The Art of Making Whiskey | Page 8

breadth, and 2 feet long. The rest of the flue is paved with bricks,
and rises insensibly 4 inches towards the chimney, in which it opens by
two holes, 1-1/2 inches wide, 8 or 9 inches high.
Immediately under the hearth, is a mash hole 4 feet deep, occupying all
its capacity, and projecting 2 feet forward. This opening is necessary to
keep up a free circulation of air, and to take up the ashes. It should be
covered with strong boards, not to hinder the service of the kettle. The
hearth is made with an iron grate, more or less close, according to the
nature of the fuel; if for wood, the bars must be about two inches apart;
if for coals, half an inch is sufficient. The furnace must be built with
care. The parts most exposed to the action of the fire must be built with
soft bricks and potters' clay: soap stone would be preferable, if easy to
procure. The brick separating the kettle and chimney, must be
supported with flat bars of iron, as well as the part over the door.
CHAPTER IX.
USE OF THE KETTLE.
The kettle is destined to make the infusion of the grain, and boil it so as
to convert it into wort. By that operation I make the liquor richer,
which I intend for fermentation, and bring it to divers degrees of
strength.
I put into the kettle 100 gallons of water, and 4 bushels of corn, broken,
as I said before, at the mill. I light a small fire, which I increase
gradually, until the water begins to boil; during that time, the grain is
stirred with a paddle. As soon as the ebullition is established, the grain
is taken up with a large skimmer, and put to drain into a large basket

hanging over the kettle; and when the grain has been totally taken up,
the fire is increased so as to bring the water to boil again, until reduced
to two-fifths, which degree of concentration is not rigorous, and the
distiller may augment it as his experience shall direct. When thus
concentrated, the liquor is drawn off through the pipe, and received into
a tub or vat containing 130 or 140 galls.
100 gallons more of water are put into the kettle, with 4 bushels of corn;
the fire conducted slowly, as before, until the degree of ebullition; the
corn is taken off, and the liquor concentrated in the same proportions;
then drawn off as above, in the same tub.
The same operation is repeated for the third time; the three united
liquors are slightly stirred, and, still warm, transported into one of the
hogsheads of fermentation, which it nearly fills up.
As there must be four of these hogsheads filled up daily, the work at
the kettle must be kept going on, without interruption, until that
quantity is obtained, which may be done in about twelve hours. The
grain which has been drained is carried to dry, either in the open air, or
in a granary, and spread thin. When dry, it is excellent food for cattle,
and highly preferable to the acid and fermented mash, usually used by
distillers to feed cattle and hogs: they eat the corn dried in the above
manner as if it had lost nothing of its primitive qualities and flavor.
CHAPTER X.
THE ROOM FOR FERMENTATION.
The room destined to the fermentation must be close, lighted by two or
three windows, and large enough to contain a number of hogsheads
sufficient for the distillery. It may be determined by the number of days
necessary for the fermentation; 30 or 40 hogsheads may suffice, each of
120 or 130 gallons.
In the middle of the room must be a stove, large enough to keep up a
heat of 75° to 80°, even in winter. A thermometer placed at one end of
the room, serves to regulate the heat.

As soon as the liquor is in the hogshead, the yeast, or fermenting
principle, is put into it, stirred for some moments, and then left to itself.
A liquor as rich as the above described ferments with force, and runs
with rapidity through all the periods of fermentation. It is fit to distil as
soon as that tumultuous state has subsided and the liquor is calm.
The essential character of the spirituous fermentation, is to exhale the
carbonic acid gaz in great quantity. This gaz is mortal to mankind, and
to all the living creation. Thirty hogsheads of fermenting liquor
producing a great deal of this gaz, the room should be purified of it by
opening two opposite windows several times a day. This is the more
essential, as the pure air, or oxigen, contributes to the formation of the
spirit, of which it