molasses, or grains such as barley are mashed up in water and undergo fermentation, the yeast's metabolism of the sugars produces ethanol as a byproduct. Wood and starches can also be fermented, although their complex molecules must be broken down somewhat first. They always give small amounts of other larger alcohols, called fusel oils, in addition to ethanol.  Fermentation has been developed to an advanced technology and after distillation provides much of the fuel ethanol for addition to gasoline.

The controlled modern process of distillation was developed sometime after the first century A.D. Purer ethanol distilled from crude fermentation mixtures was then available and used for making perfumes,  for consumption and for medicinal mixtures in alchemy. Eventually people learned to make methanol (wood alcohol) by destructively distilling wood but ethanol and methanol were the only alcohols available before the modern era.

The discovery and understanding of the alcohols as a group of chemical compounds has only happened in the last century. The industrial processes that generate and consume alcohols change to keep up with modern technology and discoveries, but the alcohols continue to occupy a central place in the science of chemical synthesis.

In the late 70's, a regain in ethanol production sprouted interest fro small production devices the remain unsurpassed today by the most of modern designs.

The most impressive series were produced by the Mother earth's group with distillation system from 2 Inch to 6 Inch in diameter.

the 4 columns shown below, were built in that period, and have not been changed or updated since...meaning that a good design will outlast the test of time. 

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4" column still  ->

The second design -- a four-inch column model -- is capable of producing about two gallons per hour of 90% pure ethanol fuel.