Corn whiskey

“ Brandy-"smashes," rum-punches, gin-cock-tails, sherry-cobblers, mint-juleps, and every kind of desirable potable, are all manufactured from "Longworth's Sparkling"—old corn-whiskey is known as "Still Catawba"—and a vast deal of the "lager-beer" is put up in brandy casks, and tastes exceedingly like the genuine article. ”

“ This method of distilling equal quantities of rye and corn, is more in practice, and is much better than to distill unequal proportions, for reason you can scald your corn and rye to a certainty, and the produce is equal if not more, and better whiskey, than all rye. The indian corn is cheaper, and the seed is better than if all rye. ”

“ Scott.
"Brave and means well; but is an officer of inadequate abilities for extreme command, and by report is addicted to drinking."
In 1795, when the United States passed an excise law, distilling became particularly profitable, and a still was set up on his plantation. In this whiskey was made from "rye" chiefly, and Indian corn in a certain proportion, and this not merely used much of the estate's product of those two grains, but quantities were purchased from elsewhere. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A family could get along very well without butter, wheat bread, sugar, or tea, but whiskey was as indispensable to housekeeping as corn-meal, bacon, coffee, tobacco, and molasses. It was always present at the house raising, harvesting, road working, shooting matches, corn husking, weddings, and dances. ”

“ In drinking, as in everything else, this is the Land of Do Without. Comparatively few highlanders see liquor oftener than once or twice a month. The lumberjacks and townspeople get most of the output; for they can pay the price.
Blockade whiskey, until recently, sold to the consumer at from $2.50 to $3.00 a gallon. The average yield is only two gallons to the bushel of corn. Two and a half gallons is all that can be got out of a bushel by blockaders’ methods, even with the aid of a “thumpin’-chist,” unless [Pg 139] lye be added. ”

“ In Great Britain, the largest amount of whisky is made in Scotland and Ireland; in the United States, the principal supply comes from the States of Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky (Bourbon Co.) , and Pennsylvania (Monongahela Co.) . The grains taken differ greatly in composition. In Scotland and Ireland, malted barley (pure, or mixed with other grain) is extensively employed; in the preparation of Bourbon, partially malted corn and rye are taken, while, for Monongahela whisky, only rye (with 10 per cent. of malt) is used. ”

“ Rice, wheat, rye, barley and corn are more frequently employed than other grains. Wheat gives a malt which is as rich in diastase as barley. Barley and buckwheat are added to these in some proportions. Oats, owing to their high price, are rarely used. Rice, of all the grain is the most productive to the distillers, but on account of its value as a food is not much used for the production of alcohol, unless damaged. Corn is the cereal most largely used for the production of industrial alcohol. ”

“ One pound of brown sugar burnt in a skillet almost to a cinder, add a quart of water, which when stirred, will dissolve the sugar—when dissolved, this quantity will color three barrels.
A pint of well parched wheat put into a barrel will colour it, and give more the appearance of a naturally acquired colour, and an aged taste or flavor. [Pg 112]
ART. VII. To correct the taste of singed Whiskey. ”

“ Rye-whisky is made from rye and malt, without corn, but experts say that it requires much longer time to mature, and become ripe and smooth, than does Bourbon whisky, which is made from corn, rye, and malt. ”

“ When the process of germination has arrived at the point desired, the grain is spread over the floor to dry, for the purpose of suspending further fermentation; when dry, the grain is very sweet and brittle, easily ground, and is known to commerce as rye and barley malt.
The best distillers are very particular about the quality of grain they use, buying only the best in market. The proportions of each kind of grain used vary according to the particular brand of whisky desired. The usual proportions of grain are, two thirds corn and one third rye and malt. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Take of singlings a sufficient quantity to fill the doubling still, put therein ten or twelve pounds of juniper berries, with one shovel full of ashes, and two ounces alum—put on the bead, and run her off, as is done in making whiskey. This is the common mode of making country gin; but is in this state little superior to whiskey, save as to smell and flavor. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Thus, in England a great deal of malt spirit is made from a kind of wort brought into fermentation, and then set directly to distil, without first making ale or beer of it. Gin is a spirituous liquor also got from corn, and flavoured with juniper berries. Even potatoes, carrots, and turnips, may be made to afford spirits, by first fermenting their juices. In the West Indies, rum is distilled from the dregs of the sugarcanes, washed out by water and fermented. But brandy is distilled from the fermented juice of the grape, and is made in the wine countries. ”

“ The spirit was nearly so much clear gain to the nation. It is an odd way of making flesh cheap, to stop or check the distillery.
The distillery in itself produces an immense article of trade almost all over the world,—to Africa, to North America, and to various parts of Europe. It is of great use, next to food itself, to our fisheries and to our whole navigation. A great part of the distillery was carried on by damaged corn, unfit for bread, and by barley and malt of the lowest quality. ”

“ Good whiskey should be made solely from the finest barley malt, and is so made by the largest and best distillers; but the smaller ones, and those who are in a hurry to get rich by any means, use all kinds of refuse grain, and produce a spirit which, if drank new, is neither more nor less than rank poison. The fusel oil, which is present in all distillations from grain, requires time to resolve itself into those delicate ethers, which, while enhancing the flavour and bouquet of the spirit, are harmless. ”

“ The whisky of Utah Territory, unlike the Monongahela or rye of Pennsylvania, and the Bourbon, or maize brandy of Kentucky, is distilled from wheat only; it is, in fact, the korn schnapps of the trans-Rhenine region. This “Valley Tan,” being generally pure, is better than the alcohol one part and water one part, colored with burnt sugar and flavored with green tea, which is sold under the name of Cognac. Ale and cakes are in higher flavor than the “villainous distillation:” there are two large and eight small breweries in which a palatable Lager-bier is made. ”

“ The brewer should carefully avoid purchasing hops that are slack bagged, or kept in a moist place, or malt that has been sprinkled with water soon after it was taken from the kiln. By means of the moisture, an internal agitation is raised in the corn, which agitation, though soon stopped, for want of a sufficient quantity of air, yet, the heat thereby generated remaining, every adventitious seed, fallen from the air, and resting on the corn, begins to grow, and forms a moss, which dies, and leaves a putrid musty taste behind, always prevailing, more or less, in beer made from such grain. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Let the doubling still be carefully cleaned and washed out, then be filled with singlings and low wines left from the run preceding, add thereto half a pint of salt and one quart of clean ashes, which will help to clear the whiskey, and a handful of Indian meal to prevent the still from leaking at the cock, or elsewhere—clean the head and worm, put on the head, paste it well; put fire under and bring her round slowly, and run the spirit off as slow as possible, and preserve the water in the cooling tub as cold as in your power. ”

“ 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. ”

“ For example, the Distilling Company of America, which controls probably 90% of the entire product of corn spirits, found it to its advantage to add to its plant several rye distilleries, and to purchase a number of the leading brands of whiskies for consumption as beverages, in order that they might supply the needs along different lines of practically all dealers in spirits and whiskies, in this way saving for themselves many customers who otherwise might have been lost. ”

“ Country makes " is recognized in the trade. Broadly speaking, however, the differences between Irish whiskies are not due to class, but to individual variation. American Whisky. — There are two main varieties of American whisky, namely. Rye whisky, the predominant raw material in the manufacture of which is rye, and Bourbon or corn whisky, made mainly from Indian corn (maize) . Both varieties possess a much higher flavour and greater body than do the Scotch or Irish whiskies, due partly to the class of raw material employed, and partly to the method of distillation. ”

“ There are many distilleries in this part of the country, and a great deal of whiskey is made. I am not defending whiskey, at least any that is less than thirty years old and has attained a medicinal quality. But I want to express my opinion that this is as temperate as any region in the United States. There is a wide-spread strict temperance sentiment, and even prohibition prevails to a considerable degree. Whiskey is made and stored, and mostly shipped away; rightly or wrongly, it is regarded as a legitimate business, like wheatraising, and is conducted by honorable men. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We are tolerably loyal in this our time; still it is problematical if there exist man or woman in Merry England, in our day who would whisk a mixture for sixty minutes by the clock, even with the prospect of drinking to the reigning monarch.
Brandy Sour.
This is simplicity itself. A teaspoonful of sifted sugar in a small tumbler, a little lemon rind and juice, one wine-glassful of brandy. Fill nearly up with crushed ice, shake and strain. Whisky Sour is merely Scotch whisky treated in the same kind, open-handed manner, with the addition of a few drops of raspberry syrup. ”