Chapter 2

To see the four elements, each combining to produce (with the assistance of man) an article of commerce and luxury, and at the same time, a necessary beverage to man. The earth producing the grain, hops and utensils, which a combination of fire and water reduces into a liquid by fermentation, and when placed in the still to see air engaging fire to assist her in reducing the liquid that fire and water had produced, into a vapour, or air, and afterwards to see fire abandoning air, and assisting water to reduce it into a liquid by means of the condensing tubes, and then to consider the number of hands employed in keeping the distillery a going, will present one other patriotic idea. The farmer with all his domestics and people, engaged in the cultivation of the rye, corn, &c. The wood choppers--the haling--the coopers engaged in making casks--the hands engaged in feeding cattle and the pork--haling, barrelling and selling the whiskey, spirits, pork, &c. The produce of the distillery, presenting subject for commerce, and employ for the merchant, mechanic and mariner--and all from our own farms.

After seeing the distillery afford employment for so many hands, bread to their families, and yielding the means of an extensive revenue and increase of commerce--with a flattering prospect of completely annihilating the use of foreign liquors in our country, and thereby saving the expenditure of millions of dollars; and ultimately rendering our liquors an article of export and source of wealth--I presume every mind will be struck with the propriety of encouraging a branch of business so promising in wealth and comfort.

The following receipts are intended to convey all the instruction necessary in the science of distilling, and producing from the growth of our own farms, the best spirits of every description, and such as I flatter myself will supersede the use of all imported liquors, and thereby fulfil the views and wishes of

THE AUTHOR.

PRACTICAL DISTILLER.

SECTION I.

_Observations on Yeast._

That yeast is the main spring in distilling, is acknowledged by all distillers, tho' but few if them understand it, either in its nature or operation; tho' many pretend a knowledge of the grand subject of fermentation, and affect to understand the best mode of making stock yeast, and to know a secret mode unknown to all others--when it is my belief they know very little about it; but, by holding out the idea of adding some drug, not to be procured at every house, which has a hard name, and that is little known to people of common capacities: Such as Dragons blood, &c. frequently retailing their secret, as the best possible mode of making stock yeast, at ten, twenty, and in some instances one hundred dollars.

Confessing it a subject, abstruse, and a science little understood in Pennsylvania, and notwithstanding the numerous experiments I have made with care and close observation, yet from a consciousness of not understanding it, _too well_, I have in several instances purchased receipts, and made faithful experiments; but have never yet met the man of science, theory, or practice, whose mode of making stock yeast, yielded a better preparation for promoting fermentation, than the simple mode pursued by myself for some years, and which I have uniformly found to be the best and most productive.

In making yeast, all drugs and witchcraft are unnecessary--Cleanliness, in preserving the vessels perfectly sweet, good malt, and hops, and an industrious distiller, capable of observation, and attention to the following receipt, which will be assuredly found to contain the essence and spirit of the ways and art of making that composition, a knowledge of which I have acquired, by purchases--consultations with the most eminent brewers, bakers, and distillers in this commonwealth, and above all, from a long practice and experience, proving its utility and superior merits to my most perfect satisfaction; and which I with pleasure offer to my fellow-citizens, as meriting a preference--notwithstanding the proud and scientific chymist, and the flowery declarations or treatises of the profound theorist, may disapprove this simple mode, and offer those which they presume to be better, tho' they never soiled a finger in making a practical experiment, or perhaps witnessed a process of any description.

ARTICLE II.

_Receipt for Stock Yeast._

_For a stock yeast vessel of two gallons, the size best adapted for that purpose._

Take one gallon good barley malt, (be sure it be of good quality) put it into a clean, well scalded vessel, (which take care shall be perfectly sweet) pour thereon four gallons scalding water, (be careful your water be clean) stir the malt and water with a well scalded stick, until thoroughly mixed together, then cover the vessel close with a clean cloth, for half an hour; then uncover it and set it in some convenient place to settle, after three or four hours, or when you are sure the sediment of the malt is settled to the bottom, then pour off the top, or thin part that remains on the top, into a clean well scoured iron pot, (be careful not to disturb the thick sediment in the bottom, and that none of it goes into the pot); then add four ounces good hops, and cover the pot close with a clean scalded iron cover, and set it on a hot fire of coals to boil--boil it down one third, or rather more, then strain all that is in the pot through a thin hair sieve, (that is perfectly clean) into a clean well scalded earthen crock that is glazed--then stir into it, with a clean stirring stick, as much superfine flour as will make it about half thick, that is neither thick nor thin, but between the two, stirring it effectually until there be no lumps left in it. If lumps are left, you will readily perceive that the heart or inside of those lumps will not be scalded, and of course, when the yeast begins to work, those lumps will sour very soon, and of course sour the yeast--stir it then till those lumps are all broken, and mixed up, then cover it close for half an hour, to let the flour stirred therein, be properly scalded, after which uncover and stir it frequently until it is a little colder than milk warm, (to be ascertained by holding your finger therein for ten minutes, but beware your finger is clean) then add half a pint of genuine good yeast,[1] (be certain it is good, for you had better use none, than bad yeast) and stir it effectually, until you are sure the yeast is perfectly incorporated with the ingredients in the pot--after which cover it, and set it in a moderately cool place in summer, until you perceive it begin to work, or ferment--then be careful to stir it two or three times at intervals of half an hour--then set it past to work--in the winter, place it in a moderately warm part of the still-house--and in summer, choose a spring house, almost up to the brim of the crock in water--avoiding extremes of heat or cold, which are equally prejudicial to the spirit of fermentation--of consequence, it should be placed in a moderately warm situation in the winter, and moderately cool in the summer.

[Footnote 1: If none can be obtained that is good, the following is a receipt to make it, viz.

Procure three wooden vessels of different sizes and apertures, one capable of holding two quarts, the other three or four, and the third five or six; boil a quarter of a peck of malt for about eight or ten minutes in three pints of water; and when a quart is poured off from the grains, let it stand in a cool place till not quite cold, but retaining that degree of heat which the brewers usually find to be proper when they begin to work their liquor. Then remove the vessel into some warm situation near a fire, where the thermometer stands between 70 and 80 degrees (Fahrenheit,) and here let it remain till the fermentation begins, which will be plainly perceived within thirty hours; add then two quarts more of a like decoction of malt, when cool, as the first was; and mix the whole in the larger sized vessel, and stir it well in, which must be repeated in the usual way, as it rises in a common vat: then add a still greater quantity of the same decoction, to be worked in the largest vessel, which will produce yeast enough for a brewing of forty gallons.]

This yeast ought to be renewed every four or five days in the summer, and eight or ten days in the winter--but it is safer to renew it oftener, or at shorter intervals, than suffering it to stand longer. In twenty-four hours after it begins to work, it is fit for use.

Between a pint and half a pint of the foregoing stock yeast, is sufficient to raise the yeast for the daily use of three hogsheads.

ART. III.

The most proper vessel for preserving stock yeast is an earthen crock, that will hold three gallons at least, with a cover of the same, well glazed--as it will contract no acid from the fermentation, and is easily scalded and sweetened. There ought to be two of the same size, that when one is in use, the other may be sweetening--which is effected by exposing them to frost or fire.

ART. IV.

_To know when Yeast is good or bad._

When you perceive your yeast working, observe if it works quick, sharp and strong, and increasing in bulk nearly double what it was before it began to work, with a sweet sharp taste, and smell, with the appearance of a honey comb, with pores, and always changing place, with a bright lively colour, then you may pronounce your yeast good; on the contrary, if it is dead, or flat and blue looking, with a sour taste, and smell, (if any at all,) then you may pronounce it bad, and unfit for use, and of course must be renewed.

ART. V.

_How to renew Yeast when sour._

About two hours before you begin to make your beer, take one pint of the sour yeast, put it into a clean dish or vessel, and pour clean cold water over it--changing the water every fifteen minutes, until the acid be extracted, have it then in readiness to mix with the beer, which is to be prepared, in the following manner, viz. Take one pint malt, and scald it well in a clean vessel, with a gallon of boiling water, let it stand half an hour closely covered--then pour it into a pot with plenty of hops--then strain it into a well scalded earthen jug, when milk warm--add then a small quantity of the yeast, (sweetened as directed in the first part of this receipt,) with two or three table spoon fulls of molasses ... set it past for twenty four hours to ferment ... then pour off the top, or beer that is in the jug, leaving about a quart in the bottom ... then that which remains in the bottom will be yeast with which to start your stock yeast.

ART. VI.

The method of procuring and keeping stock yeast, by the generality of distillers, merits in the mind of the author of this work, most decided disapprobation. They generally procure yeast once a week, or month, from brewers, and if not convenient to be had in this way, they often use such as is used by country women, for baking bread, without paying any regard to the quality, or whether sour; with such, tho' generally bad, they proceed to make their daily yeast, and often continue the use of it, until the grain will no longer yield a gallon of whiskey to the bushel, and so often proceed in this miserable and indolent mode of procuring and renewing yeast, to the great prejudice of their own, and employer's interest ... attributing the small yield of liquor to the badness of the grain ... the manner in which it is chopped, or some other equally false cause. Then to the idle and careless habits of distillers, must be attributed any yield short of three gallons to the bushel of rye.... To ensure this quantity at least from the bushel, the author discovers the anxiety expressed, and the care recommended in the foregoing pages, on the subject of preserving and keeping good yeast, and recommends the following as the best mode of preparing.

ART. VII.

_Stock Yeast good for years._

When the weather is moderately warm in autumn or the spring, take of your best stock yeast that has fermented about twenty four hours, and stir it thick with the coarsest middlings of wheat flour, add small quantity of whiskey, in which, previously dissolve a little salt, when you have stirred the middlings with a stick, rub it between your hands until it becomes pretty dry, then spread it out thin, on a board to dry in the sun ... rubbing once or twice in the day between your hands until it is perfectly dry, which will be in three or four good days--taking it in at night before the dew falls--when it is properly dried, put it up in a paper and keep it in a dry airy place for use.

Thus yeast will keep good, if free from moisture, for any length of time, and it is the only effectual mode of preserving stock yeast pure and sweet ... when put up conformably to the foregoing instructions, the distiller may always rely on having it good, and depend on a good turn out of his grain, provided he manages the other parts of his distilling equally well.

About two hours before you mean to use the dried yeast, the mode is to take two gills, place it in any convenient vessel, and pour thereon milk-warm water, stir and mix it well with the yeast, and in two or three hours good working yeast will be produced.

In the spring every distiller ought to make as much as would serve 'till fall, and every fall as much as will serve thro' the winter, reckoning on the use of one pint per week, three gills being sufficient to start as much stock yeast as will serve a common distillery one week.

ART. VIII.

_To make the best Yeast for daily use._

For three hogsheads take two handfuls of hops, put them into an iron pot, and pour thereon three gallons boiling water out of your boiler, set the pot on the fire closely covered half an hour, to extract the strength from the hops, then strain it into your yeast vessel, thicken it with chopped rye, from which the bran has been sifted ... stir it with a clean stick until the lumps are all well broken and mixed ... cover it close with a cloth for half an hour, adding at the time of putting in the chopped rye, one pint of good malt when the rye is sufficiently scalded, uncover and stir it well until it is milk-warm, then add one pint good stock yeast, stirring until you are sure it is well mixed with the new yeast. If your stock yeast is good, this method will serve you ... observing always, that your water and vessels are clean, and the ingredients of a good quality; as soon as you have cooled off and emptied your yeast vessel, scald and scour, and expose it to the night air to purify. Tin makes the best yeast vessel for yeast made daily, in the above mode.

In the course of my long practice in distilling I fully discovered that a nice attention to yeast is absolutely necessary, and altho' I have in the foregoing pages said a great deal on the subject, yet from the importance justly to be attached to this ingredient in distilling, and to shew more fully the advantages and disadvantages arising from the use of good and bad yeast, I submit the following statement for the consideration of my readers.

Advantages in using good yeast for one month, at 5 bushels per day; 30 days at 5 bushels, is 150 bushels at 60 cents, costs $ 90 00

Contra 150 bushels yield 3 gallons per bushel, at 50 cents per gallon--450 gallons, 225 00 -------- Profit $ 135 00

Disadvantages sustained during the above period. 150 bushels at 60 cents, $ 90 00

Contra 150 bushes yielding 1-1/2 gallons to the bushel--225 gallons at 50 cents, 112 50 ------- Profit $ 21 50

Thus the owner or distiller frequently sustains in the distillation of his produce, a loss, equal and in proportion to the foregoing--from the use of indifferent yeast, and often without knowing to what cause to attribute it. This statement will shew more forcibly, than any other mode--and is made very moderate on the side of indifferent yeast, for with bad sour yeast the yield will be oftener under one gallon to the bushel than above one and an half--whereas with good yeast the yield will rarely be so low as three gallons to the bushel. It is therefore, I endeavor so strongly to persuade the distiller to pay every possible attention to the foregoing instructions, and the constant use of good yeast only, to the total rejection of all which may be of doubtful quality.

SECTION II.

ARTICLE I.

_Observations on Wood for Hogsheads._

The cheapest and easiest wrought wood is generally most used for making mashing tubs, or hogsheads, and very often for dispatch or from necessity, any wood that is most convenient is taken, as pine or chesnut; indeed I have seen poplar tubs in use for mashing, which is very wrong, as a distiller by not having his hogsheads of good wood, may lose perhaps the price of two sets of hogsheads in one season. For instance, a farmer is about to erect a distillery, and is convenient to a mountain, abounding in chesnut or pine, which from its softness and the ease with which it may be worked, its convenience for dispatch sake, is readily chosen for his mashing hogsheads.--To such selection of wood, I offer my most decided disapprobation, from my long experience, I know that any kind of soft wood will not do in warm weather. Soft porus wood made up into mashing tubs when full of beer and under fermentation, will contract, receive or soak in so much acid, as to penetrate nearly thro' the stave, and sour the vessel to such a degree, in warm weather, that no scalding will take it out--nor can it be completely sweetened until filled with cold water for two or three days, and then scalded; I therefore strongly recommend the use of, as most proper

_White Oak._

Disapproving of black, tho' next in order to white oak staves for all the vessels about the distillery ... as being the most durable of close texture, easily sweetened ... and hard to be penetrated by acids of any kind, tho' sometimes the best white oak hogsheads may sour, but two or three scaldings will render them perfectly sweet ... if white oak cannot be had, black oak being of the next best in quality may be used ... and again I enter my protest against pine, chesnut, poplar, and every kind of soft porus wood.

If possible, or if at all convenient, have the vessels iron bound and painted, to prevent worms and the weather from injuring them, using one good wood hoop on the bottom to save the chine.

ART. II.

_To sweeten Hogsheads by scalding._

When you turn your vessels out of doors (for it is esteemed slothful and a lazy mode to scald them in the still house,) you must wash them clean with your scrubbing brush, then put in sixteen or twenty gallons boiling water--cover it close for about twenty minutes, then scrub it out effectually with your scrubbing broom, then rinse your vessel well with a couple buckets clean cold water, and set them out to receive the air--this method will do in the winter, provided they are left out in the frost over night--but in summer, and especially during the months of July and August, this mode will not do--it is during those extreme warm months in our latitude, that the vessels are liable to contract putrid particles, which may be corrected by the following mode of making

_Hogsheads perfectly sweet._

Scald them twice, as above directed, then light a brimstone match, flick it on the ground, turn your hogshead down over it, let it stand until the match quits burning, this operation is necessary once a week--a method I have found effectual.

ART. III.

_To sweeten Hogsheads by burning._

When you have scalded your hogsheads well, put into each, a large handful of oat or rye straw, set it on fire, and stir it till it is in a blaze, then turn the mouth of the hogshead down; the smoke will purify and sweeten the cask. This process should be repeated every other day, especially during summer--it will afford you good working casks, provided your yeast be good, and your hogsheads are well mashed.

There ought always to be in a distillery more vessels than are necessary for immediate use, that they may alternately be exposed to the frost and air one night at least before brought into service, always bearing in mind that the utmost attention to cleanliness is necessary, in order to afford such yield from the grain, or fruit, as may be requisite to compensate for the expense and labor of extracting spirits--and moreover, that the exercise of the finest genius possessed by man is scarcely capable of taking from small grain, all the spirit it contains:.... good materials will not suffice ... the most marked attention is indispensably necessary to yeast; a mind capable of judging of fermentation in all its stages ... a close adherence to the manner of using the ingredients ... preparing them, and the use of sweet vessels, with great industry and a knowledge to apply it at the proper moment, are all necessary to enable the accomplishment of the desired end.

Note ... In scalding your hogshead I would recommend the use of a shovel full of ashes, which will scald more sharply.

SECTION III.

ARTICLE I.

_To Mash Rye in the common mode._

Take four gallons cold water to each hogshead, add one gallon malt, stir it well with your mashing stick, until the malt is thoroughly wet--when your still boils, put in about sixteen gallons boiling water, then put in one and an half bushels of chopped rye, stirring it effectually, until there is no lumps in it, then cover it close until the still boils, then put in each hogshead, three buckets or twelve gallons boiling water, stirring it well at the same time--cover it close--stir it at intervals until you perceive your rye is scalded enough, which you will know by putting in your mashing stick, and lifting thereon some of the scalded rye, you will perceive the heart or seed of the rye, like a grain of timothy seed sticking to the stick, and no appearance of mush, when I presume it will be sufficiently scalded--it must then be stirred until the water is cold enough to cool off, or you may add one bucket or four gallons of cold water to each hogshead, to stop the scalding.

I have known this process succeed well with an attentive distiller.

ART. II.

_The best method of distilling Rye._

Take four gallons boiling, and two gallons cold water--put it into a hogshead, then stir in one and a half bushels chopped rye, let it stand five minutes, then add two gallons cold water, and one gallon malt, stir it effectually--let it stand till your still boils, then add sixteen gallons boiling water, stirring it well, or until you break all the lumps--then put into each hogshead, so prepared, one pint coarse salt, and one shovel full of hot coals out of your furnace. (The coals and salt have a tendency to absorb all sourness and bad smell, that may be in the hogshead or grain;) if there be a small quantity of hot ashes in the coals, it is an improvement--stir your hogsheads effectually every fifteen minutes, keeping them close covered until you perceive the grain scalded enough--when you may uncover, if the above sixteen gallons boiling water did not scald it sufficiently, water must be added until scalded enough--as some water will scald quicker than others--it is necessary to mark this attentively, and in mashing two or three times, it may be correctly ascertained what quantity of the kind of water used will scald effectually--after taking off the covers, they must be stirred effectually, every fifteen minutes, till you cool off--for which operation, see "_Cooling off._" To those who distill all rye, I recommend this method, as I have found it to answer every kind of water, with one or two exceptions.