Category: distilling
-
Hotaling Closes Junipero Distillery
I’m very late on reposting this to my website, but in February I wrote about the closing of the distillery on Pier 50 in San Francisco where Hotaling & Co produces Junipero gin. Read it here in the San Francisco Chronicle. (paywall)
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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.…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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 Reutnerdrove 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.…
-
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…