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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Lebensstil
- Sprache: Englisch
You are invited to join in appreciating this family of noble beverages, step-by-step, flavor-by-flavor Would you like to better appreciate fine distilled spirits? Whiskey & Spirits For Dummies is your complete guide to selecting and enjoying this family of noble beverages, flavor by flavor. From whiskey, rum, and brandy to vodka, gin, and cordials, this handy reference traces the history of distilled spirits, explains how they are made, and shows you how to evaluate, serve, and savor them. Ever wonder why the Irish spell it "whiskey" and the Scottish "whisky"? This friendly book tells you as it reveals where the first whiskeys -- or "dark" spirits -- originated and how they came to the United States. It also explores the origins of clear spirits and the different varieties of each. You'll compare American and European vodkas, see how to make the new and improved all-purpose Martini, and follow the spread of flavored rums across the globe. A slew of sidebars give you fascinating tidbits of information about these spirits. You'll also discover how to: * Become a sophisticated taster * Shop for the best spirits * Select the right mixers * Use spirits in cooking * Make ten classic cocktails * Choose and taste cordials and liqueurs * Know the nutrients in one serving of each type of distilled spirit * Present spirits to guests * Set up tasting events at home This thorough guide also features recipes for cooking with spirits, offering menu choices such as entrees, vegetables, and desserts that all include at least one type of spirit. Complete with an appendix of craft distillers across the United States, Whiskey & Spirits For Dummies will give you the knowledge and hands-on guidance you need to become a connoisseur of such greats as fine Scotch, Bourbon, and Cognac in no time!
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Seitenzahl: 472
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011
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Whiskey & Spirits For Dummies®
by Perry Luntz
Whiskey & Spirits For Dummies®
Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2008 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, 317-572-3447, fax 317-572-4355, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2007936470
ISBN: 978-0-470-11769-9
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
About the Author
Perry Luntz has been involved in one way or another with the beverage alcohol business most of his adult life. For more than 20 years he has been publisher and editor of Beverage Alcohol Market Report, an international e-letter for marketing executives in beer, wine, and spirits. He served as Director of Marketing Communications for Seagram Distillers for a decade, worked on the creative side of several advertising agencies, including a spell as a creative director of a Young & Rubicam division, and for several years headed his own marketing communications agency.
A consultant, lecturer, teacher, and news media source, Perry is frequently interviewed in newspapers, radio, and television, including the BBC. He is chairman emeritus of the Wine Media Guild, proving he knows his way around vineyards and breweries, as well as distilleries.
Like many native New Yorkers, Perry is a political junky. He served several years as president of a highly regarded NYC political club.
For the past decade, Perry has been Senior Editor of the Beverage Media Group, a network of trade magazines read by 140,000 licensed retailers. He also writes a weekly column for the group’s B-to-B Internet site.
He lives with his wife Carol Ann Rinzler in the Center of the Known Universe — Midtown Manhattan — occasionally visiting his home town of Brooklyn, where his son Russell lives with wife Lisa Di Gennaro. In the winter, he and Carol often become “snow birds” to descend on the rest of their family, Ira, Jacky, and grandsons Ari and Eli, who live in Sarasota, Florida.
Dedication
For Lloyd, whose light is gone but whose spirit is always with us.
Acknowledgments
It’s impossible to say how much I owe to Carol Ann Rinzler, my wife, confidant, love of my life, and a damned good editor as well as a prolific and terrific author. I’ll settle for saying just this: I couldn’t have done it without you!
For my children, Ira and Jackie, Russell and Lisa, and my grand- children Ari and Eli — my cheering section — most appreciation and love.
On a professional level, my blessings are extended to the many friends and mentors in the spirits business with whom I’ve worked over the years. They are the most generous and forthcoming people in the world, and I love them all.
In particular, I want to thank Bill Slone, whose support made this book possible. Special acknowledgment goes to my oldest and wisest friends in the business, Gerry Slone, Ron Kapon, and Herbert Silverman, as well as the two best mixologists in the world, Dale De Grof and Ray Foley.
Particular thanks to Lisa Hawkins of DISCUS and Chris Morris of Brown-Forman, who helped make sure the chapter on distillation was accurate. In all cases, any errors are mine, not those who helped me.
And of course where would this book have been without the gentle editorial ministrations of Wiley’s Michael Lewis, Tim Gallan, Sarah Faulkner, and my guardian angel agent Phyllis Westberg.
It was a long time coming, but I hope all who contributed to it enjoy reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/.
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development
Senior Project Editor: Tim Gallan
Acquisitions Editor: Michael Lewis
Copy Editor: Sarah Faulkner
Technical Reviewers: William Greenman, Mike Tully
Editorial Program Coordinator: Erin Calligan Mooney
Editorial Managers: Christine Meloy Beck, Michelle Hacker
Editorial Assistants: Joe Niesen, David Lutton, Leeann Harney
Cover Photo: © Dorling Kindersley/ Getty Images
Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)
Composition Services
Project Coordinator: Erin Smith
Layout and Graphics: Stephanie D. Jumper,Shelley Norris, Christine Williams
Anniversary Logo Design: Richard Pacifico
Proofreaders:
Contents
Title
Introduction
Conventions Used in This Book
What You’re Not to Read
Foolish Assumptions
How This Book Is Organized
Icons Used in This Book
Where to Go from Here
Part I : Entering the Spirits World
Chapter 1: Discovering Distilled Spirits
A Brief History of Distilled Spirits
Setting Standards for Producing Modern Distilled Spirits
The Types of Spirits
A Word about the Words
Chapter 2: How Distilled Spirits Are Created
The Distillation Process in a Nutshell
The Basic Material for Distilling
Milling and Mashing
Distilling: The Main Event
Aging Gracefully
Blending Science with Art
Bottle, Bottle, Who’s Got the Bottle?
Chapter 3: Enjoying Spirits
Assembling the Accoutrements
Getting to the Good Part
Serving Spirits Day to Day
Part II : Whiskeys from Around the World
Chapter 4: Sipping the Irish Whiskeys
Entering the Emerald Isle
The Uniqueness of Irish Whiskey
The Leading Irish Whiskeys
Tasting Irish Whiskey
Planning a Blended Meal
Touring the Source
Chapter 5: Saluting the Scots
Which Came First: Whiskey or Whisky?
Making Scotch Whisky
The Styles of Scotch Whisky
Tasting Scotch Whisky
Planning a Scotch-Friendly Meal
Traveling through Distillery Land
Chapter 6: American Cousins: Bourbon and Tennessee Whiskey
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of . . . Whiskey?
Making Bourbon and Tennessee Whiskey
The Types of Bourbon
Tasting Bourbons and Tennessee Whiskeys
Pairing Foods with Bourbon and Tennessee Whiskey
Touring the Bourbon and Tennessee Whiskey Distilleries
Chapter 7: More Whiskeys from America and Other Parts of the World
The Character of American Blended Whiskey
Building a Blended Whiskey
Tasting American Blended Whiskeys
Planning an American Blended Meal
Traveling the American Whiskey Trail
Off the Beaten Whiskey Trails
Chapter 8: Channeling the Canadians
Starting at the Top (of the World)
What Makes a Whisky Canadian?
How Canadian Whisky Is Made
Tasting the Best of Canada
Pairing Foods with Canadian Whisky
Part III : Surfing the White Waters: A Guide to “Clear” Spirits
Chapter 9: Getting the Goods on Gin
The Origins of Gin
The Brits Take Charge
Making Modern Gin
Touring the World of Gin
Tasting the World’s Gin
Serving Gin
Chapter 10: Vodka: Toasting the Russians
What Is Vodka, Anyway?
The Birth of a “Breathless” Spirit
Vodka Takes a Long Voyage
Distilling Vodka
The Second Vodka Revolution: The Flavor Factor
Tasting Vodkas
The Foods That Match the Drinks
Chapter 11: Tequila: Unearthing the Aztecs
The First North American Spirit
Defining Tequila: New Standards for a New Global Spirit
How Tequila Is Made
The Different Brands of Tequila
Tasting Tequila and Mezcal
Pairing Food with Tequila
Chapter 12: Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum
The History of Rum
How Rum Is Produced
Where That Rum Is From and Why It Matters
Tasting the World’s Rums
Part IV : Enjoying the “After Dinner” Specials
Chapter 13: Cultivating Brandy
The “Champagne” of Distilled Spirits
Where Do Brandies Come From?
Brandy by Type
Distilling Brandies
Tasting Brandy
Serving Brandy: Neat or Mixed? Warm or Cool?
Pairing Brandy and Food
Chapter 14: Collecting Cordials, Lining Up Liqueurs
The Birth of the Liqueur
Cordially Yours: The Making
Cordials by the Ingredients
A Cordial Tasting
Pairing Foods with Cordials and Liqueurs
Part V : The Part of Tens
Chapter 15: Ten (or so) Classic Spirits Cocktails
Oops! Tomato Juice on My Blouse: The Bloody Mary
Alexander! Another Brandy!
War Is Hell, so Pass the Rum — in a Daiquiri, if You Please
A Shipboard Romance: The Gimlet
Uptown, Downtown: The Manhattan
If You Knew Margie Like I Know Margie: The Margarita
The World’s Most Famous Cocktail: The Martini
A Cuban Cup of Cheer: The Mojito
The Highland Fling: Rob Roy
Simple Perfection: The Whiskey Sour
Horses, Grass, and Mint: The Mint Julep
Chapter 16: Ten Spirited Dishes
Chilled Melon Pepper Soup with Glazed Shrimp
Game Pâté Terrine
Marinated Salmon
Penne à la Vodka
Chicken Fajitas
Filet Mignon with Whiskey Sauce
Green Beans with Toasted Pine Nuts
Tennessee Whiskey Candied Apples
AppleJack Pound Cake
Nut Ball Cookies
Chapter 17: Ten Nutrition Profiles of Alcohol Beverages
Rum
Gin
Vodka
Whiskey
Coffee Liqueur
Coffee with Cream Liqueur
Whiskey Sour (Cocktail, Made from a Powdered Mix)
Tequila Sunrise (Cocktail, Canned)
Piña Colada (Cocktail, Canned)
Daiquiri (Cocktail, Canned)
Chapter 18: Ten (or so) Health Benefits of Moderate Drinking
Heartening News
Lowering Bad Cholesterol, Raising Good Cholesterol
Busting Blood Clots
Lowering the Pressure
Staving Off Stroke
Deterring Diabetes
Protecting Intelligence
Preserving the Brain
Boosting Bones
Enhancing Appetite
Controlling Weight
Countering the Common Cold
: Further Reading
Introduction
For thousands of years man and womankind celebrated major events — religious and secular — by having a taste or even two of a fermented beverage that contained alcohol. Things got even tastier around 800 CE — the height of development of the Moorish culture. That’s when a brilliant alchemist in the perpetual search for a way to turn lead into gold attempted to urge the release of the “essence” of various fruits and grains. The result was not only better than anything ever enjoyed before, but it also could be repeated over and over again.
That brilliant alchemist had found distillation. The art of making the most noble of beverages was created by nature and perfected by men and women. This book is dedicated to giving you a full explanation of distillation from the simplest and most popular spirit (vodka) to the most complicated (whiskey and brandy).
No, Whiskey & Spirits For Dummies definitely won’t tell you how to set up your very own still in the basement (or bathtub) so that you can whip up a batch of your very own whiskey, gin, vodka, Tequila, rum, cordial, or Cognac.
Instead, this book aims to increase your appreciation of the qualities in fine distilled spirits, enabling you to make wise choices from the myriad products on the shelves in your local liquor store or in the literally hundreds of cocktails available for serving or drinking on social occasions. Drinking alcohol beverages is indeed a social thing to do. It’s also part of religious services, and its use as a psychic benefit is unquestioned. There are other sides to these noble beverages as well.
This book also presents some ways in which a measured drink or two a day can create a more healthful way to live. I also talk about how to avoid any of the unpleasant results that can come from drinking too much.
For those readers who know absolutely nothing about distilled spirits other than that these beverages enhance a social setting and dining experience, this book is a good place to start to pick up the basics.
More experienced connoisseurs will find this a refresher course that can confirm their own good taste, introduce them to a few new types and brands of distilled spirits, and provide the kind of odds and ends — for example, why whiskey is spelled whiskey in Ireland and whisky in Scotland — that enliven cocktail conversation. And, yes, I give you several classic cocktail recipes in here, too.
Conventions Used in This Book
To make the text consistent and easier to read, Whiskey & Spirits For Dummies follows the usual Dummies style. For example:
All Web addresses are printed in monofont.
When this book was printed, some Web addresses may have needed to break across two lines of text. If that happened, rest assured that I didn’t put in any extra characters (such as hyphens) to indicate the break. So, when using one of these Web addresses, just type in exactly what you see in this book, pretending that the line break doesn’t exist.
New terms appear in italic type and are followed by an easy-to-understand definition.
Bold type is used to highlight the action parts of numbered steps.
What You’re Not to Read
Imagine: An author telling you that you don’t have to read every word that appears in his book. The truth is that some small parts of this book are fun or provide information that you may not find anywhere else, but they aren’t absolutely essential to your understanding of the basic facts about distilled spirits. For example:
The text in sidebars: These shaded boxes are exactly that — sidebars to the main event — a little anecdote here, a special factoid there. Fascinating, but not essential.
The text next to a Technical Stuff icon: Readers who want to know every single fact about how things work will find these paragraphs a delight. Readers who can do without the technical details can surf on by.
The text on the copyright page: Really. This page is for publishers and libraries. If my editor put the dedication there to save space, I think you should read about the people who helped make this book possible, but the publisher’s address? The number of editions? The Library of Congress identification number? Nah.
Foolish Assumptions
If an author clicks the computer, hits typewriter keys, or pushes a quill pen across the page, what’s in front of him or her is an image of the person for whom the book is being written. These are some of the assumptions I made about you:
You know the names of the different types of distilled spirits, but you may not be totally familiar with the characteristics that differentiate a whiskey from a Tequila (you may even know why Tequila is spelled with a capital letter and whiskey is not).
You’ve read conflicting reports about the risks and benefits of spirits (and other kinds of alcohol beverages), and you want to pin down the real facts.
You want the basic information about these products and how they’re made, but you have no intention of opening your own distillery. That’s good, because a few paragraphs back you were told that this book isn’t designed to tell you how to do that.
Most important, you enjoy the flavor, aroma, and panache of distilled spirits — but only and always in moderation.
How This Book Is Organized
The following is a brief summary of each part of Whiskey & Spirits For Dummies. You can use this as a fast guide to check out the stuff you want to go to first, because the best thing about a For Dummies book is that no one expects you to start at Chapter 1 and work your way straight through to the end. Each chapter here is a whole little book of its own, which means that you can start anywhere and still come out with a wealth of new information about distilled spirits.
Part I: Entering the Spirits World
Chapter 1 is (what else?) a general introduction to the universe of distilled spirits. Chapter 2 is more technical: A detailed description of the distillation process in all its traditional glory. Chapter 3 tells you how to serve, evaluate, and enjoy the products produced in Chapter 2.
Part II: Whiskeys from Around the World
Chapter 4 is all about how the Irish introduced the first whiskeys. Chapter 5 explains how the Scots adopted the Irish spirits — and changed the spelling to “whisky,” thus confusing generation after generation of whiskey (or is it whisky?) drinkers.
Chapter 6 salutes two quintessential Americans — Bourbon and Tennessee whiskey. Chapter 7 describes the other great American innovation, American blended whiskey, and tells you all about upstarts from India, Japan, and New Zealand. Chapter 8 goes north to talk about a Canadian contribution to New World whisky choices.
Part III: Surfing the White Waters: A Guide to “Clear” Spirits
Chapter 9 focuses on gin, from its birth in the Netherlands, toward its perfection in London, through its Prohibition adolescence, to its present presence. Chapter 10 is about vodka, the clear Russian spirit now often enjoyed in totally unexpected flavors. Chapter 11 is all about Tequila, the Aztec contribution to your drinking pleasure. Chapter 12 focuses on rum, the spirit made from sugar cane first carried to the Western hemisphere by Christopher Columbus. Yes, that Christopher Columbus.
Part IV: Enjoying the “After Dinner” Specials
The subject of Chapter 13 is Winston Churchill’s favorite spirit, brandy. Chapter 14 rewards the sweet tooth with info about the sweet stuff: cordials and liqueurs.
Part V: The Part of Tens
This is the part of the book regular For Dummies readers never skip. Chapter 15 pours recipes for ten classic cocktails (with an extra from the bartender). Chapter 16 dishes out menu choices — entrees, main dishes, veggies, and desserts — whose ingredients include at least one type of spirit. Chapter 17 tells what nutrients (!) are in one serving of each type of distilled spirits. Chapter 18 concludes with the actual health benefits of moderate spirits consumption.
Icons Used in This Book
This icon points out general good ideas, such as serving suggestions, buying advice, and so forth.
I use this icon to highlight important concepts that you shouldn’t forget.
This icon flags nonessential information that may be too technical or detailed for some readers. You can skip it if you want.
Where to Go from Here
Now the question is where to begin reading. The real answer is anywhere your curiosity takes you in the Table of Contents. However, one good starting point is Chapter 2, the one that explains how distilled spirits are made. A second good starting point is Chapter 3, the one that shows you how to enjoy distilled products. Both chapters have information that applies to all types of spirits.
Wherever you start, hopefully it will be a trip you’ll remember for a long time. Good traveling.
Part I
Entering the Spirits World
In this part . . .
Just like that first sip of your favorite spirit, this part is pure pleasure. Here I trace the history of distilled spirits, right from the beginning in the 11th century. I also explain the distillation process, and I offer tips on how to serve and enjoy distilled spirits. I recommend reading the chapters in this part if you’re new to the spirits world; this information is bound to whet your appetite for the various alcohol beverages you can read about in the rest of the book. Pour yourself a glass of whiskey, settle into your most comfortable chair, and start reading.
Chapter 1
Discovering Distilled Spirits
In This Chapter
How distilled spirits were invented
How distilled spirits became popular
The foods from which spirits are made
The varieties of distilled spirits
This chapter is called “Discovering Distilled Spirits,” but “Distilled Spirits 101” would also do nicely because this is a down-to-earth basic guide to the multicultural history of the wonderful beverages human beings produce via distillation.
Naturally, the chapter includes some spirits history, starting with a graceful bow to other types of alcohol beverages and how they differ from the distilled varieties. The different types of spirits are listed here, as are the foods from which they’re made. And just for kicks, I give you a quiz about famous spirits (okay, famous ghosts) in classic movies.
A Brief History of Distilled Spirits
The road to distilled spirits begins with those other beverages, wine and beer.
The story starts one day back in the dim, distant past at a point that most anthropologists peg between 5000 and 6000 BCE. A goatherd in the Tigris-Euphrates valley (now Iraq), where human beings created their first agricultural communities, noticed that his flock was friskier than usual.
Looking closely, he saw the goats feasting on rotting grapes fallen from a nearby vine. Being a curious goatherd, he tasted a few grapes himself. Then he tried a few more, and maybe another handful after that, and soon goats and goatherd ambled happily back to their village to share their discovery with others.
Of course, you know what that anonymous goatherd didn’t: Those “rotten” grapes had fermented.
In other words, naturally occurring microorganisms in the air had landed on the grapes and started feeding on the fruit, digesting the grape sugars, and turning them into gas (carbon dioxide) and liquid ethanol/ethyl alcohol, which is the same alcohol used in all modern alcohol beverages.
Eureka! Wine! Beer!
Very quickly, the goatherd’s friends, neighbors, and acquaintances far and near grasped the idea that squeezing rotten, sorry, fermented, fruit released a pleasantly intoxicating beverage called wine (from the Greek vinos, the Latin vinum, the Old English win, and the Germanic winam).
And then they discovered that fermenting grains released an equally pleasant intoxicating beverage called beer (from the Latin bibere [to drink], the German bier, and the Old English beor, pronounced beer).
After that, a jolly good time was had pretty much everywhere fruits and grains were grown. And it was a profitable time, as well: The oldest known Sumerian tablet is a receipt for a shipment of beer from Mesopotamia to some lucky merchant in Northern Greece. This tablet is a hunk of clay that made it possible for modern scholars to translate the language of Sumer, the nation of Middle Eastern city-states that was one of the world’s earliest civilizations.
Advancing the art
At first, folks were content with wine and beer. But being human and naturally inquisitive, they began to experiment with ways to standardize the fermentation process because they wanted to manage the production and improve the quality of alcohol beverages.
The first step was to take control of fermentation by adding specific microorganisms (yeasts) to the fruit and grains rather than simply allowing miscellaneous little buggers to waft in and ferment the fruit by accident.
The second step was to distill alcohol from the liquid released by the fermented food.
Unlike the discovery of fermentation, which seems to have been a happy coincidence, learning how to distill alcohol was the result of a deliberate series of experiments conducted by an Arab scholar named Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyam (?–803 CE). Most modern scientists generally accept Jabir, known in the West as Geber, as the Father of Modern Chemistry.
Sometime during the eighth century CE — these dates are never quite as clear as one might like them to be — Geber was puttering around with his al-ambiq, a round pot with a tall spout rising from the top, sort of like an oversized tea kettle. When liquid was heated in the pot, the vapors rose through the spout to be cooled, condensed, and collected as a liquid in a vessel conveniently positioned under the spout.
The al-ambiq was standard equipment for alchemists, the medieval practitioners who spent their lives trying to turn base metal into gold and, as a sideline, looking for the magical “elixir of life” that would make men immortal.
But Geber, who may have been a wine aficionado, took a different tack. He wondered what would happen if he poured wine into the al-ambiq and boiled it.
In other words — “Eureka!” will do nicely — the man was about to invent distillation.
Not all alcohol is “alcohol”
Ethanol (ethyl alcohol) is the only alcohol used in food and beverages, but it isn’t the only alcohol used in consumer products.
Other alcohols that may be sitting on the shelf in your bathroom or workshop are:
Methyl alcohol (methanol): Methanol is a poisonous alcohol made from wood. It’s used as a chemical solvent (a liquid that dissolves other chemicals). During Prohibition, when the sale of beverage alcohol was illegal, some unscrupulous illegal producers would substitute methanol for ethanol, thus leading to many truly unpleasant results, such as blindness and even death, among people who drank it.
Isopropyl alcohol (isoproanol, “rubbing alcohol”): Isopropyl alcohol is a poisonous alcohol made from propylene, a petroleum derivative. It’s denatured, which means that it includes a substance that makes it taste and smell bad so you won’t drink it by mistake.
Denatured alcohol: When ethanol is used in cosmetics, such as hair tonic, it, too, is treated to make it smell and taste bad. Treated ethanol is called denatured alcohol. Some denaturants (the chemicals used to denature the alcohol) are poisonous, so some denatured alcohol is also poisonous when taken internally. In other words, it’s definitely not a good idea to drink your hair tonic.
Distillation arrives
It’s a physical fact that alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water, so when Geber poured his wine into his al-ambiq and set the pot over a fire, the alcohol in the fermented grape juice or the fermented grain and water mixture used to make beer vaporized before the rest of the liquid in the pot.
The alcohol vapors rose through the spout on the al-ambiq, were collected and condensed, and, just like that, Geber produced the world’s first distilled spirit. And it needed a new name.
The solution was simple: While some alchemists were playing around with longevity tonics, early cosmeticians used their al-ambiqsto boil up powdered antimony in water, producing a dark liquid called kohl or al-kohl.
Al-kohl became alcohol. The al-ambiq became the alembic still, also known as the pot still, which is described in detail in Chapter 2. And that’s how your favorite distilled spirit drink was born.
The secret gets out
Geber died in 803 CE, but his distillation process lived on among his Arab compatriots who used the distillate they produced not as a beverage but as a medicine.
The Arabs kept distillation to themselves for several centuries, taking their secrets with them to the Iberian Peninsula when they conquered Spain. When Spain expelled its non-Christian citizens in 1492 and Portugal followed suit in 1597, the secrets of how to make grain and fruits into a potent medicine remained behind to be taken in hand by those doctors of the Middle Ages — monastery monks. Like the Arabs, the monks prescribed the distillates, including some that they originated — such as Benedictine and Chartreuse liqueurs — for medicinal purposes.
The missionary/medicine men met with enough successes to convince the European pagans that these liquids carried the blessings of God to assure a long, healthy life. Around the year 1300, Arnald of Villanova, a professor of medicine at Montpellier (France), one of the earliest European medical schools, compiled the first (hand) written instructions for distilling alcohol from wine.
Arnald christened distilled alcohol aqua vitae (Latin for “water of life”), which translated to eau de vie in French, uisege beatha among the Celts, akavit in Scandinavia, and vodka/wodka (“dear little water”) in Russia and Poland. By any name, the distillate was reputed, in Villanova’s words, to “prolong life, clear away ill-humors, revive the heart, and maintain youth.” Others claimed it also alleviated diseases of the brain, nerves, and joints; calmed toothaches; cured blindness, speech defects, and paralysis; and warded off the Black Death.
Not surprisingly, nobody at all complained about having to take Arnald’s medicine instead of the crushed leaves, boiled grains, and pressed herbs it came from.
Moderation is the message
In 1478, 48 years after Gutenberg invented the printing press, an Austrian physician named Michael Puff von Schrick published the very first book on distillation. Puff’s piece immediately hit the 15th-century bestseller list, going through 14 editions in 20 years.
Most readers probably bought the book to use as a medical reference, but a significant number likely picked it up in order to learn how to make distilled spirits with local fruits and other produce for pleasure.
The new distilled spirits were very popular, so much so that in 1496, a doctor in Nuremberg, Germany, whose name is unfortunately lost to history, offered a word to the wise imbiber: “In view of the fact that everyone at present has gotten into the habit of drinking aqua vitae, it is necessary to remember the quantity one can permit oneself to drink, and learn to drink it according to one’s capacity, if one wishes to behave as a gentleman.”
Sounds as good today as it did then.
The process goes global
Serendipitously, the spread of distillation occurred just as Europeans began to seriously explore and colonize the world, establishing regular trade routes between Europe and the East and Europe and the New World.
The Spanish and the Portuguese were leaders in the exploration game, bringing back new products and taking their alcohol beverages with them. Spirits, in particular, were a win-win trade-off because they were
Virtually unknown in the lands the explorers explored
Easy to produce
A really smart way to turn an excess crop, such as grain, into a cash product rather than leaving it to rot in the field
A stable beverage that resisted spoilage and turned tastier as it aged in wooden barrels
Best of all, distilled spirits were a totally natural product that — after distillation became common knowledge — could be produced from virtually any local plant anywhere in the world. As a result, by the 19th century, distilled spirits of one sort or another were available pretty much anywhere a traveler traveled.
Table 1-1 is a list of the plant foods that can be fermented to provide the base for making distilled spirits.
Setting Standards for Producing Modern Distilled Spirits
Distilled spirits came to the United States just as they had everywhere else — with the explorers and the immigrants. The Irish brought their own whiskey and so did the Scots. The Brits and Dutch brought gin, the French brandy, and Slavic people vodka.
The only difference was that while religious objections led to forbidding the use of any alcohol beverages (including spirits) in some countries, the United States stands alone in having once prohibited drinking for political reasons. (State legislatures under pressure from their constituents passed bans of varying severity on beverage alcohol production and distribution. So many states had bans, in fact, that ultimately the federal government had to follow suit or face interstate warfare.)
The not-so-noble experiment
In 1917, following years of agitation by anti-alcohol activists and the passage of prohibition laws in a number of states, the United States Congress passed the 18th Amendment to the Constitution prohibiting distribution or sale of alcohol beverages nationally. One exception: Medical purposes with a prescription only.
Two years later, after ratification by the requisite three-fourths of the states, Prohibition became the law of the land. Congress then passed the Volstead Act (the National Prohibition Enforcement Act) defining an alcohol beverage as any liquid containing more than 0.5 percent alcohol.
The result was an increase in crime as Americans in general said, “No way,” to what President Herbert Hoover called “the Noble Experiment.” Americans did their drinking at home or in speakeasies (nightclubs hidden behind locked doors, opened only to a secret password such as “Joe sent me”). Alcohol was shipped in surreptitiously by bootleggers sneaking across the country’s seacoasts or its northern or southern borders. Worse yet, there was also an increase in illness due to the fact that much of the alcohol making its way into America’s drinking glasses and teacups was unregulated, unsafe, and sometimes deadly.
By 1933, the country had had enough: On December 5, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, repealing the 18th, and Americans could once again legally enjoy alcohol beverages, including those of the distilled variety.
New rules for better times
The bad news about Prohibition is that it increased crime and reduced the safety of alcohol beverages. The good news is that after the country recovered from its dry spell, the federal government sat down to write the Alcohol Administration Act on what exactly constituted a specific spirit.
Since then, other countries and economic entities such as the European Union have followed suit. As a result, when you buy Scotch whisky or Bourbon or any other distilled spirit from a recognized distiller anywhere in the world, you know that you’re getting a standardized, reliable product.
The American rules, known formally as Standards of Identity, are contained in Title 27 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Chapter 1, Part 5, Section 5.22.
If you want to know every single little detail about what makes a distilled spirit a whiskey, say, or a vodka, every single fact is available online at www.atf.treas.gov/regulations/27cfr5.html. If your eyes glaze at the very thought of making your way through government-ese, you can find a slightly more user-friendly version posted online by an organization called The Online Distillery Network for Distilleries & Fuel Ethanol Plants Worldwide at www.distill.com/specs/USA10.html.
Or you can read the clear descriptions in the next section, which lays out the basics minus the boring factoids only distillers really need to know to make sure their product meets U.S. standards. And of course, each chapter in this book is devoted to a specific spirit and presents the important facts about the drink.
In essence, the take-away points are:
No, a distiller can’t just pour some ethanol into a bottle and call it whiskey or one of the other popular distilled spirits.
Yes, when you buy your favorite brand, you’re getting a standardized product that meets all the relevant government standards.
The Types of Spirits
All distillates come off the still as clear liquids. How the distiller processes the liquid determines the taste, smell, and appearance of the final product.
As a rule, however, all spirits fall into one of two broad categories: clear spirits and dark spirits. Put in the simplest terms, clear spirits are the ones you can see though; dark spirits range in color from warm amber to deep brown.
The clear spirits
All clear spirits are clear, but depending on the foods from which they were distilled, some have a specific flavor.
Gin comes in two basic styles. There’s the original Dutch jenevre (which the French called genievre), a distillate of malt spirits that include juniper berries. London dry gin is a clear spirit that’s redistilled with juniper berries and further flavored with aromatic botanicals (plant products).
Rum is distilled from molasses or sugar cane. All rums start out as totally clear spirits; some are aged in barrels, a process described in Chapter 2. Aging turns the rum golden, amber, or very dark.
Sake is a clear spirit distilled from rice wine.
Tequila is distilled from the fruit of the blue agave plant. Like rum, all tequilas start out clear, but some turn golden or amber with aging.
Vodka is a true neutral spirit, crystal clear, with no discernible flavor or aroma. Modern vodka producers, however, may flavor their vodkas, changing the taste and sometimes the color to match the color of the fruit juice or synthetic flavoring.
The dark spirits
With the exception of brandy, which is distilled from wine (remember Geber from earlier in this chapter?), dark spirits are beverages distilled from grains.
Like clear spirits, the dark spirits start out clear, but aging in barrels and the addition of coloring agents such as caramel (burnt sugar) to maintain color consistency from year to year turns them characteristically golden amber.
Brandy is a spirit distilled from wine or a mash (fermented mass) of any fruit, most commonly grapes.
Whiskey is a spirit distilled from grain, such as barley, corn, rye, or wheat. A straight whiskey is made from the distillate produced by one operation of a still and added neutral spirits. A blended whiskey contains several straight whiskeys and added neutral spirits.
Bourbon and Tennessee Whiskey are distilled spirits made only in the United States; by law, they must be made of 51 percent corn.
Canadian Whisky is a distilled spirit made in Canada, generally from a mix of grains, primarily corn, plus rye, wheat, and barley.
Irish Whiskey is a distilled spirit made in Ireland from a mix of grains dominated by barley.
Scotch Whisky is a distilled spirit made in Scotland from a mix of grains, primarily barley, plus “small grains” — so-called because they’re used in limited amounts. The small grains usually include oats.
For spirits, every year is a good year
Unlike wine and with the exception of some brandies, spirits aren’t classified by vintage.
For wine, quality and flavor depend to a great extent on the characteristics of the grapes from which the wine is made. Specifically important is their sugar content, which may vary from year to year along with the weather.
Distillation, on the other hand, produces a liquid (distillate) free of all sugars; it’s the still master’s skill, not the weather, that determines the quality of the liquor.
Ditto for aging. Wines age in the bottle as active microorganisms continue to digest and process residual sugars, maturing and mellowing the flavor of the wine. Spirits, on the other hand, age only in barrels. After they’re bottled, they are what they are: Time doesn’t change them.
Yes, some distillers, notably the Scots, promote high-priced specialty whiskies that have been aged for more than 21 years and proudly display the year in which they were bottled. But what matters isn’t the year they were bottled, but the time they spent in the barrel.
Of course, a very old, very rare, and maybe very dusty bottle of whiskey may be valuable to a collector, but before you plunk down multi-dollars for one of these bottles, remember: Poor storage in varying temperatures, exposure to sunlight, or a loose cap can turn even the very best spirit unpalatable.
A Word about the Words
Like other fine craftsmen, distillers cringe when folks describe their products in derogatory terms.
Prime example: booze. The word comes either from the old English word blouse (to drink heavily) or, more likely as the Online Etymology Dictionary suggests, from the name of early Philadelphia distiller E.G. Booze. Either way, it’s a no-no in the company of serious spirits connoisseurs.
Another no-no is hooch, short for Hoochinoo, the name of a native Alaskan Tlingit Indian tribe whose distilled spirits were a fave with miners during the Alaskan Gold Rush. The Merriam Webster Online Dictionary says this one first popped up around 1880. But it really took off during Prohibition, possibly because someone discovered that the tribe’s name comes from an Indian word for grizzly bear fort and figured that the hooch packed the punch of a big, bad bear. Or not.
Entertaining spirits
Check out the following list to see how many entertaining spirits you can match with the actors who embodied them.
On the left, the name of a famous motion picture starring a member of the spirit world. On the right, a list of actors and actresses who starred in the films. Match ‘em up. Answers follow.
By preventing Americans from enjoying safely made alcohol beverages, Prohibition triggered the production of some fairly nasty homemade substitutes with equally nasty names. One example is rot gut, a pretty clear description of what happens to your innards if you drink alcohol beverages made by careless amateurs.
As for bathtub gin,
Chapter 2
How Distilled Spirits Are Created
In This Chapter
Tracking spirits from distiller to consumer
Exploring the chemistry of distillation
Defining the still master’s job
Showing the various stills used in distillation
No, this chapter doesn’t explain how to cook up spirits at home. Even if the United States government didn’t frown on moonshining
Instead, this chapter addresses the Real Deal: the multitudinous steps a licensed distiller must take from start (“I think I’ll sell a new vodka.”), to middle (“Wow! The marketing guy’s decision to put it in a blue bottle is terrific!”), to end (“Here, dear customer, try my product.”).
It’s a hard job, but somebody has to do it. Luckily, so many people do it well enough to enable the rest of us to enjoy the fruits (and/or grains) of their labor.
The Distillation Process in a Nutshell
All beverage alcohol — beer, wine, spirits — begins with the action of microorganisms (yeasts) added to a food-and-water mix, such as grains and water.
The microorganisms ferment carbohydrates in the food. Translation: They convert the starches in food and produce a liquid (alcohol), a gas (carbon dioxide), and flavoring agents (congeners).
For brewers and winemakers, the fermentation process ends when the microorganisms have digested enough carbohydrates to produce a liquid that’s 25 percent alcohol, which is much higher than the concentration of alcohol in most beers and just about right for a lot of wines.
However, 25 percent alcohol is too low for most distilled spirits. To obtain sufficient quantities of neutral spirits (the virtually pure alcohol used as a base for spirits products), the distiller must distill the wash (the liquid drained from the food/yeast/water mix) to separate out the alcohol.
Distillation is a physical separation process that’s so simple, in fact, that as you read this, it’s a good bet that somewhere in the world a freshman student in a chemistry class is heating a liquid until it boils and watching the steam rise into a collector where it cools and condenses back into a liquid. But making the alcohol is only one step in the process that yields distilled spirits.
There are only five steps needed to arrive at a distilled spirit. Here they are:
Step 1: Choosing the food from which to distill the alcohol
Step 2: Preparing the food for distillation
Step 3: Heating the prepared mixture to produce (distill) a specific spirit type
Step 4: Maturing the distilled spirit
Step 5: Packaging (and shipping) the finished product
Steps 1, 2, 3, and 5 apply to all distilled spirits; some types, such as vodka, aren’t aged — no Step 4 for them. (I talk about maturing, called aging, in the “Aging Gracefully” section later in this chapter.)
At every step along the way — from carbs to spirits to you — the process is monitored by a still master and his assistants (yes, it’s still a very masculine profession) to make certain that the ethanol the distiller turns out meets health and safety standards for use in beverages. The still master totals every ounce of alcohol produced during each distillation period so that the revenue agents have a clear record for tax purposes.
Yay team.
Talking the distillation talk
Like all professionals — doctors, lawyers, chemists, wrestlers — distillers have a language all their own. The following table lists some of the basic vocabulary.
The Basic Material for Distilling
Virtually any carbohydrate-rich food can be used as a base from which to distill alcohol.
With the exception of milk — which contains lactose (milk sugar) and is often used after it ferments to produce an alcohol beverage called kumis — foods from animals don’t contain carbs, which is why nobody’s ever made a chicken, fish, or hamburger whiskey, gin, or vodka.
Plant foods, on the other hand, are carb rich; grains, fruits, nuts, seeds, and at one time or another flowers have all been used as the base for a distilled spirit.
Picking the right food(s) is the job of the still master, who, along with other members of the distillery staff, is charged with creating a shopping list called a mash bill, a recipe listing the food(s) to be used in distilling a specific whiskey, gin, vodka, or other spirit.
In most countries, including the United States, the government plays a role in drawing up the mash bill, laying down some basic rules to govern how much of which foods go into what kinds of spirits. For example, a Bourbon must be distilled from a minimum of 51 percent corn with the remainder being other grains. What’s in the balance is left up to the individual distiller, which is why all Bourbons have a similar flavor with slightly different flavor notes, depending on the “house style” of the source.
Distillers use neutral spirits in blending dark spirits, such as whiskey, and to produce clear spirits, such vodka and gin. These neutral spirits may be distilled from any of the following:
Any grain, such as barley, corn, rice, rye, or wheat
Any high carbohydrate food, such as potatoes, agave, sugar cane, and others
Fruits, such as grapes for brandy. Unfermented fruits, nuts, herbs, and seeds are also used as flavoring agents.
Milling and Mashing
Milling and mashing may sound like the name of a really good law firm, but they’re actually two processes used in creating distilled spirits. In this example, I use grains because distilling from them is basic to all other plant and vegetable products used to make potable spirits.
In the first process, the grains that are used as a base for distilling go through a mill where mechanical rollers, hammers, and/or grinders break and strip away the husk (outer covering) of the grain to expose as much of the surface of the grain as possible.
In the second of these two processes, the grains are plunked into water and mushed into a mash. The water pulls carbs out of the grains into a solution so that those determined microorganisms can get to work.
Before distillation can take place, the mash is heated and fermented by adding yeast.
Warning: Yeasty beasties at work
Sailors crossing the Equator for the first time are often subject to an initiation that ranges from the fun (being splashed with water) to the more rigorous (actually being dunked in the ocean).
People visiting a distillery for the first time may also run into a rite of passage. When they enter the mash room, the distillery guide may open the top of the fermentation vat and invite the victim, sorry, visitor, to step closer and take a really deep breath.
Ooops.
Gases produced during fermentation collect right under the covering, so that really deep breath may lead to sudden — but temporary — dizziness.
If the distillery folks offer a taste of the fermenting product, the smart answer is a polite, “No, thank you.” Why? Because consuming the active yeasts in the vat has been known to trigger certain gastric discomforts best left to the imagination. In all fairness, you should know that the folks who work in distilleries do taste the fermenting mash without suffering any consequences. Perhaps repeated exposure acclimates their tummies.
Of course, when the product is finished and bottled, the yeasty beasties are gone, leaving a delicious and totally drinkable liquid. Pick up a bottle as you leave: Sampling the finished spirit inside is far and away the best way to remember your distillery visit.
Starting the fermentation process
After the grain is mixed into a mash, the mash is heated in a large vat so that naturally occurring enzymes in the grains (malt enzymes) soften the grains into a soupy mass called a wort.
The wort is then pumped into a large vat called a mash tun. The mash tun may be either a wooden container with an open top or a steel or copper container with a closed top. Either way, the bottom of the tun is a strainer through which the liquid flows from the mash into a separate container (the fermentation tank). Protein-rich residue is left atop the strainer in the mash tun, and it’s compacted and used as animal feed.
Bringing on the micros
Now the still master adds microorganisms — the yeasts — to the liquid in the fermentation tank. Two kinds of yeast work together at this point:
Cultivated yeast: Distillers guard their cultivated yeasts as closely as Fort Knox to prevent the competition from stealing the strain and preserving it in temperature-controlled splendor for future growth for generations (of yeasts).
Wild yeast: These yeasts enhance flavor differences even in products from distilleries located within short distances apart. Wild yeasts are a lot less trouble to handle than their often richer relatives, cultivated yeasts. Leave the fermentation tank open and zap, you’ve got local yeasts dropping in to help out. Although still masters don’t often talk about it, there’s a difference in yeasts. It’s tough fitting these uncontrolled rascals into the ultimate taste profile desired, but adding complexity is often worth the effort.
Almost immediately, the yeasts go to work digesting carbohydrates in the liquid, emitting alcohol and carbon dioxide. As the carbon dioxide rises to the surface, the solution bubbles. Poetic distillers may describe this phenomenon as “the dance of life.” You can call it — what else? — fermentation.
As the yeasts continue to digest the carbs, the amount of alcohol in the liquid steadily rises. When the alcohol concentration reaches 3 percent, the still master transfers the liquid — now known as distiller’s beer — from the fermentation tank into the still for the main event: distillation.
Distilling: The Main Event
In the distillery, the distiller pours or pumps the water/alcohol mash from the fermentation tank into the still (a vessel used for distillation) and heats the still until the liquid inside boils.
Because alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water, vapors from the alcohol rise first, to be collected and condensed as liquid ethyl alcohol, the alcohol used in beverages. The alcohol produced in the still is also known as neutral spirits because it’s free (or relatively free) of flavoring and aroma compounds.
The modern still master works with two distinct types of stills: |the pot still and the column still.
Distillation: Up close and personal
Here’s a Mr. Wizard–like experiment for you:
Put 1 cup of plain water in a small (1-quart) pot with its own lid.
Put the lid on the pot, put the pot on the stove, and heat the pot until you can hear the water boiling inside. (Yes, if you listen really carefully, you can hear the boil.)
Let the water boil for a minute or so.
Turn off the heat, and lift the lid off the pot.
See the drops of water on the underside of the pot lid? That water is steam that rose from the boiling water to collect and condense as (huzzah!) distilled water.
Ain’t science grand?
The pot still
The first pot still was the alembic still used by the Arabs who invented distillation sometime during the 11th century CE (for more on the historic discovery and the men who accomplished it, turn to Chapter 1).
The classic alembic still is a simple copper pot with a rounded bottom and an elongated spout (or swan’s neck) on top that traditionally ends in a twisted coil called the worm.
So perfect is the design that modern distillers still use the alembic still centuries after it was designed. The process goes something like this:
1. A distillers pours his mash into the pot still.
2. He heats the vessel over an open fire.
3. The fire sends the alcohol vapors up into the swan’s neck.
4. The vapors go into a water-cooled condenser or jacket.
5. In the condenser, the vapors are condensed into liquid alcohol.
6. The liquid alcohol runs out of the worm into a waiting container.
What pot stills are used for
The pot still turns out relatively small amounts of alcohol. As a result, modern distillers most commonly reserve it for batch distilling, the distillation of limited amounts of alcohol to make hand-crafted spirits. These spirits are small quantities of what the still master considers unusual (read: unusually good) brandies, Bourbons, Irish and Scotch whiskeys, vodkas, rums, and gins. You can see the modern pot still in Figure 2-1.
Figure 2-1: The modern pot still.
