Anthony Boucherie

“ The Hollanders, who have long had the art of trading upon every thing, have constantly turned even their poverty to account. They have immense fabrications of gin, and scarcely any juniper trees. They only collect the berry in those countries where it is neglected as useless, as in France and Tyrol, which produce a great deal of it. The United States need have no recourse to Europe, in order to get the juniper berries: they have in abundance at home, what the Hollanders can only procure with trouble and money. ”

“ I must here observe, that the juniper berry, as well as several other fruits, contains two kinds of essential oil: one is the proximate principle of vegetation, and the other is the superabundant oil: the first is combined with the soapy extract, and dissolves in water; while the second does not unite with it, and floats on the surface. ”

“ Although an incredible number of those trees is cut down daily, there is still a greater number standing, in the United States; and millions of bushels of berries are lost every year, while only skilful hands are wanted, to make them useful to mankind. The juniper berry has many medical properties: it is a delightful aromatic, and contains an oil essential, and a sweet extract, which by the fermentation yields a vinous liquor, made into a sort of wine in some countries; that is called wine for the poor: it strengthens the stomach, when debilitated by bad food or too hard labor. ”

“ A distiller may at pleasure convert his whiskey into gin. He needs only to perfume the wort which he puts in fermentation, by adding a certain quantity of the berries, slightly broken: the fermentation is then common to both; their sweet mucosity enriches that of the wort, and increases the spirit, while at the same time the soapy extract, which is the proximate principle of vegetation, yields the essential oil, which perfumes the liquor. ”

“ Few men have the means of establishing a distillery on a new plan, and even the most enlightened may make notable errors. Few, besides, are bold enough to undertake, at their own risks, the trial of a new fabrication: they are afraid of losing, and of being blamed for having too lightly yielded to the persuasion of new projectors. ”

“ The urns, receiving no other heat than that which the vapors coming out of the still can transmit to them, raise the spirit; the water, at least the greatest part of it, remains at the bottom: hence, what runs from the worm is alcohol; that is, spirit at 35°. It is easily understood how the vapors coming out of the still are rectified in the urns, and that three successive rectifications bring the spirit to a high degree of concentration: it gets lower only when the vinous liquor draws towards the end of the distillation. ”

“ Those of the distiller of whiskey are 100lbs. of grain to 100 gallons of water, or thereabouts: 100lbs. of grain contain only 16lbs. of dry sweet matter: therefore, as the 100 gallons of vinous liquor weigh 800lbs. the 16lbs. of sugar form only its fiftieth part.
Thence is seen how inferior the proportions of the whiskey distiller are to those of the brewer, and how far they are from good theory. But the brewer aims only at producing a sort of wine, and succeeds; while, the distiller wants to make spirit, and only obtains it in the manner the most expensive, and opposed to his own interest. ”

“ There results from that mixture, a fermentation partaking of the spirit and the acid, and if the temperature of the atmosphere is moderate, the acid invades the spirit, which is one of its principles: nothing remains but vinegar, and the hopes of the distiller are deceived.
Some distillers have been induced, by the smallness of their products, to put in their stills, not only the fluid of the liquor, but the flour itself. Hence result two important defects. 1st. The solid matter precipitates itself to the bottom of the still, where it burns, and gives a very bad taste to the whiskey. ”

“ There is a fourth defect, at which humanity shudders, and which the laws ought to repress. Vinous liquors are more or less accompanied with acetone acid, or vinegar; but those proceeding from grain contain still more of this acid. The stills are generally made of naked copper; the acid works upon that metal, and forms with it the acetate of copper, or verdigrise, part of which passes with the whiskey. There is no distiller, who, with a little attention, has not observed it. ”

“ It is easy to remedy so terrible an evil. The acetous acid has no action upon tin. By tinning the stills, the purity of the liquor will be augmented, and the distilling vessels, already so expensive, will be longer preserved. This operation must be renewed every year. The worms must likewise be tinned, if they are copper; but they are better of tin, or of the purest pewter.
Such are the defects of the present method of distilling whiskey. Having exposed them, I must present the means of bringing to perfection the fabrication of a liquor of such general use. ”

“ It is easy to conceive how hurtful must be the presence of verdigrise to those who make use of whiskey as a constant drink: even those who use it soberly, swallow a slow poison, destructive of their stomach; while to those who abuse it, it produces a rapid death, which would [Pg 21] still be the consequence of abuse, if the liquor was pure, but is doubly accelerated by the poison contained in the whiskey. ”

“ Neither the joints, the different pipes of communication, nor the nailings, must leave the smallest passage to the vapors. The workman must pay the greatest attention to his work, and the distiller must lute exactly all the parts of the apparatus that are susceptible of it: he must be the more careful as to luting it, as this operation is only performed once a week, when the apparatus is cleaned. At the moment of the distillation, the master or his foreman must carefully observe whether there is any waste of vapors, and remedy it instantly. The still and urns ought to be well tinned. ”

“ One single and same distillation can therefore yield to the distiller either gin or whiskey, as it requires no more labor, and its conversion into gin costs only the price of the berries, which repays him amply, either by the spirit it yields, or by its essential oil, which, floating on the surface, may be easily collected. ”

“ A pump to empty the hogsheads, and covered pipes to conduct the liquor into the still, is what has been found to answer that purpose. A good distilling apparatus is undoubtedly the most important part of a distillery. It must unite solidity, perfection in its joints, economy of fuel, rapidity of distillation, to the faculty of concentrating the spirit. ”

“ Metals are conductors of the caloric. The heat accumulated in the still, rises to the cap, from whence it runs into the urns: with this difference—that the pewter, of which the cap and pipes are made, transmits less [Pg 31] caloric than copper, because it is less dense: and that bodies are only heated in reason of their density.
However, a great deal of heat is still communicated to the worm, and heats the water in which it is immersed. I diminish this inconvenience by putting a wooden pipe between the worm and the pipe of the third urn. ”

“ The most usual drink in the United States, is whiskey; other spirituous liquors, such as peach and apple brandy, are only secondary, and from their high price and their scarcity, they are not sufficient for the wants of an already immense and increasing population. ”

“ As there must be four of these hogsheads filled up daily, the work at the kettle must be kept going on, without interruption, until that quantity is obtained, which may be done in about twelve hours. The grain which has been drained is carried to dry, either in the open air, or in a granary, and spread thin. When dry, it is excellent food for cattle, and highly preferable to the acid and fermented mash, usually used by distillers to feed cattle and hogs: they eat the corn dried in the above manner as if it had lost nothing of its primitive qualities and flavor. ”

“ We have seen, in the 10th chapter of this work, that my hogsheads for the fermentation, contain about 120 gallons of wort, being the production of the saccharine extract of 12 bushels of grain. The intelligent distiller will himself determine the quantity of berries necessary for each hogshead to have a good aromatic per [Pg 43] fume. He may begin with 10 lbs. per hogshead; and will, upon trial, judge whether or not this quantity is sufficient, or must be increased. At any rate, economy should not be consulted in the use of the berries, since their price does not increase that of the whiskey. ”

“ Water being graduated at 10° in the areometer, it results from thence that the spirit going to 20°, is in reality only 10° lighter than water; and the alcohol graduated at 35°, is only 25° above distilled water.
The areometer can only be just, when the atmosphere is temperate; that is, at 55° Fahrenheit, or 10° Reaumur. The variations in cold or heat influence liquors; they acquire density in the cold, and lose it in the heat: hence follows that the areometer does not [Pg 35] sink enough in the winter, and sinks too much in the summer. ”

“ But 1 gallon of dry alcohol, extended in 2 gallons of water, gives 3 gallons of liquor at 19°, which is called Holland, or first proof; a produce surpassing all what has been hitherto known to the distillers. I will prove it by an example: 1 gallon of molasses yields only 1 gallon of rum, at 19°, to the rum distiller; still, molasses is a true sirup, composed of 8lbs. of sugar, or sweet matter, more fermentable than sugar. 121⁄2 gallons of molasses, representing 100lbs. ”

“ As soon as it yields no more spirit, the fire is stopped, and the still is emptied in order to fill it up again, to begin a new distillation.
Each time that the vinous liquor is renewed in the still, the water contained in the urns must be emptied, through the pipes of discharge at the bottom. ”

“ The kettle is destined to make the infusion of the grain, and boil it so as to convert it into wort. By that operation I make the liquor richer, which I intend for fermentation, and bring it to divers degrees of strength.
I put into the kettle 100 gallons of water, and 4 bushels of corn, broken, as I said before, at the mill. I light a small fire, which I increase gradually, until the water begins to boil; during that time, the grain is stirred with a paddle. ”

“ As it is demonstrated that the spirit is the more abundant in proportion to the richness of the vinous liquor,* it is therefore necessary to enrich that of the distillery* which is so deficient in that respect. ”

“ One hogshead of 100 gallons, should contain, according to Lavoisier's composition, the elements of 50 gallons of spirit, at 19°; whilst that of the rum distiller contains only 12. Now, as every fermentable liquor requires open vessels, the hogshead of the rum distiller loses as much spirit as that of Lavoisier: hence it is plain how far the above proportion operates to the disadvantage of the fermer.
3dly. Another source of loss arises in the distilling vessels themselves. Nothing is more imperfect than the stills of a whiskey distillery. ”

“ It is easily conceived, that extreme cold or extreme heat occasion important variations. For that reason, there are in Europe inspectors, whose duty it is to weigh spirits, particularly brandy: for that purpose they make use of the areometer and the thermometer. An areometer, to be good, must be proved with distilled water, at the temperature of 55°. Areometers, being made of glass, are brittle, and must be used with great care. ”

“ Government itself ought to promote the first undertaking, or a certain number of citizens ought to join in order to give it a start. It is the more easy in this case, as my apparatus requires very little expense. ”

“ I have seen several of this metal. A good silversmith could easily make them; I invite those artists to attend to that branch of business; it might become valuable, as the distillers will be more enlightened. ”