Category: distilling

Aqua Vitae Vs Arrak, Terminology and History

I am reading The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails in order with the Alcademics Book Club, which you may join on Facebook if you wish. (We're on the A's in early January.)

I've already learned so much new information and also old information I'm seeing in a new light.

One example of the latter is in the terminology of Aqua Vitae, the Latin term for distilled spirits ("water of life") vs arrack, the name of several different spirits.

Aqua Vitae as a terminology comes from the "alchemico-medical" background – the medical alchemists separating a pure essence of the universal life force (supposedly) from wine. The name refers to the method (distillates were called waters) and (supposed) healthy life-giving impacts to the person who drinks it. It first referred to wine-based spirits but came to mean distillates of all sorts (and is the base of the words for aquavit, eau de vie, and whiskey) but then words like whiskey, brandy, etc came to dominate as spirits differentiated. A thing to note here is that this terminology and technology was from Southern Italy and spread up north in Europe toward the UK and Scandinavia, and eastward into Germany, Poland, and Russia. The technology of distillation of aqua vitae followed the path of knowledge with travelling monks.

Arrack was the Arabic word for distilled spirit, and according to Oxford, "is the first widely accepted umbrella term used to differentiate spirits from fermented beverages." It was first referenced in the later 1200s and early 1300s (the same time, but in different places, as references to aqua vitae). It also referred to several different distillates – palm arrack from Goa, cane arrack from northeast India, rakia from grapes/raisins in the Ottoman Empire/Middle East, and Batavia arrack from Indonesia that was made from palm sap and sugar. Many of these spirits travelled with sailors on the spice trade routes and were made into punch. Though not stated explicitly in Oxford, it seems terms referred to distilled beverages.

"All of these spirits preceded the rise of brandy, genever, rum, and whisky, the European spirits" according to Oxford.

So arrack (in its various spellings) seems to be the blanket term for distilled beverages that came out of the Asian tradition and ingredient set that travelled along Asian-oriented sea and land trade routes, while aqua vitae was more the European term for distilled medicinal spirits from wine and grain that travelled along routes of monastic and medical-alchemical knowledge from Southern Europe north and northeast.

"In general the newer trade networks supplanted the older ones, and the various arracks fell back on their local markets." And the spirits born from the tradition of aqua vitae came to dominate the European markets and evolve into their more modern forms.

January 5, 2024
Did British Gin Come from Dutch Genever? Part 2
I watched a video by Philip Duff on the history of gin – is gin the British interpretation of Dutch genever? Or does it come from a more or less independent distilling tradition since British spirits were usually based on a neutral base distillate?

I watched a seminar by Jared Brown and Anistatia Miller that claims independence and wrote about that here.

Phil Duff adds some new information about the historical use of botanics in genever and on Dutch distilling styles.

Duff cites a couple key pieces of information:
- The most popular style of distillation in Holland was not distilling a beer mash with botanicals one single time [which leads some to the conclusion that gin, based on a neutral spirit base, was born independently of Holland] but 2 distillations then a third with botanicals, which is essentially how gin is made.
- The Distiller of London contains a recipe that looks like gin but is more of an expensive medicinal liqueur, and a book published after it to "correct the mistakes" in it says differently
And thus he concludes basically that gin was invented in England after column distillation comes on boaord in the early 1800s, but it's a direct line of invention from Dutch distilling/genever.

Click the link above for Jared/Anistatia's first video, then watch Phil's video below.
January 2, 2024
Distillation in Ancient India? Not So Fast

After reading my book Doctors and Distillers, Harold McGee (On Food and Cooking) pointed out to me that proof of distillation in ancient India (supposedly from the fifth century BCE) is not as well established as previously thought. Many histories on distillation cite work from 1979 that claims that elephant head stills were found along with other equipment that shows that there was alcoholic distillation in Northern India this early.

McGee recommended that I look at the book An Unholy Brew: Alcohol in Indian History and Religions by James McHugh. I added it as a suggestion that the SF Public Library should pick up, and thankfully they did. When it arrived recently, I took it out.

The book is dense and academic, and I decided that I wouldn't have time to read all of it. So instead I just searched for the sections on distillation. There were only a couple.

McHugh writes, "… the evidence for early stills in South Asia is more questionable than is often assumed…. John Marshall's 'still' excavated at Taxila was not found as a connected assemblage; Marshall assembled it himself from quite disparate finds, no doubt on the model of contemporaneous stills, in order to explain the function of just one of the vessels. Allchin [the 1979 reference that's referred to in places such as the Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails] built on Marshall's hypothesis regarding the function of these vessels, and his textual evidence is not convincing. Allchin likewise did not find a still assemblage but rather a large number of one type of vessel, with very few other parts."

"The earliest explicit description of alcoholic distillation that I am aware of is from a medical text… dating from around 1200 CE…. It is absolutely clear that distillation is described here and that the liquid distilled is a fermented, sugar-based drink…. An important point to note here is that, when Sanskrit texts mention alcoholic distillation, they are quite clear about it, using specific vocabulary."

Note that at the end of the 1100s is when we first find real evidence of alcoholic distillation in southern Italy as well. McHugh notes that the distilled spirit is distilled medicine, not beverage alcohol. This is in line with distillation in Europe at this time.

Later text references to alcoholic distillation pop up at the end of the 1200s in Indian texts, and now refer to recreational drinking. Note: nonalcoholic distillation in the West dates to probably 300CE; Arabs were distilling rosewater after I believe the year 700, but as I wrote in Doctors and Distillers, it doesn't seem that even if/when they distilled wine, they concentrated the alcohol with heads/tails cuts, so it was closer to filtration.

In a later chapter, McHugh mentions a book "The Elucidation of Distillates (Arkaprakasa), dating from the seventeenth century CE or later, is a treatise on distilled medicines." That might be a fun book for me to find if it has been translated into English sometime.

Anyway, I thought this was interesting.

July 31, 2023
Women in Distilling, 1500s-1700s

This is a quick post on some books I've read on women distilling in olden times.

Distillation of spirits came out of medical alchemy (which is to say medical proto-science), and early alchemy books included lots of recipes for distilled medicines with stuff like gold and silver included in them. Some of these alchemy books were written by and for women, such as the best known Secrets of Isabella Cortese.

A very scholarly look from an alchemy/scientific practice perspective is found in Daughters of Alchemy: Women and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy. It mentions distilled medicines that often resemble pure alchemical preparations.

Those women alchemists were noblewomen, who could afford the stills and other equipment and often a staff to operate them. But as we move into the 1600s and look at other noblewomen in Germany, we find the distilled medicines looking more like medicine (nonsensical as much of it was) rather than alchemy.

Noblewomen (as well as monks and nuns) in the Later Middle Ages/Early Modern Period made beneficial medicines to give as charity to surrounding villagers. Keep in mind that the nobles and monks were landowners, so keeping their tenants alive longer increased their own wealth. The book to read about this time period is Panaceia's Daughters: Noblewomen as Healers in Early Modern Germany.

As we move into the 1700s we find women authoring household books aka recipe books. These books always had a practical aspect to them for running a household (as opposed to books solely on distillation, all written by men, which were solely distilled herbal medicine recipes). The women's books would include information like food preservation techniques along with distilled medicines.

These books have fun names, like:

• The Country Housewife and Lady's Director in the Management of a House, and the Delights and Profits of a Farm Containing Instructions for managing the Brew-House, and Malt-Liquors in the Cellar; the making of Wines of all sorts (1728)
• The Ladies Directory in Choice Experiments and Curiosities of Preserving (1662)
• The Accomlisht Ladys Delight (1684)
• The Queene-Like Closet (1681)
• The Compleat Housewife (1727)

There are some books about these recipe books, but looking more closely at distillation we find Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake. This book is a bit more accessible than the previous two. The author shows that in young America in the Chesapeake area people were more isolated and their technology and social structures closer to those of the previous century. So in the 1600s and 1700s we find more women distilling in the home (or rather, estate) and look at what they used distilled alcohol for and how they made or bought it.

I touch on some of this in Doctors and Distillers, and if you want to go down this rabbit hole I'd recommend reading it first to put a lot of this stuff in context.

March 8, 2023
Aqua Vitae Opinions from a 1540 Book on Metallurgy
I read about a reference to distillation in the Pirotechnia, so I decided to look up the book.

According to Wikipedia, "De la Pirotechnia is considered to be one of the first printed books on metallurgy to have been published in Europe. It was written in Italian and first published in Venice in 1540. The author was Vannoccio Biringuccio, a citizen of Siena, Italy, who died before it was published."

I typed in the one page on which it seems to be mentioned:

To conclude at last these methods of distilling and extracting waters are varied according to the wishes that come to the minds of the workers. But in my opinion the true way is to adapt the fires well, with which you can do whatever pleases you when you wish, without the necessity of so much coöperating equipment. For this reason it would perhaps be necessary that I tell you here of the shapes and kinds of the furnaces, but I have decided to tell you of them farther on and here, in order not to break the discourse on distillation, I will tell you in detail the methods that are used for making aqua vitae.

Many call this water of life in order to exalt it it, but they also say that for him who does not know how to make it, it should be called water of death. This is that substance and that agent which the alchemists bring to such subtlety that they call it the Quintessence and they credit it with so many virtues and powers [128] that the heavens could scarcely perform more. It is indeed true that he who considers it well will see great and laudable effects. In addition to some experiences, I remember having seen a treatise on this in which an experimenter had noted more than two hundred experimental effects. But if it is true, as the alchemists say, that this power alone makes metals grow and revives half-dead bodies, all the other things that they say of it must also be believed. It is certainly evident that it is one of the things that are very preservative against putrefaction and is beneficial to many cold and moist sicknesses. The quality of this is subtle, fiery, and penetrating and these subtle, fiery, and penetrating and these subtle investigators believe that it extracts the virtues from everything that is put into it and converts them into its own subtle and penetrating nature. In short, they say so many things about it that it would be too long a subject if I should now wish to related it to you.

This confirms a few things and I think adds some depth to some of the material from Doctors and Distillers.
- It was still hard to make well, despite first references to distilling wine dating to pre-1200. There is a quote found in A History of the World in 6 Glasses: "One chronicler recorded the death in 1405 of Richard MacRaghnaill, the son of an Irish chieftain, who died “after drinking water of life to excess; and it was water of death to Richard.”
- Maybe the "water of death" stuff is about methanol?
- This text refers to "the quintessence" rather than individual quintessences, but then later "extracts the virtues from everything that is put into it and converts them into its own subtle and penetrating nature" To me this reads as shifting thought as to whether the water of life is all-powerful or just powerful.
- The author clearly thinks the superlatives ascribed to aqua vitae are overblown.
September 26, 2022
I’ve Been Distilling Some Things
Wine was (probably) first distilled into eau de vie in the practice of trying to make medicines and perfumes like rosewater and wormwood water. Distilling these herbs would make a preserved medicine that would last beyond the herbs' seasons. Today we'd call them hydrosols and essential oils.

These were water based distillations, and it was only when the technology became good enough that the wine could be separated into concentrated alcohol and water that alchemist physicians noticed distilled wine's wonderful properties.

In preparing for my seminar for Tales of the Cocktail, Secrets of the Earliest Distillation Books, I decided to try to replicate early water-based distillates. I purchased a still online, one like this, though there are a lot of variations. (I bought one with a temperature gauge but don't think that was necessary.)

Note that distilling alcohol is illegal at the federal level in the US, though I am unsure if it is allowed in some states, much like marijuana. In any case I have only been distilling infused waters in it. It has been very interesting!

Below are notes I took. After the first few experiments, for green herbs I learned to boil the water first and only toss the herbs into the water in the still at that point. This was to try to have less wilted/boiled herb flavors.

Distilling Experiments
- 35 grams wet rose petals in 250ml water in home distiller – earthy green aroma, intense, somewhat rose-y but more distilled green plants
- star anise – so much that next distillation was still tons of oil
- lemon blossoms
- Juniper – old dried herbs, then rosemary spice and dusty woodiness
- Crushed black pepper
- dehydrated cranberries
- dried mint. – tasted stewed with mintiness, stewed aspect gross
- Dried ginger- not spicy but nice and perfume, ginger flavor but not ginger spice and bite
- dried basil – swampy!
- sesame seeds – a little farty, but then peanut butter
- horseradish – tangy, maybe it was the vinegar or cream of tartar, with some nice green notes but sublte- great
- freeze dried wasabi – earthy but super mild, no spice
- aniseed smelled as expected
- licorice seed smelled as expected, great
- Strawberries- smell amazing, tastes ambrosial, subtle though, great next day – like Strawberry Starburst
- Lime juice only – weird, perfumy, I would guess artificial if I didn't know, not that powdery pasteurized taste, but I would guess watered down preserved lime juice. And obviously if distilled lime juice were the answer someone would have done it.
- Lime shells after squeezing, cut in half (so quarters now) – sweeter, more body, still perfumy, rounder flavor profile. nice finish. I think it's just oils combined with the flesh. at end of run started tasting cooked
- Lime peels only – lime lime essential oil but a touch more cooked
- parsely – soapy and green and intense and disgusting!
- mint – stems – spearmint but quickly turned stewed
- Rainier Cherries – good but not as flavorful as strawberries; not useful, the flavor didn't last in the fridge either, neutral
- Canned fruit cocktail – tastes just like fruit cocktail!
- fennel seeds- wonderful and delicious like the seeds
Later, I carbonated the strawberry water in a Soda Stream (it has no particulates or sugar so it didn't fizz over) and it was fantastic! I also carbonated canned fruit cocktail hydrosol; it was also good.
August 2, 2022
The Virtues of Aqua Vitae, from a 1512 Book

A very important early book on distillation is Hieronymous Braunschweig's The Virtuous Book of Distillation.

It is otherwise known as the Large Book on Distillation, and it was first published in 1512, after the Small Book in 1500. I believe it was first printed in German, then translated into Dutch, then translated into English I think in 1527 but I'm not positive.

You can read some about it in Doctors and Distillers.

The full title of the book is actually: The vertuose boke of distyllacyon of the waters of all maner of herbes with the fygures of the styllatoryes, fyrst made and compyled by the thyrte yeres study and labour of the moste co[n]nynge and famous mayster of phisyke, Master Iherom bruynswyke. And now newly translate[d] out of Duyche into Englysshe Nat only to the synguler helpe and profyte of the surgyens, phisycyens, and pothecaryes, but also of all maner of people, parfytely and in dewe tyme and ordre to lerne to dystyll all maner of herbes, to the profyte, cure, and remedy of all maner dysseases and infirmytees apparant and nat apparant. And ye shall vnderstande that the waters be better than the herbes, as Auicenna testefyeth in his fourthe conon saynge that all maner medicynes vsed with theyr substance, febleth and maketh aged, and weke. Cum gratia et preuilegio regali.

And as you can tell, it can be a challenge to read in this old English style and spelling.

But in preparation for my Tales of the Cocktail seminar this year, I decided to "translate" from olde English spelling into modern spelling an important section: The Virtues of Aqua Vitae.

The old English text is archived here. For the page scan of this page, it is here.

The Virtues of Aqua Vitae

The aqua vitae is commonly called the mistress of all medicines for it eases the diseases coming of cold. It gives also young courage in a peron and causes them ot have a good memory and remembrance. It purifies the five whites (?) of melancholy and all of the uncleans when it is drunk by reason and measure. That is to understand five or six drops in the morning fasting with a spoonfull of wine using the same in the manner afforsaid the evil humors cannot hurt the body for it will dry them out of the veins.

It conforts the heart and cause a body to be merry. It heals all old and new sores on the head coming of cold when the head is anointed therewith and a little of the same water held in the mouth and drunk of the same.

It causes a good color in a person when it is drunk and the head anointed therewith the space of 20 days. I heals alopecia or when it is drunk fasting with a little treacle it causes the hair well to grow and kills the lice and flees.

It cures the Reuma (?) of the head when the temples and the forehead therewith are rubbed and a spoonful taken in the mouth. It cures Litargiam (lethargy?) and all ill humor of the head. It heals the rosome (rosacea?) in the face and all manner of pimples. It heals the fistula when it is put therein with the luce of Celandine (?).

Cotton wet in the same and a little wrung out again and so put in the eyes at night going to bed and a little drunk thereof is good against all deafness. It eases the pain in the teeth when it is a long time held in the mouth. It cause a swell breath and heals the rotting teeth. It heals the canker in the mouth in the teeth, in the lyps, and in the tongue when it is long time held in the mouth. It causes the heavy tongue to become light and well speaking. It heals the short breath when it is drunk with what when (?) as the figs be sodden in and vanishes all flumes (?)

It causes good digestion and appetite for to eat and takes away the bulking. It dries the winds out of the body and is good against the evil stomach. It eases faintness of the hart, the pain of the milte (?), the yellow jaudice, the dropsy the ill limbs, the gout in the hands and in the feet, the pain in the breasts when they are swollen, and heals all diseases in the bladder and breaks the stone.

It withdraws venom that has been taken in meat or in drink with a little treacle is put thereto. It heals the flanks and all diseases coming of cold. It heals the burning of the body and of all members when it is rubbed therewith by the fire 8 days counting.
It is good to be drunk against the sodein dede (sudden dead?). It heals all scabs of the body and all cold swelling anointed or washed therewith and also little therof drunk. It heals all shrunk sinews and causes them to become soft and right.

It heals the tertian and quartan fevers when it is drunk an hour before, or the fevers become on a body. It heals the venomous bites and also of a mad dog when they be washed therewith. It heals also all stinking wounds when they be washed therewith.

June 27, 2022
A Visit to Hawaii’s Ko Hana Distillery
I was recently in Hawaii and finagled a visit to the Ko Hana Hawaiian Agricole Rum distillery. General Manager Kyle Reutner
drove me a short distance to a nearby cane field then we walked through the distillery and I got to taste through the line.

Agricole-style rum is distilled from freshly pressed sugar cane juice instead of molasses. Ko Hana makes this style of rum from native Hawaiian sugarcane varietals grown on 312 acres spread across several farms, which they manage themselves.

The Cane

They're currently growing 34 varieties of native Hawaiian sugarcane. 11 of those varietals are in production (meaning they make rum from them). The canes they chose were the most flavorful and/or they had the best Hawaiian history.

Something I've always wondered about Hawaiian sugar cane: The Oceanic peoples transported sugar cane with them on boats as they populated different islands moving east from Asia and arriving about 900 years ago, according to Reutner, but the sugar cane grown by the colonizers of the 1800s were the varietals that moved West over the centuries (from India to the Middle East to southern Italy and the islands off the Spanish/African coast, then to the Caribbean with Columbus and to South America with the Portuguese).

I had always wondered if the indigenous Hawaiians had ever really farmed sugar cane before the colonizers came, and Reutner says not so much, at least not on big farms. They were used as food on the boats that travelled between islands on long sea voyages, but on the land they didn't really need it as a food source given other options. The Hawaiian cane was grown more of a co-crop with other crops.

Ko Hana harvests year-round. In many different growing environments, cane has an 18 month growing cycle, but it's a year here.

They harvest, press, ferment, and distill each varietal individually. They used to make a blended rum of multiple varietals but no longer do.

Each trailer as pictured holds about 4000 pounds of cane, which translates to about 500 gallons of juice, which fills 1 fermenter, and results in 50 gallons of rum.

The cane is currently hand-harvested from unburned sugar cane (I believe in most places where cane is cut by hand the cane is burned both to make it easier to cut and to clear the land of critters like rats and snakes. But Hawaii doesn't have snakes. ) They have ordered a cane harvesting machine that they'll move to after it arrives.

They press the cane (using the green piece of equipment pictured above) in the field, and bring the juice back to the distillery to ferment it. They bring the cane press from field to field when they harvest. Usually they press the cane the same day it is harvested in the field, but always within 24 hours of harvest.

Fermenting, Distilling, and Aging

The juice is fermented with inoculated yeast (not the natural yeast on the cane) in a closed-top fermenter. You might expect such a natural-focussed product to allow a natural fermentation, but Reutner says that specifically because they're focussing on the native Hawaiian sugar cane varietals that they keep that the variable factor in production, and keep fermentation fixed.

That said, fermentation time varies depending on cane varietal and time/temperature of the year. They ferment until dry (all the sugar is consumed by yeast), with their shortest ferment on record at 24 hours and the longest was 14 days – but that ended up being a bad batch. 3-5 days is the average amount of time. I tasted the cane "wine" after fermentation and it was super acidic.

The cane wine is distilled in the bulb cap helmet still named "The Brain" (the other pot still, their original one, is named "Pinky") then flows through just one column afterward that has only three plates in it. (This is a discontinuous hybrid still set-up. They were planning to experiment with double pot distillation.)

They distill on the lees, the dead yeast from fermentation. They distill up to 165 proof down to about 140, with an average once collected of 162-164.

The white rum is rested a minimum of 90 days.

Their core aged rum, Koho, is aged for a minimum of two years in a combination of:
- New American oak barrels (char 1 with toasted heads from Independent Stave)
- The above barrels previously used to age their rum
- Ex-bourbon American oak barrels
They do have a few koa casks – this is a native hardwood used to make ukuleles and such. They're pictured below.

They angels' share is about 8.7%.

They have about 120 barrels aging currently, but are hoping to get up to 350 by the end of 2022, so they seem to be growing at a good pace.

The rum is non-chill filtered and no sugar is added. They use reverse osmosis water for proofing to barrel and bottle proof. They are aging some water (in the brandy style; Privateer rum under Maggie Campbell was also doing this) but I'm not sure if they're using it currently or experimenting with it.

Tasting Notes

My tasting notes aren't really meant to translate, so read at your own risk.

Unaged Rums:

Kea – This is the most popular varietal, and you can taste why it is: a solid, dry, citrusy agricole that will work just fine in cocktails. This is the only one you can buy online at their store, it seems. I'm not so sure how available the various varietal expressions are but I tasted through the line. These first four are 40% ABV.

Lahi – Smoky and a touch gamey, super citric acidity to the point of tasting carbonated.

Kalaoa – "rabbit glue" with a funky nose and a tight body

Hinachina (sp?) – a milder version of Kalaoa

Manuleilei – 50% ABV. "aluminum paste" with a fiery body

Aged Rums:

Koho: 45% ABV with Kea cane, barrels as mentioned above. Spicy Red Hots, new barrel tannins

Kila: Kea cane, aged and then finished in a rye barrel for Skull & Crown bar in Downtown Honolulu. 61.5% ABV, delicious, with a lot going on.

Kila: Kea cane, single barrel bourbon. Syrupy aroma and a big spicy jump mid-palate

Koa: Finished in Koa casks – Chocolately macadamia nut (I know, sorry) with raisin-clove Christmas spices.

Visiting the Distillery

Visiting the distillery: You can make reservations for a tasting at the bar or a longer educational tour in which you learn about native Hawaiian sugar cane varietals.

The visit is so popular (it's located near the Dole Plantation) that Ko Hana employs 14 farmers to grow the cane, 4 people in production to make the rum, and 10 tour guides to give tastings.

Thanks for a great visit, Kyle and Ko Hana!
November 17, 2021
Distilling Honey Into Vodka: An Interview with Caledonia Spirits Owner/Distiller Ryan Christiansen

Years ago when I first heard of – and tried- Barr Hill Gin, it was a revelation. The gin is neutral spirits with added juniper and honey- that's it. The honey brings with it other aromatics from the flora the bees feed on.

The gin is made by Caledonia Spirits in Vermont. A recent press release stated:

Caledonia Spirits is known best for its flagship gins, but the distillery's Barr Hill Vodka is a truly unique offering within the vodka category. Made entirely from raw northern honey and nothing else (~3000 lbs per batch), it’s distilled only twice – a stark contrast from many of the popular vodkas that get distilled 3-5 (or more) times and filtered to oblivion. Vodka was traditionally thought of as a spirit that became better the more times it was filtered, but doing so leaves a spirit that is completely odorless and tasteless.

Knowing just how beautiful of an ingredient the raw northern honey is, Caledonia Spirits wanted to flip tradition on its head and create a vodka that retains some of the flavor and aroma from its sugar source. Distilling and filtering it too many times would totally lose the honey flavor, but thanks to Caledonia Spirits’ unique process, the resulting vodka is fragrant and flavorful…yet not sweet at all. The honey tasting notes are very subtle, but they’re present enough to tell you that you’re not having the same neutral-tasting vodka that is so often served. Every year, Caledonia Spirits purchases 60,000-80,000 pounds of raw honey from beekeepers within a 250-mile radius of the distillery.

Sine then, the brand has released a vodka and a barrel-aged gin. I hadn't tried the vodka before. It is absolutely waxy almost to the point of greasy, with notes of Honey Nuts Cheerios, and I think I love it.

I was given the opportunity to interview Caledonia Spirits Owner/Distiller Ryan Christiansen, so that's just what I did!

Is the base of Barr Hill Gin purchased grain neutral spirits (plus honey and juniper)? Or is there distilled honey spirit in it also?

The base of Barr Hill Gin is grain neutral. It is then distilled in one of our two custom-built botanical extraction stills with Juniper. The spirit is proofed down with raw honey and our water.

Is Barr Hill Vodka 100% distilled from honey or is it a blend of GNS and distilled honey? If a blend can you give an approximate ratio?

Barr Hill Vodka is distilled entirely from raw northern honey.

I see several stills in the image on the website – the big pot and a small and tall finishing column. Which set-up do you use to make the gin vs the vodka?

Our gin is distilled in Irene and Ramona, two custom-built botanical extraction stills. Our vodka is distilled twice, once through a pot stripping run, then through the column still to 190 proof.

Images stolen from Barr Hill.

Is the honey sold by the pound? Is there a standard conversion for pounds of honey to liquid volume? Do you know the liquid volume of honey for the "60,000-80,000 pounds" you buy annually?

We purchase our honey by the 55 gallon drum, which holds about 650lbs of honey. In the last year we’ve used over 67,000 lbs to make our spirits. Each bottle of vodka requires 3-4 pounds of raw honey to make. Where we fall in that range from 3-4 depends on the batch size.

We do also sell our honey by the pound for use by bartenders and chefs.

For fermenting/distilling honey, do you dilute to a certain standardized sugar level (and do you measure this in BRIX) before fermentation? Can you say what that level is?

We pitch yeast at 24 brix, and ferment to dry.

How long does fermentation take? I imagine it's super fast.

Honey fermentations are much slower than grain fermentations, usually about 2-3 weeks to dry.

Do you temperature control the fermentation? Do you let it go longer into a malolactic fermentation? If not, is there a reason, such as it becomes disgusting?

We control fermentation temperatures with a water jacket on the fermenter. Honey fermentations don’t need much cooling. Our grain fermentations for whiskey production require much more heat extraction. We do not let our fermentations go to malolactic.

What's the ABV you get after fermentation?

Approx 12%.

You say you never heat the honey prior to fermentation, would heating it make it lose flavor/blow off volatile aromatics? (If I'm making a honey simple syrup should I not heat the water?)

This is a hard question to answer without a deep conversation. In short, it really depends on the honey. The botanical influence of the bees foraging varies significantly between honeys. As a general rule, keep the honey raw (below 110 degrees) when possible.

Obviously, our distillation process cooks our honey, but that occurs after fermentation. We’ve found it crucial to keep the honey raw during fermentation to develop and accentuate flavors that will stay intact through distillation.

And if you don't heat it and you do add water, is it very hard to mix? What do you use to mix it? Do you need specialized equipment for handling honey? It all seems incredibly sticky.

In our early days, it was a food grade shovel, bucket, electric drill, and a paint paddle with many trips up the ladder to the top of the fermenter. It was sticky and backbreaking, but it worked. We’ve added some fancy honey pumps and circulation lines in our fermenters that have made our lives a little easier. The honey is a sugar so with enough movement, it’ll dissolve. Keeping it raw certainly adds some challenges, but it’s essential for the finished spirit.

When purchasing huge volumes of honey as you do, how does that honey come? In what sort of container?

Beautiful reused and dented metal drums. Beekeepers never throw them away, they just keep traveling around the world. Even local honey is often delivered with old stickers and labels from all over the world.

Clearly as a vodka, you distill the fermented honey up to 95% to be a member of the category. I remember researching a while back to find that there wasn't a standardized terminology for what you'd call a lower-ABV honey distillate (other than "honey spirit") – some brands were calling their products "honey rum" for example. I'm wondering if you've heard any sort of consensus on this or your opinion on what to call honey spirit that isn't distilled to the vodka ABV?

I’ve heard a handful of terms. My favorite is Somel. This is an initiative led by a handful of distillers working with honey. https://somel.org/

Thanks to Caledonia Spirits for answering my questions!

August 4, 2020
Getting Nerdy About Soju Production: Sticky Rice, Nuruk Fermentation, Multi ABVs, Korean Production
I received an email from a newish soju brand Tokki Soju with a really interesting story. Given the technical skill of one of the founders, I thought I could get some additional information, and that's just what happened.

First, the background:

The brand was launched in 2016 by Founder Brandon “Bran” Hill and CEO Douglas Park and currently includes two soju offerings in its portfolio: the White Label (23% ABV) and the Black Label (40% ABV).

Armed with a BS in Molecular Biology, Tokki Founder Brandon “Bran” Hill moved to South Korea in 2011 to study traditional Korean fermentation and distilling. After receiving a Masters in Korean Traditional Alcohols at Susubori Academy, and having put some time in at a Korean yeast bank, he returned home to become the Head Brewer for Van Brunt Stillhouse in Brooklyn, NY. While at VBS, Bran began distilling soju as a passion project, and by 2016, the first bottles were hitting the shelves of NYC liquor stores.

What Is Soju and How is Tokki Different

Soju is a Korean distilled spirit that was traditionally made with rice, however during the Korean War, when rice was banned, most soju producers were forced to switch to alternative starches like wheat, sweet potatoes and tapioca. Although the ban was lifted in the 1990’s, many of the best selling brands in Korea still use alternative starches and chemicals to replicate the taste. Tokki Soju is the first American small-batch rice soju. Tokki is made with glutinous (“sticky”) rice, water, yeast and nuruk.

Soju is not to be confused with other Asian spirits, including Shochu and Sake (both of which hail from Japan), although there are some overlapping similarities to note. For instance, all three are made from rice, however both Soju and Shochu are distilled (while sake is brewed). Shochu and Sake are made with koji (inoculated rice), while Soju is made from rice. Most mass Soju and Shochu brands are distilled from alternative starches, including barley, sweety potatoes, wheat, etc. – but Tokki remains one of the few that uses rice, and again, glutinous rice at that.

What sets Tokki apart is that it’s the only soju brand on the market that uses glutinous (sticky) rice in the distilling process. They also hand-cultivate their own nuruk starter (a labor-intensive and costly process).

Nuruk for Soju Versus Qu for Baijiu

Nuruk is a traditional fermentation starter meant to saccharify the rice – most soju producers do not use the traditional ‘nuruk’ starter due to the intensive labor and costs. Tokki uses hand-cultivated nuruk that takes 2-3 weeks to grow. Tokki is distilled in a copper pot still and only 35% of the run is bottled. As for the sticky rice that Tokki sources, it is all local from Chungju, where the distillery resides, and as a result, will over time have a positive effect on the local agriculture as Tokki becomes the number one purchaser.

Nuruk in Korean alcohol seems similar to qu for Chinese spirits. I wrote about qu after a visit to China:

Qu is a combination of mold, yeast, and bacteria. It is used not only for baijiu production but also for undistilled Chinese beverages.
- The mold we could say is similar to koji used in sake and shochu production. It helps break the starches in the grains down into fermentable sugars (saccharification). In whiskey, this is accomplished by adding malted barley and/or enzymes to the grains.
- The yeast makes alcohol, as it does in other spirits.
- The bacteria helps in flavor development of the alcohol.
Back to nuruk: According to Wikipedia, "Microorganisms present in nuruk include Aspergillus oryzae, Rhizopus oryzae, lactic acid bacteria such as Lactobacilli, and yeasts, predominantly Pichia anomala and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Aspergillus provides the enzyme amylase, which saccharifies the rice's starches. The resulting sugars are consumed by the yeasts, producing alcohol, as well as the Lactobacilli, producing lactic acid. Rhizopus provides the enzyme protease and lipase, which break down the protein and fat in the outer layers of the rice grain (endosperm), allowing the amylase access to the starches in the inner part.

Camper: Can you name any differences in composition/action of nuruk vs qu, and also any production differences if you know?

Brandon “Bran” Hill:

Yes, traditional nuruk is similar to qu or "big qu" as far as the method of cultivation and how it is used in a fermentation, as a saccharification enzyme. Qu is different than what we personally use, because qu has wild yeast strains and bacteria attached to it. We only want aspergillus oryzae in our nuruk for conversion purposes and consistency. So, in our case, our nuruk is more similar to koji production, except koji is cultivated on whole rice and nuruk uses milled wheat cakes.

Camper: For other brands that use "alternative starches" and don't use nuruk, do they just add enzymes? (I see on Wikipedia that many/most mass market sojus are distilled to vodka levels then just diluted so probably!)

Bran:

The mass produced sojus brands (green bottle soju) do not make their soju. They operate more as bottlers of mass produced neutral spirit (like vodka) that they purchase and then add sweeteners, chemicals, and dilute before bottling. I currently do not know another soju brand that uses traditional nuruk, but not to say they don't exist, but it is rare. Brands who make their soju today, often use Japanese koji in their fermentations.

Fermentation

Korean Fermentations with sticky rice and nuruk purely depend on what you are trying to do with the fermentation. There are no set times for Korean fermentations and many different styles. Lots if variables come into play that will effect what determines the end of the fermentation. For example, the style or method used to start the fermentation process, feeding the culture multiple times, temperature of the fermentation, desired attenuation of the ferment, etc. Our fermentations take about 9 days for what we are trying to accomplish.

Sticky Rice

Camper: Sticky rice – from a production standpoint, why sticky rice? Wikipedia says "Glutinous rice is distinguished from other types of rice by having no (or negligible amounts of) amylose, and high amounts of amylopectin (the two components of starch)." and that amylose is "hard to digest" – does this imply that fermentation with nuruk would be much easier with sticky rice than with traditional rice as amylose is harder to break down from starch into fermentable sugars? I'm kind of making a guess here.

We tested many types of rice and combinations of rice in the beginning of Tokki, when we were deciding on a recipe. We choose to use just sticky rice or more specifically Korean Chap Ssal (잡쌀) for a few reasons. First, we knew wanted to use a Korean variety of rice for our soju. Second, for quality the flavor. Sticky rice is more glutinous and has a much sweeter and rounder flavor and feel that we prefer over other varieties of rice.

Yes, nuruk does break down the starch and into fermentable sugars to aid the start of the fermentation process. We also pitch yeast after our nuruk is added. It is true that amylose is harder to breakdown than other starch structures, but with our practices, I personally have never had a problem with liquefaction, conversion, or hitting desired attenuation in our fermentations with sticky rice. Also, I would not say that nuruk breaks down sticky rice easier than regular rice varieties in my experience. I have had great results with nuruk applied to both types of rice and haven't personally noticed a big discrepancy favoring one over the other as far as speed and yield of the fermentation goes.

By "hard to digest" amylose as a resistant starch on the Wikipedia page, I think they are referring to human digestion and not yeast digestion.

Humans have a problem physically digesting amylose when eating cereal grains because its molecular structure, but when we are mashing we break down the polymer and then distill it. The end soju product does not have the same molecular structure so, doesn't effect human digestion the same way. Also, haven't had any issues with yeast propagation in the fermentations either, but like you said…sticky rice has small amounts of amylose.

Camper; Also, is there a taste difference between using sticky and traditional rice? If so, how would you describe that difference?

Yes, as I said above, sticky rice is more glutinous and has a much sweeter fuller flavor that translates to the distillate. We preferred this flavor and thought it was much more versatile for our product when pairing. Most other rice varieties, like Korean Meb Ssal (멥쌀) lack sweetness and are more dry, flat, and less complex when distilled.

Why These ABVs, and Why Two Versions?

Camper: Bottling at two ABVs – In Korea what is the standard ABV (if there is one) – the lower or higher proof? If one or the other is standard (I think the lower proof), why did you decide to release it at two proofs in the US? I've noticed that some shochu brands have started doing this, I think to appeal to the bartender/mixology set.

Traditional soju in the past was consumed a high abv, usually whatever it came off the still at or slightly diluted to taste. The lower abv soju trend came during war times in Korea. To make sure there was enough soju to go around to all the soldiers, they would diluted it in half to double the quantity. The trend of low abv sojus held after the war and never really went back to the high abv style, at least not for the mass market.

There is no regulation or standard for soju abvs that you have to adhere to in Korea. You are free to release it at what expression you feel is best. Green bottle sojus have been declining in abv every year. Currently, most of the mass produced brands of soju have abv percentages that are in the teens.

We decided to release at two different abvs. The lower abv (Tokki White) at 23%, which also comes in a smaller 375ml bottle is more for the current trend of drinking with friends paired with food. The higher abv (Tokki Black) at 40%, comes in a 750ml bottle and is more of a nod to the old style sojus and more versatile. It is great for cocktails or just by itself.

Moving the Distillery to Korea

In recent news, Tokki Soju just moved their distillery from Brooklyn, New York, to Chungju, Korea. They also have plans to open a tasting room later this year, as well as their flagship bar in 2021. Tokki is launching a gin and a vodka brand this summer, making them the first to distill Western spirits in South Korea. A rum brand is also planned for 2021.

This will be a game-changer for cocktail bars in Korea, saving them on high import costs by giving them a local option.

The gin, Sonbi, will be distilled using citrus, flowers, and spices all native to Korea; only the juniper will be imported.

Camper: The decision to move the operation to Korea is a unique choice. What was the reason? I'm wondering if there were business reasons/incentives (such as the ability to be the first gin/vodka as a branding move, or government tax breaks or something), versus personal/relationship ones? I see it was mentioned "since all non-Korean spirits are currently imported at extremely high tax rates" that could be a factor if you're betting on sales in Korea.

There we many factors that went it to the move to Korea. First, you are correct, Korean importation taxes are very high on alcohol. We had an overwhelming fan base in Korea of people who wanted our products, but we were not able to come to market at a reasonable price exporting to Korea from New York. By not being able to offer a competitive price point exporting, we felt we would eliminate many demographics and send the wrong message about our mission.

Two, we thought if we were going to elevate the Korean spirits category we should start at the source and and produce in Korea. Three, the soju market is much larger here in Korea than the US and gives us more opportunities to grow.

Camper: Distilling – copper pot still in the US – pot with a column on top or just a pot still?

We have a hybrid still. We can run it as a pot and as a column. We do a two phase distillation in our process where we use both styles for our soju. First, is the pot stripping run and then cleaned up and finished with the column spirit run.

Camper: Did you move the still itself to Korea or get a new one?

We got a brand new still. We are using a much larger system now compared to our Brooklyn operation days. It is double the capacity of our old still.(1500 liters)

Camper: Assuming the soju will be made the same in the new distillery (it's a new distillery right?), did you get a new still for the vodka/gin – maybe not as I see the vodka base is rice plus GNS – are you planning to do self-distilled rice spirit plus GNS for the vodka? And for the gin is it just GNS or rice spirit in there too?

Yes, we have a new facility.

We did need a hybrid still to continue our same soju recipe, but it is great for a wide range of spirits. Our gin and vodka recipes are not finalized yet. We are in the trial and testing phases for both and looking forward to locking them down this year.

I can tell you that our vodka will be made with local sticky rice as well and our gin will most likely not contain rice, but will consist of botanicals unique to Korea that I have not seen in a gin before, like kul (귤) for example, which is a variety of Mandarin orange grown on the Korean island of Jeju.
July 30, 2020