The Art of Making Whiskey | Page 6

of sugar form only one-tenth of it, which is one half of Lavoisier's proportions.
Those of the distiller of whiskey are 100lbs. of grain to 100 gallons of water, or thereabouts: 100lbs. of grain contain only 16lbs. of dry sweet matter: therefore, as the 100 gallons of vinous liquor weigh 800lbs. the 16lbs. of sugar form only its fiftieth part.
Thence is seen how inferior the proportions of the whiskey distiller are to those of the brewer, and how far they are from good theory. But the brewer aims only at producing a sort of wine, and succeeds; while, the distiller wants to make spirit, and only obtains it in the manner the most expensive, and opposed to his own interest.
CHAPTER VI
DEFECTS IN THE USUAL METHOD OF MAKING WHISKEY.
1st. The most hurtful of all for the interests of the distillers, is undoubtedly the weakness of the vinous liquor. We have seen that the proportion of spirit is in a ratio to the richness of the fermenting liquor; that Lavoisier, by putting one-fifth of the mass of dry sugar, obtained twice as much spirit as the rum distiller, who puts in the same quantity, but drowns it in water. From those principles, which are not contested, the distiller, whose vinous liquor contains only one-fiftieth part of sweet matter, obtains the less spirit, and loses as much of it as he gets.
2dly. Another defect is joined to this: bodies are dissolved by reason of their affinity with the dissolving principle; the mucilaginous substance is as soluble in water as the saccharine substance. A mass of 100 gallons of water having only 16lbs. of sugar to dissolve, exerts it's dissolving powers upon the mucilaginous part which abounds in grains, and dissolves a great quantity of it. There results from that mixture, a fermentation partaking of the spirit and the acid, and if the temperature of the atmosphere is moderate, the acid invades the spirit, which is one of its principles: nothing remains but vinegar, and the hopes of the distiller are deceived.
Some distillers have been induced, by the smallness of their products, to put in their stills, not only the fluid of the liquor, but the flour itself. Hence result two important defects. 1st. The solid matter precipitates itself to the bottom of the still, where it burns, and gives a very bad taste to the whiskey. In order to remedy this inconvenience, it has been imagined to stir the flour incessantly, by means of a chain dragged at the bottom of the still, and put in motion by an axis passing through the cap, and turned by a workman until the ebullition takes place. This axis, however well fitted to the aperture, leaves an empty space, and gives an issue to the spirituous vapors, which escaping with rapidity, thereby occasion a considerable loss of spirit.
3dly. The presence of the grain in the still, converted into meal, is not otherwise indifferent. It contains a kind of essential oil, more or less disagreeable, according to its nature; which distils with the spirit. That of Indian corn, in particular, is more noxious than that of any other grain; and it is the presence of meal in the stills, which causes the liquors obtained from grains to be so much inferior to that of fruits.
4thly. There is a fourth defect, at which humanity shudders, and which the laws ought to repress. Vinous liquors are more or less accompanied with acetone acid, or vinegar; but those proceeding from grain contain still more of this acid. The stills are generally made of naked copper; the acid works upon that metal, and forms with it the acetate of copper, or verdigrise, part of which passes with the whiskey. There is no distiller, who, with a little attention, has not observed it. I have always discovered it in my numerous rectifications, and at the end of the operation, when nothing more comes from the still but what is called the sweet oil of wine. An incontestable proof of this truth is, that as the stills of the distillers are of a green color in their interior part; that they are corroded with the acid, and pierced with numberless little holes, which render them unfit for use in a very short time. It is easy to conceive how hurtful must be the presence of verdigrise to those who make use of whiskey as a constant drink: even those who use it soberly, swallow a slow poison, destructive of their stomach; while to those who abuse it, it produces a rapid death, which would still be the consequence of abuse, if the liquor was pure, but is doubly accelerated by the poison contained in the whiskey. It is easy to remedy so terrible an evil. The acetous acid has no action upon tin. By