Bourbonism

“ Spirits can be distilled from any vegetable matter which will yield alcohol, yet many substances yield only a rasping, nauseous or flavorless liquor, which age does not improve. To some of these products, artificial flavors and color are given and the imitation articles are thus placed on the market. But true whiskey, brandy, etc., have a specific and original flavor of their own, and contain vegetable oils and acids. ”

“ She bestowed great care in the preservation of her charms, and Nature seconded her efforts, Careful, temperate, active, both in mind and body, ill health had produced no ravages upon her frame, and at forty-five—nay, even at forty-seven, which was her exact age when Bourbon appeared before her—the duchess looked younger than many an indolent beauty of thirty-five. ”

“ An essential 63 Oil is found in all Bodies, being one of their constituent Principles. I have observed in all my Distillations, Spirit of Wine excepted, a soft unctuous Substance floating on the Phlegm; and this Substance is Oil, which we call Essence; and this is what we endeavour to extract.
Simple Waters are those distilled from Plants, Flowers, &c. without the Help of Water, Brandy, or Spirit of Wine. These Waters are commonly odoriferous, containing the Odour of the Body from whence it is extracted, and even exceeds in Smell the Body itself. ”

“ De-natured Alcohol and De-naturing Formulæ
The uses of alcohol are very numerous and varied, the principal being, of course, for the production of all alcoholic liquors such as brandy, gin, rum, whiskey, liquors, etc.; that distilled from grain is almost entirely consumed in the manufacture of whiskey, gin, and British brandy. In the arts, strong alcohol is employed by the perfumers and makers of essences for dissolving essential oils, soaps, etc., and for extracting the odor of flowers and plants ”

“ Chemistry seems to agree with the temperance society, that wine, beer, brandy, gin, whiskey, and rum are alcohol and water, mixed in different proportions, and with some slight differences of flavoring and coloring matter. In all these drinks, teetotalers maintain, alcohol is power, the other ingredients being mere dilution and flavoring. Wine, they assure us, is alcohol and water flavored with grapes; beer is alcohol and water flavored with malt and hops; Bourbon whiskey is alcohol and water flavored with corn. ”

“ Alcohol in this state of dilution, is better adapted for taking up the principles of vegetables than rectified spirit; indeed, diluted alcohol acts upon bodies as a chemical compound, and will dissolve what neither the same proportion of water nor of alcohol would, if separately applied; we perceive therefore the importance of ensuring uniformity of strength in our spirits. (See Tincturæ.) It is necessary to remark that almost all the spirit sold under the name of “Proof Spirit,” is contaminated with empyreumatic oil, and is unfit for the purposes of pharmacy ”

“ Spirit of Wine has a refractive Power in a middle [Pg 275] degree between those of Water and oily Substances, and accordingly seems to be composed of both, united by Fermentation; the Water, by means of some saline Spirits with which 'tis impregnated, dissolving the Oil, and volatizing it by the Action. For Spirit of Wine is inflamable by means of its oily Parts, and being distilled often from Salt of Tartar, grow by every distillation more and more aqueous and phlegmatick. And Chymists observe, that Vegetables (as Lavender, Rue, Marjoram, &c.) ”

“ Rum and brandy, glenlivet and guava jelly, limes, green tea, and a slight suspicion of preserved ginger,—nothing else, upon honor,—and the most simple mixture for the cure, the radical cure, of blue devils and debt I know of; eh, Doctor? You advise it yourself, to be taken before bed-time; nothing inflammatory in it, nothing pugnacious; a mere circulation of the better juices and more genial spirits of the marly clay, without arousing any of the baser passions; whiskey is the devil for that. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Whiskey is ethyl alcohol and natural flavor. Brandy is ethyl alcohol and natural flavor. The difference is the difference in flavor. The flavor of genuine whiskey comes from the grain, secondary products—fusel oil—distilled over with the ethyl alcohol and ripened into the flavors of 'rye' and 'Bourbon' whiskey. The new whiskey with its unripened secondary products is like the green peach, unfit for consumption. ”

“ Our ancestors, wiser in their generation, appointed ‘ale-tasters,’ who did their duty without fear or favour. Why cannot ‘spirit-tasters’ be introduced in our day? Or, why cannot whiskey come within the limits of the Food Adulteration Act? The quantity of bad whiskey made in Great Britain is amazing. To use the word ‘whiskey’ is an outrage of the term. ‘Patent spirit’ is the Excise description for this fluid, which is made by a special apparatus, known as the Coffey Patent Still, from maize, rice, damaged barley, &c. ”

“ When distilled from any of these spirituous liquors, the alcohol contains, besides water, variable quantities of essential oils, ethers, and other flavouring matters, which, by one or more redistillations with charcoal or lime, it for the most part loses, and then becomes commercial spirit of wine. By a further rectification from chloride of calcium, lime, carbonate of potash, or any other substance having a strong affinity for water, the water is retained, and a strong spirit passes over containing not more than 10 per cent. ”

“ I wish I could write it in letters of fire over the door of every liquor saloon.
It may be the climate; it may be the high-pressure, fever-heated rate of modern living; it may as well be that those honest men who made their own apple whiskey and peach brandy, by their daily dram-drinking transmitted the taste which adulterated liquors, in the generation following, were to lash into uncontrollable appetite. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Now, although we candidly admit that some odors are better when prepared with grape spirit than with that from corn spirit, yet there are others which are undoubtedly the best when prepared with spirit derived from the latter source. Musk, ambergris, civet, violet, tubereuse, and jasmine, if we require to retain their true aroma when in solution in alcohol, must be made with the British spirit.
All the citrine odors, verveine, vulnerary waters, Eau de Cologne, Eau de Portugal, Eau d'Arquebuzade, and lavender, can alone be brought to perfection by using the French spirit in their manufacture. ”

“ All the essential oils which have a higher boiling-point than spirit, remain in the retort, whilst the spirit passes into the receiver with only a trace of the oil, where the alcohol may be recognized by the smell and taste. Should, however, a doubt exist, add to the distillate a little acetate of potash and strong sulphuric acid, and heat the mixture in a test-tube to the boiling-point, when the characteristic odor of acetic ether will be manifest, if any alcohol be present. ”

“ Their strong drink is Madeira wine, cider, mobby punch, made either of rum from the Caribbee islands, or brandy distilled from their apples and peaches; besides brandy, wine, and strong beer, which they have constantly from England.
§ 75. Their fuel is altogether wood, which every man burns at pleasure, it being no other charge to him than the cutting and carrying it home. In all new grounds it is such an incumbrance, that they are forced to burn great heaps of it to rid the land. ”

“ In pharmacy, wine is made of wormwood; also a syrup, a preserve, an extract, oil by infusion, an essential oil, and wormwood salt. It is supposed that several brewers on the Continent substitute the leaves and flowers of this plant for hops, in the manufacture of beer. It is, perhaps, a calumny, and we only repeat it in a whisper.
“The leaves of wormwood are used in salad to make it more digestible and heighten the flavour. They are preserved in vinegar, and to season dishes. ”

“ With hot waters to attempt to force from the grain more strength or more oils, than such as will form a clean tasteless spirit, is, in the distillery, a real loss and a fundamental error. By too strong heats, more oils are forced into the must than can be converted in spirits; and fermentation being, by this over charge, in some measure, clogged and impeded, a less yield is made, and the liquor obtained of a rank and often empyreumatic taste. ”

“ The Bourbons are credulous; they believe the assurances which they get from schemers who deceive them respecting the real state of the public mind of France, and they will send a lot of victims over here. ”

“ Cordials.—In the preparation of cordials or liqueurs, scrupulous cleanliness is of the utmost consequence; and the best of sugar, the purest of rectified spirits, the best of herbs or essences, and distilled or filtered rain-water should be used. Where possible, distillation should nearly always be employed in the preparation of liqueurs, lemon and orange liqueurs being perhaps exceptions. If, however, distillation is impracticable, prolonged maceration for a month or more should be resorted to. ”

“ Such are the followers of the Bourbons: their best traits, their highest daring, their most long-suffering endurance, only elicited in the pursuit of some paltry object of personal ambition. They have tasted the cup of adversity, ay, drained it to the very dregs; they have seen carnage and bloodshed such as no war ever surpassed: and all they have learned by experience is, to wish for the long past days of royal tyranny and frivolity back again ”

“ By the Excise laws at present existing in this country, the various degrees of strength of brandy, rum, arrack, gin, whiskey, and other spiritous liquors, chiefly composed of little else than spirit of wine, are determined by the quantity of alcohol of a given specific gravity contained in the spiritous liquors of a supposed unknown strength. ”

“ The common form of alcohol known as “de-natured spirit” consists of alcohol to which one tenth of its volume of wood alcohol, or other de-naturizing agents has been added, for the purpose of rendering the mixture undrinkable through its offensive odor and taste. Methylated spirit being sold tax free, may be applied by chemical manufacturers, varnish makers, and many others, to a variety of uses, to which, from its greater cost, duty-paid spirit is commercially inapplicable. ”

“ Can it be that they are acquainted with the extent of the mischiefs which our country already suffers from intemperance? Do they know that fifty-six millions of gallons of ardent spirits are annually consumed in the United States, or more than four and an half gallons to each inhabitant; and that about forty-four millions of this quantity are prepared in the distilleries of our own country; that ten millions of gallons are distilled from molasses, and more than nine million bushels of rye are used for this purpose? ”

“ The process is continued until the alcoholic content of the distilled liquor has considerably diminished, when the remaining weak spirit that distils over, called ‘faints,’ is caught separately, and mixed with the low wines preparatory to another distillation. The strongest spirit passes over first, and the condensed liquor gradually becomes weaker, until it ceases to contain alcohol. By receiving in separate vessels any given portion of the product, spirit of any required strength, within certain limits, may be obtained. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Although alcohol can be extracted from any substance containing saccharine matter, yet sugar-cane, grapes, apples, peaches, rye, corn, and rice, on account of their abundance, and superior adaptation to the purpose, are more commonly used than any other. As whiskey is the chief article of this kind, manufactured in the United States, it will be selected to illustrate the general principles of distillation. ”

“ But as it is almost impossible to draw low Wines without the Spirit being in some Measure impregnated with the essential Oil, it is absolutely necessary to be acquainted with some Methods of separating the Spirit from the Oil, and also of freeing it from its Phlegm. ”

“ And this is not all: corroded by the acetous acid, they are full of small holes, particularly in the cap, where all the vapors collect themselves, as in a reservoir. It is easy to conceive with what rapidity they escape, which occasions a considerable waste of liquor. In proof of the truth of this observation, we may refer to the smell of whiskey, so strongly perceivable on the roads leading to a distillery, and preceeding from no other cause than that liquor wasting out of bad vessels, to the great loss of the distiller. ”

“ A transparent liquor, which emits very copious fumes, called, from the inventor, the smoking liquor of Libavius, is made by distilling equal parts of amalgam of tin and mercury with corrosive sublimate, triturated together. A colourless liquor comes over first, and then a thick white fume, which condenses into the transparent liquor above mentioned. Mr. Adet has shewn, that this liquor bears the same relation to the common solution of tin, that corrosive sublimate does to calomel, and has given an ingenious solution of many of its properties. ”