Sugar plants and independent alcohol distilleries use modern agricultural techniques with selected varieties of sugar cane for sugar production, but there are not selected varieties for alcohol and cachaça production in Brazil yet. Small and medium sugar cane planters in the state still use traditional cultivation methods and inadvisable varieties of sugar cane. That can decrease agricultural productivity and industrial efficiency, as well as the cachaça quality.

Raw sugar cane arrived at distillery must be weighed and, if it's possible, analyzed to determine its sugar and fiber amount. Then, sugar cane is unloaded in the Sugar Cane House or directly to the feeder table, where it must be washed to separate sand and strange substances. After that, sugar cane is unloaded in a transporting mat, passes through a kind of forage machine, in the small units, or through one or two of the rotatives knife sets, where it is pricked or shredded, to be prepared for milling. The cut or shredded sugar cane feeds the millings that are from two to four ternos triplet responsible for the extraction operation of the broth, which is called grinding.

Sugar cane broth is extracted by millings, passes through a metallic screen or sieve, to separate bagacilho, which returns to millings, while pulp is sent to be burned in boilers.

The bolted broth, passes through a (chicanas) chicane decanter, where it is diluted to the convenient Brix and from that step it's sent directly to fermentation dornas, where must pH is corrected with sulfuric or phosphoric acid and receives necessary nutrients to nutrition of leavening or ferment, prepared in cubes or pre-fermentators .

The fermentation process can be by batelada without centrifugalization, with cuttings or decantation of the must, adopted in small and medium cachaça distilleries; or with centrifugalization to recover the leaven, in the medium distilleries. The semi-continuous and continuous processes of fermentation are used only in the great alcohol distilleries. Leavened must or wine, collected in a mobile dorna, is concentrated directly to the distillation column or to the wine tank that feeds it.

Wine distillation operation to obtain cachaça is processed through copper stills, by discontinuous operation or through "boatload"(with the meaning of "too much"), used in small and medium aguardente distilleries; or through continuous distillation columns in medium and great distilleries to produce aguardente or alcohol.

The newly distillated or raw Cachaça can be commercialized as such or be aged in wood barrels to improve its quality, as other distilled drinks. The Flowchart of cachaça production and aging process comes as follows: