Effectiveness of esterification catalysis's [Cu, Sulphuric acid, Acid Zeolite], in Whiskey distillation

If you go on a tour of a distillery, you will normally be told at some point how the (beautifully polished) copper pot stills catalyse the esterification of ethanol and higher (fusel) alcohols, with acids from the fermentation process improves the flavor of the whiskey. (And how *their* still geometry creates a superior product)


Obviously the distillation process, removing water and most of the higher (fusel) alcohols contributes to this as well.


How effective is Copper in that scenario? A still would not have more than say 100 m2 of copper surface area and a batch load would be on the order of 5-50 thousand liters


How much more effective would using Sulphuric acid as a catalysis? (Obviously this would not be useful/food grade, but nice to know as a baseline) 


Now (the much more interesting part) 
**How effective would Acid Zeolite be as a catalysis? Either as a distillation column packing medium, or adding a 'handful' to a barrel before leaving it to sit in a ware house for a couple of years/decades?**


