I've visited a distillery, and let me tell you, it's a funky smell that comes out of that mash tun. Well, it is converted into a wet sugary substance called wort. This is all that is taken from the mash tun, the rest becomes cattle feed. Those must be some happy cows. Fermentation - The wort is now put into large vessels holding liquid.
Yeast is added and the whole mixture goes through the fermentation process.
Well, the yeast attacks the sugar in the wort and changes it into alcohol, which of course means, this is an incredibly important step in the process. This beverage is heated up and the alcohol vaporizes. The alcoholic vapor rises up and passes into a cooling tube. If you remember second-grade science, vapor, when cooled, turns into liquid. This process is repeated a few times until we are left with a potable beverage.