Testing liquors in the bureau of Revenue. A sample of all liquors imported and exported is brought here and tested to decide the Revenue Tax to be placed thereon.

Alcoholic liquors are made from materials containing starch or sugar in sufficient quantities to cause fermentation. If, after fermentation, the liquor is subjected to distillation it is called distilled liquor, and to this class belong whisky, brandy, rum, absinthe, etc. Brandy is made from fermented grape juice. The best grades of cognac brandy are made from white French wines; inferior qualities are made from Spanish and Portuguese wines. Whisky is made from the fermented extract of rye, barley or corn. In Scotland and Ireland malted barley is used—sometimes alone, sometimes mixed with other grains.

Bourbon whisky is made from rye and malted corn. Gin is produced by mixing common spirits with juniper berries. Frequently other materials are used for flavoring, such as cardamon seed and oil of fennel. Liquors are made from brandy and alcohol by flavoring them with aromatic substances, such as orange peel, absinthe and anise; then the flavored liquid is distilled, and after distillation, it is colored with caramel and sweetened in most cases.

The manufacture of whisky will serve as a type for the manufacture of other spirituous liquors. The first step in the process is the saccharifying of the grain—that is, turning the starch into sugar. The grain is mixed with malt and ground in a suitable mill and then run into a mash tub, where it is agitated with water at a temperature of 150 degrees Fahrenheit.

The mashing process is continued until the starch is changed entirely into malt sugar or maltose. This requires from one to five hours, according to the amount of grain in the mash. Malt contains a substance known as "diastase," which possesses the remarkable property of turning starch into maltose or malt sugar. It is for this reason that malt is added to the grain in the mash tub. Starch is changed by prolonged boiling into dextrin, which does not ferment readily, while maltose ferments very easily. Great care, therefore, is taken during the mashing process that the dextrin formation is reduced, to a minimum. This is done by keeping the temperature near 150 degrees during the whole process.

The liquor obtained in the mash tub is called "wort." When the wort is as strong as possible, it is drained off, and the grain is treated with a fresh supply of water and the wort so obtained is added to the first. The wort, on coming from the mash tub, must be cooled rapidly, otherwise an acid fermentation will set in which produces vinegar, and the presence of such substance is undesirable. The wort is cooled by allowing it to trickle over cold pipes, which are kept at a low temperature by some method ofartificial refrigeration similar to that by which ice is manufactured. It takes about five hours to reduce the contents of the mash tub to a temperature of 60 degrees.

By courtesy of the Sunny Brook Distillery, Co., Chicago. The fermenter.

The wort is now ready for fermentation. Fresh brewer's yeast, or softened compressed yeast, is added to the liquid, which is stored in wooden tanks in the cellar of the distillery. One gallon of brewer's yeast, or a half pound of compressed yeast, is used for every 100 gallons of wort. In the early stages of fermentation the yeast cells grow without producing much alcohol. Later, the malt sugar ferments and alcohol is formed; carbon bioxide is generated after the sugar is formed; the dextrin gradually is changed to maltose, and this is then changed to alcohol by fermentation. During fermentation the temperature gradually rises because of the chemical changes taking place. The temperature is kept near 93 degrees to get the best results. Fermentation is complete when no more alcohol forms, and this takes from five to nine days. The yeast is skimmed off, and the fermented wort at once is subjected to distillation.

By courtesy of the Sunny Brook Distillery Co., Chicago. The vat.

The object of distillation is to increase the percentage of alcohol in the liquor and at the same time to remove undesirable substances from it. The undistilled liquor contains alcohol, water, solid matter, fusel oil and other substances. Alcohol boils at 172 degrees, water at 212 and fusel oil boils, some at 207, and some at higher temperatures. If a mixture of such liquids be boiled and the resulting vapors be cooled the process is called distillation. If the liquid which distills over and is condensed be collected in different portions or fractions, the first fraction will contain a larger percentage of alcohol than the original liquid, for the alcohol distills off at the lower temperature. The remaining fractions will contain more water and fusel oil. The first portion will not contain all of the alcohol, nor will it be entirely free from water and fusel oil, but if it is redistilled the percentage of alcohol will be greatly increased and the amount of water and fusel oil will be diminished correspondingly.

The old stills were based on this principle, and many such stills are used today in Scotland and Ireland. They consist of large flat-bottomed vessels of copper set in brickwork and heated underneath by direct firing. The still is connected at the top with a long spiral pipe called a "worm," which passes through a tank of cold water, where the alcoholic vapors are cooled and the distillate is collected at the other end of the worm in a suitable tank. This method of distillation is wasteful of fuel and for that reason a number of devices have been introduced for reducing the cost of the product and increasing the quality.

The improved stills are somewhat complicated in construction, and they are continuous in action; that is, the liquor to be rectified is fed in a steady stream without interruption to the process and the rectified spirits are drawn off continuously. A standard still consists of two columns made of wood, copper lined, called respectively the "analyzer" and the "rectifier." The analyzer is divided into a number of compartments by perforated copper plates, supplied with valves opening upward. Small pipes pass through each plate, projecting about half an inch above each plate and reaching down into small copper pans placed on the plate below. From the analyzer the vapors enter the rectifier, which also is divided into compartments with perforated plates until near the top of the column, which is free from plates. There the finished spirit is held back and carried away to the condensing worm. The liquor to be distilled is pumped through a zigzag pipe which circulates through the rectifier. When it reaches the bottom of the rectifier, it is entirely changed into vapor. The vapor then goes to the analyzer, which is heated from below by steam. The water condenses and runs off at the bottom of the analyzer; the vapors of the alcohol pass into the rectifier, where they circulate through compartments, and as they ascend they are almost entirely freed from water and fusel oil. The vapor then passes through a condensing worm, where it is thoroughly cooled and liquefies, running into storage tanks.

By courtesy of the Sunny Brook Distillery, Co., Chicago. Storeroom.

There is much adulteration and imposition in the manufacture of liquors. Sometimes sulphuric acid, blue vitriol, ammonia and acetate of potassium are used. A good deal of it is made by mixing a little genuine liquor with coloring matter and different oils to add proper flavor. Prune juice is a favorite flavor with compounders, and an extract of tea and currants is used for rye whisky. In order to make certain liquors foam properly in imitation of the genuine, they are treated with a beading oil made from the oil of bitter almonds. Bourbon whisky is made sometimes by adding fusel oil which has been treated with black oxide of manganese and the poisons just mentioned. "Scotch" whisky is made by adding to a small quantity of real Scotch whisky, oil of birch and spirits. Cognac is made from spirits by flavoring with cocoanut oil and coloring with burnt sugar.

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© 1998, 2002 by Lynn Waterman