The Art of Making Whiskey | Page 2

the art of converting Whiskey into
Gin, according to the process of the Holland Distillers, I flatter myself,

that I give a greater value to a national production usually neglected
througout [TR: throughout] the continent, and which will be the
principle of a considerable produce. Henceforth the Gin of the United
States will be an important article of exportation for their outward
trade, as well as for home consumption.
Receive, gentlemen, the Assurances of my Profound Respect, A.
BOUCHERIE.

PREFACE.
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. As to wine, in spite
of all the efforts and repeated trials made to propagate the grape-vine,
there is as yet no hopes, that it may in time become the principal drink
of the Americans.
To turn our enquiries towards the means of bringing the art of making
whiskey to greater perfection, is therefore, to contribute to the welfare
of the United States, and even to the health of the Americans, and to the
prosperity of the distiller, as I will prove in the sequel.
The arts and sciences have made great progress; my aim is to diffuse
new light on every thing that relates to the formation of spirituous
liquors that may be obtained from grains. Most arts and trades are
practised without principles, perhaps from the want of the means of
information. For the advantage of the distillers of whiskey, I will
collect and offer them the means of obtaining from a given quantity of
grain, the greatest possible quantity of spirit, purer and cheaper than by
the usual methods. I shall then proceed to indicate the methods of
converting whiskey into gin, according to the process of the Holland
Distillers, without heightening its price.
If the principles hereafter developed are followed, the trade of distiller

will acquire great advantages, that will spread their influence on
agriculture, and consequently on commerce in general.

THE ART OF MAKING WHISKEY, &c.
CHAPTER I.
OF SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS, OR SPIRITS.
Spirituous liquors are the produce of vinous ones, obtained by the
distillation of these last. The art of making wine is of the remotest
antiquity, since it is attributed to Noah; but that of distilling it, so as to
extract its most spirituous part, dates only from the year 1300. Arnand
de Villeneuve was the inventor of it, and the produce of his Still
appeared so marvellous, that it was named Aqua-Vitæ, or Water of Life,
and has ever since continued under that denomination in France;
Voltaire and reason say that it might, with far more propriety, be called
Aqua-Mortis, or Water of Death.
This liquor, called in English, Brandy, received from the learned the
name of Spirit of Wine; time improved the art of making it still stronger
by concentration, and in that state it is called Alcohol.
All spirit is the distilled result of a wine, either of grapes, other fruits,
or grains; it is therefore necessary to have either wine, or any vinous
liquor, in order to obtain spirits.
CHAPTER II.
OF THE FORMATION OF VINOUS LIQUORS WITH GRAINS, IN
ORDER TO MAKE SPIRITS.
The art of extracting wine from the juice of the grape, not being the
object of this book, I shall confine myself to what is necessary and
useful to the distillers of whiskey; it is therefore of the vinous liquor
extracted from grains, that I am going to speak.

The formation of that kind of liquor is founded upon a faculty peculiar
to grains, which the learned chymist, Fourcroy, has called saccharine
fermentation. Sugar itself does not exist in gramineous substances; they
only contain its elements, or first principles, which produce it. The
saccharine fermentation converts those elements into sugar, or at least
into a saccharine matter; and when this is developed, it yields the
eminent principle of fermentation, without which there exists no wine,
and consequently no spirit.
Grains yield two kinds of vinous liquors, of which the distiller makes
spirit, and the brewer a sort of wine, called beer. From a comparison of
the processes employed to obtain these two results, it will be found that
the brewer's art has attained a higher degree of perfection than that of
the distiller. They both have for their object to obtain a vinous liquor;
but that of the brewer is, in reality, a sort of wine to which he gives, at
pleasure, different degrees of strength; while that of the distiller is
scarcely vinous, and cannot be made richer. I will give a succinct
exposition of their two processes in order that they may be compared.
OF THE ART OF BREWING.
The