Category: distilling

The Use of Fixatives in Tea-Flavored Gin: A Chat with Gerald Rowland of Coit Spirits

It's a welcome exception to the hundreds of National Mimosa Day and other generic pitches about liquor I receive to get an email from someone who wants to talk technical details of production, and this post comes from one of them.

Gerald Rowland of Rowland Cellars and more relevantly Coit Spirits sent me an email teasing information about using fixatives in the recipe for his three gins that each call for tea:

Earl Grey Gin – with black tea and bergamot

Cape Gin – with fermented rooibos tea (red bush)

Caravan Gin – with tea smoked over pine needles

He wrote, "It took 12 months research on finding the correct plant based fixatives to stabilize the tea character that typically dissipates in 4-7 days. Normal gin botanical fixatives don't work."

Was I intrigued? Yes, yes I was.

Fixatives in Gin

In my various distillery visits over the years, distillers would say that certain botanicals act not so much as flavors on their own, but as fixatives to other desired botanicals' aromas.

Aaron Knoll wrote a very informative article for Distiller Magazine about fixatives in gin. I'll share a few relevant quotes:

The New Perfume Handbook describes a fixative as an “ingredient which prolongs the retention of fragrance on skin,” and is also sometimes described as “tenacity.” The other definition is summed up by The Chemistry of Fragrances as “a property of some perfume components, usually the higher boiling ones, which enables them to fix or hold back the more volatile notes so that they do not evaporate so quickly.” A fixative keeps the scent around longer. In the world of spirit production and distillation, we’re talking about the second definition.

The Perfume Handbook, published in 1992, lists 42 separate botanicals with fixative properties. Orris root and angelica, the two most often cited by gin distillers as being fixatives, are both present; however, so are some other common gin ingredients, such as coriander and woodruff that are rarely—if ever—granted that status.

The article concludes:

The literature on the topic of fixatives suggests that the effect in spirits and gin may not be big—or even there at all.

Furthermore, even in a profession where there is a tradition of considering fixatives in the design process, perfumer Josh Meyer explains that the process is still more artistic than analytical.

Back to Coit Spirits and Gerry Rowland. He wrote, "Most gins that have tea in their recipe usually don’t advertise it on the label (some state tea, but I have to look for it and wouldn’t have known tea was used unless I was told) as the tea is unstable and progressively dominated by the other botanicals in the recipe over time."

For most of the content below I have copied and pasted and moved some stuff around from Rowland's email and our back-and-forth conversation.

Tea is in the Tails

Black & Red teas brew at 200-212F to release their flavor [just below the boiling point of water], but London dry gin distillations are usually 176-185 F [just above the boiling point of alcohol].

The tea notes in my experience will not come over unless it comes with the water late in the distillation. I have found the tea is water soluble, not alcohol soluble.

To achieve this higher wash temp you use a lower ABV wash so the temp is higher to bring the spirit over. There is a second benefit at higher wash temperature, in that there is a true Maillard reaction of the botanicals in the wash providing a complex natural sweetness so these tea gins are made without adding sugar and yet still friendly to the palate putting them in a sip-able arena.

The tea [notes] comes over late in the distillation, usually after the tails cut of most London Dry Gin recipes as the root/bark botanicals are too harsh, triggering the earlier tails cut. The solution was to break away from traditional botanicals that trigger an early tails cut so you can capture the tea notes avoiding the harsh flavored botanicals.

In other words, some botanicals of traditional gins would need to be left behind so that they didn't interfere with the tea notes in the tails cut.

Tea Fixatives in Gin

I spent as much time solving this as I did working on the recipe and the above. The tea molecules are highly charged and bind with the other botanicals. In doing so there is a polymerization of botanical molecules that provide mouthfeel but the tea definition is lost as the molecule gets too large for our sensors to perceive them. This usually takes 4-7 days and occurs if the tea is distilled or steeped.

After 4-7 days steeping you have tannin expression but the subtle character of an individual leaf is lost. This fine tea character loss occurs irrespective if you steep in water or distill, the tea character immediately starts degrading post production of the liquid and after 4-7 days lapse post production the fine tea notes are gone.

When distilling with tea the tails cut is before the tannin comes over so you capture the essence of the fine tea character note without the aggressive tannin body of the tea.

So the tails cut of the gin is between the tea flavor and the tannins, if tannins come over at all in distillation.

There is an argument I have heard that gin doesn’t need fixatives, this might be true for spirit-based aromas & flavors of London Dry gins, but for water-based aromas & flavors missed in most LDGs (London Dry Gins) because of the earlier tails cut. In my experience I find them critical for water based aromas & botanicals. People who make tea extracts find the same as does the perfume industry and why we have fixatives from a century old industry.

There may be a case that if you don’t have any water based flavors & aromas that fixatives don’t matter and this may be true for many LDGs.

For me the solution was to look to the perfume industry at fixative botanicals that the right lock & key configuration to bind onto the tea molecules active polarized sites to keep it a small and discrete molecule blocking its charged receptor sights from other botanicals. Although this creates a stable molecule larger than the tea molecule it is still small enough that we can perceive it with our sensors.

Trial and Error and Three Fixatives

When I look at a fixative being successful for Coit Gin it has needed to both protect the aroma and promote lingering.

The perfume industry uses the fixatives at much higher rates being at 100-1000 times higher than the rate I use in Coit gin to achieve tea stability. Fixatives in perfume can affect the product in 3 or more ways.

1) They can be an ingredient directly providing an aroma.

2) Provide fixative qualities to unstable aromas, protecting the aroma character.

3) Increasing the persistence intensity and lingering ability of an aroma.

As far as fixative use in Coit gin it’s for stability its strictly points 2&3 from above, protecting aroma character & increasing the longevity or persistence of the aroma.

It took three fixatives botanicals to truly achieve stability and that were FDA-approved for consumption, as perfumes are topical whereas gin is internal. This took multiple parallel experiments to determine the rate of each fixative with each other.

The first fixative took stability out to 30 days at which time a small change was noted indicating a second fixative was required as more of the first fixative didn’t help. The second fixative extended the stability out to 90 days with a small change requiring a third fixative. The third fixative achieved stability.

If these experiments had been done consecutively instead of parallel it would take 1-2 decades before you would have these results. I tested many more than the 3 final plant based botanical fixatives when I went into production as no single fixative would do the job.

Once we worked out the maximum levels to prove stability we had to retest to minimum levels so the fixative botanicals did their job but did not influence the character of the recipe.

Parallels in Perfumery

I asked Rowland if he could share any examples of perfume fixatives (certain he wouldn't want to reveal the specific three used in Coit gins) so that we could have an idea of how they work. He wrote:

I provide the following selection as an example from Eden Botanicals

Note: I make no representation as to their FDA approval for use in USA.

Some Common Fixatives:

Amyris: Has a very tenacious, rich, complex odor that quickly fades out to a weak woody-balsamic scent, but is still a well-known fixative; it finds extensive application as a mild blender in numerous types of perfumes and blends well with lavandin, oakmoss, citronella, rose, Virginia cedarwood, etc.

Clary Sage: Has an herbal-sweet, nut-like fragrance with unusual tenacity; somewhat heavy with a balsamic, ambergris-like dryout reminiscent of tobacco, sweet hay, and tea leaves. An excellent fixative that can be used with perfumes of a more delicate bouquet, and with bergamot, cedarwood, citronella, cognac, cypress, geranium, frankincense, grapefruit, jasmine, juniper, labdanum, lavender, lime, and sandalwood.

Liquidambar (Styrax): Has a very rich, sweet-balsamic, faintly floral, somewhat spicy aroma, with a peculiar styrene topnote and resinous, animalic, amber-like undertones; to be used most sparingly and has excellent fixative qualities. An important element in lilac, narcissus, jonquil, hyacinth, jasmine, tuberose, and wisteria bases; it also blends well with ylang-ylang, rose, lavender, carnation, violet, cassie and spice oils. Benign solvent (ethanol) extracted Resinoid.

Oakmoss: Has a heavy, rich earthy-mossy, bark-like and extremely tenacious fragrance with a high fixative value; blends well with virtually all other oils, including lavender and ylang-ylang. Used to lend body and rich natural undertones to all perfume types.

The Choice of Fixatives for Coit Gins

On the brand's website, they list that there are 10 botanicals in the Earl Grey gin. I asked if the three final fixatives were counted among them.

The fixative botanicals are counted separate as they are at so low rates and don’t contribute flavor. My mindset was when I provide the botanical number it is about botanicals that provide the flavor and you could identify in the gin spirit.

I asked if the fixatives in Coit gins are detectable flavors, or if they're purely functional.

It took many months once finding the 3 to achieve the absolute minimum required of each when working in conjunction with each other.

At these low levels if I increase a fixative botanical rate I can see a change in expression of the tea notes but cannot pick the characteristic of the fixative itself. So the rates at these low levels are very critical. Different rates will have different effects. Fixatives are very dynamic on their rate of use effect as to protecting the aroma, persistence of the aroma and subtly influencing the aroma it is working on to swing it from a slightly savory floral note to a slightly sweeter floral note.

All 3 fixatives originate from plants i.e. root, leaf, flower, bark, stem. I also tested many highly processed plant compounds and other non-plant compounds to see what worked best, but none of the alternatives were as good as the 3 I found. In Coit’s case I was fortunate with the 3 that I found, were all of plant origin and in alignment of my mindset of a natural, vegan friendly product.

I didn't get the vegan-friendly thing until I later read the fixative article in Distiller magazine linked above, which states, "Throughout the history of perfume, the most important fixatives have been heavy, animal-derived products. Musk from civets and ambergris from whales are among those derived from fauna, however, distillers tend to draw their fixative heritage from the flora side of things."

So all of that is very interesting, and nothing I'd spent much time thinking about previously. I hope you enjoyed geeking out with me.

Other Products

Worth mentioning is that Coit Spirits also has a bourbon on the market and potentially a fourth gin on the way.

The bourbon is as transparent as the gin. From the website:

Indiana Straight Bourbon Whiskey, High Rye, Four Grain, 49% ABV

Distilled and aged on site in Indiana at MGP

Unique for MGP is the 4 grain bourbon, the corn and rye provide the backbone, the wheat uplifts both aroma & flavor, and the barley harmonizes the three.

Straight Bourbon Whiskey, straight from the barrel, assembled, proofed and into the bottle. No charcoal or cold filtration. 49% ABV

And about that fourth gin we may see in the future:

I am also working on a truly indigenous gin to the Pacific Ocean and coastal Pacific Ranges of the West Coast USA. I am 2+ years into this recipe and 80% there but still working on the finish.

Some producers have a ‘local or native gin’ these usually contain botanicals that were never indigenous to their region with local but ‘introduced botanicals’ or cross bred sub species; for example a citrus developed/cross bred in Riverside so technically from the USA, but citrus as a species never existed indigenously in the USA in the first place.

So credit to those producers for being creative but it highlights the difficulty in a truly indigenous recipe that I am working as opposed to native or local.

I look forward to trying the gins (and bourbon) out now and the native gin down the line.

June 15, 2020
Cognac Distillation On the Lees (Hine Series Part 2)

I sent a list of 100 questions to the cellarmaster of Hine cognac, and am sorting through the answers in a series of posts. In the first post, we looked at cognac from grapes to wine. In this post, we'll take the wine through distillation.

The posts in this series are:

1. Cognac from grapes to wine.

2. Cognac distillation and the impact of distillation on the lees.

3. Wood and barrels used for cognac.

4. Aging conditions for cognac.

5. The strange exception of early landed cognac.

6. Dilution and Additives in Cognac.

Hine cognac is located on the banks of the Charente River in Jarnac, one of the three principle cities of cognac production along with Cognac and Segonzac. Even before cognac was produced in the region (Hine dates to 1763), the river was used to ship salt. Now the river isn't used commercially as far as I know, but the moist air the pervades the cognac aging cellars near the river bank and plays a part in developing the character of cognac. Hine is also unique in that they sell "early landed" cognacs that aren't aged in the Cognac region, but in England. We'll talk about aging in a later post.

As we covered in the last post, it is common for cognac makers to own some of their own vineyards and purchase wine from other growers. Similarly with distillation, some brands distill more or less of their wine or leave it to the winegrowers to distill.

In the case of Hine, as I learned when I visited in 2014, nearly all of their wine is distilled at a distillery called St. Denis. This distillery works with a lot of brands – they estimated that Hine is only 10 percent of their output.

Cognac Distillation

Legally cognac must be twice distilled in direct-fired Charentais pot stills, and distillation of the wine (which is stored without sulfur preservative) must be completed by March 31.

A diagram of the Charentais still is below. You'll recognize the pot still with it's bulb cap on the right, and the coil for the condenser that cools vapor to liquid on the left. But what's that thing in the middle?

That's the wine warmer, an efficiency enhancement fairly particular to cognac production. Before distillation, wine is stored in there, and during the previous distillation run (wine in the still), a tube runs through the wine warmer on the way to the condenser. This heats up the wine so that when it is put into the still for the next distillation run they'll have to expend less heat/energy to do so. Smart!

The wine that comes into the distillery (at about 9% ABV) is distilled up to 30% ABV after the first distillation. They make a heads and tails cut after the first as well as the second distillation. The second distillation brings the spirit up to 70-72% ABV.

Each distillation takes about 12 hours, so it's a full day for each still's worth of wine to be processed into eau de vie. You can see why they need from the end of harvest in the fall until March 31 to complete distilling all the wine for cognac.

Now, as cognac brands working with winegrowers pre-specify the strain of yeast to be used, they also specify distillation parameters such as the number of liters collected (the size of the heart cut), the speed of distillation, and whether or not to distill on the lees. I asked Hine Cellarmaster Eric Forget if they specify this all in advance or if it changes along the way. He wrote, "Everything is fixed by tasting, and could be changed every week."

Everything except for distilling on the lees that is.

Distilling with the Lees

Lees are the dead yeast cells left over from fermentation. Some brands distill "on the lees" and others filter them out first. As lees are solids, there is always the danger of them sticking to the bottom/sides of the still and burning, creating off-flavors. Forget says this is a "crucial point" about distilling on the lees and the care that must be taken.

I wanted more information about distilling on the lees, so I went to the definitive source, Nicholas Faith's Cognac (2004 edition). Some quotes from that section (p24):

Moreover the lees need protecting from the air before the wines are distilled and cannot safely be used late in the distillation season, once the external temperature has risen much about 10C.

And, as one distiller pointed out, "lees means that you need time for the brandies to mature and provide their additional complexity."

The yeast lees contain a number of esters, including three fatty acids, which turn out to be absolutely critical in giving the cognac its much prized rancio (a particular rich, cheesy flavour) quality when it is in cask.

… virtually all the producers in the Grande Champagne I have come across distill on at least some of the lees, if only because they are producing brandies destined to mature long enough to absorb the resulting richness in the brandy.

I decided to look up which brands distill on the lees and which do not. I had heard of the "Big Four" brands (Hennessy, Remy-Martin, Martell, Courvoisier) that only Remy distills on the lees, but when I went to confirm that I ran into inconsistent information.

Distill always on the lees: Hine, Remy [source], Camus, Frapin [source], Louis XIII [source]

Does not distill on the lees: Martell

Some with and some without: Courvoisier and Otard/D’ussé [source], though Courvoisier's website says it does distill on the lees but doesn't specify if it always does [source]. Hennessy distills on "fine lees" [source]. But overall I wouldn't count on the accuracy of this information – my guess is that some of their eau de vie may be distilled on the lees but generally not. As we learned from the Nicholas Faith book quotes, VS cognac (only lightly aged) wouldn't be a good fit for brandy distilled on the lees and we know in the case of Hennessy for example that VS is something like 80 percent of their sales.

In any case, back to Hine: I was wondering if there is such thing as "reduced lees" or "partial lees" or something like that to impact flavor to a lesser extent. Forget said (speaking about Hine specifically), "We distill all lees but filtered to avoid big impurities. There is never too much lees."

So what the impact of lees? Usually we hear that they add a nutty taste and more creamy body/texture to the resultant eau de vie; that distillation with lees allows for a "more complex" spirit versus a "cleaner" spirit without.

Flavor Impact of Distillation on the Lees

I asked cellarmaster Eric Forget what are the production parameters that he felt make the most impact on determining Hine's house style – what makes Hine Hine? He noted that distillation on the lees was the second most important factor in Hine's flavor profile:

He said: "Terroir has the most impact. Only (grapes from Grande and some Petite) Champagne region." Second, "Distillation with lees." Third, "Aging in fine, medium-grain oak barrels that are lightly charred." and fourth, "The differentiation is made with these three key points together, and a balance between the elements of the raw material (wine) and the wood."

We'll cover those third and fourth factors, among others, in the next several posts after the new year.

And if you haven't read it yet, check out the first post, "Cognac from Grapes to Wine."

Note: This series of posts has been sponsored by Hotaling & Co, importers of Hine cognac.

© Eric Medsker

December 19, 2019
All the Cocktail and Spirits Books Released in 2019

It's time for my annual post of (almost) all the cocktails and spirits books published this year, in consideration for gifting to others or keeping to read yourself. I know my shelf of to-read books is looking pretty menacing already, and I still have to buy some of these.

If I forgot your favorite book please do let me know and I'll add it! I am not excluding any cocktails/spirits books on purpose.

Links are to Amazon.com but you are encouraged to support your local independent bookstores when possible.

Low and No Alcohol

Just the Tonic: A Natural History of Tonic Water by Kim Walker and Mark Nesbitt

Alcohol-Free Cocktails: The Redemption Bar by Catherine Salway and Andrea Waters

All Day Cocktails: Low (And No) Alcohol Magic by Shaun Byrne and Nick Tesar

The Art of the Garnish by Leeann Lavin

Gin Books

The Martini Cocktail: A Meditation on the World's Greatest Drink, with Recipes by Robert Simonson

Sip: 100 gin cocktails with just three ingredients by Sipsmith

The World Atlas of Gin by Joel Harrison and Neil Ridley

The Big Book of Gin by Dan Jones

Gin Made Me Do It: 60 Beautifully Botanical Cocktails by Jassy Davis

Ginspiration: The Best Distilleries, Infusions, and Cocktails by Klaus St. Rainer

Gin Cocktails: Classic & contemporary cocktails by Hamlyn

Aged Gin Cocktails: 25 Cocktails for Gin's Newest Style by Aaron J Knoll

International Books

The Complete Guide to Japanese Drinks: Sake, Shochu, Japanese Whisky, Beer, Wine, Cocktails and Other Beverages by Stephen Lyman, Chris Bunting

Great Northern Cocktails by Shawn Soole

Drunk in China: Baijiu and the World’s Oldest Drinking Culture by Derek Sandhaus

Whisky Books

World of Whisky: Taste, Try and Enjoy Whiskies From Around the World by David Wishart, Neil Ridley

The Complete Whiskey Course: A Comprehensive Tasting School in Ten Classes by Robin Robinson

The Whisky Dictionary: An A Z of whisky, from history & heritage to distilling & drinking by Ian Wisniewski

Whisky Cocktails by Hamlyn

The Bourbon King: The Life and Crimes of George Remus, Prohibition's Evil Genius by Bob Batchelor

Jim Murray's Whiskey Bible 2020: North American Edition by Jim Murray

Rum and Tiki

Rum Cocktails by Hamlyn

The Home Bar Guide to Tropical Cocktails: A Spirited Journey Through Suburbia’s Hidden Tiki Temples by Tom Morgan and Kelly Reilly

Tiki: Modern Tropical Cocktails by Shannon Mustipher

Minimalist Tiki by Matt Pietrek and Carrie Smith

A Rum Tale: Spirit of the New World by Joseph Piercy

(new translation) D. KERVÉGANT – Rhum and Cane Eau-de-vie (1946)

Other Spirits

That's the Spirit!: 100 of the world's greatest spirits and liqueurs to drink with style by Jonathan Ray

The Tequila Dictionary by Eric Zandona

Understanding Mezcal by James Schroeder

Misc Recipe Books

Schofields Classic Cocktail Cabinet by Joe Schofield, Daniel SchofieldHow to Cocktail: Recipes and Techniques for Building the Best Drinks by America's Test Kitchen

Gather Around Cocktails: Drinks to Celebrate Usual and Unusual Holidays by Aaron Goldfarb

Vogue Cocktails by Henry McNulty

Cocktails with a Twist: 21 Classic Recipes. 141 Great Cocktails. by Kara Newman

Flask: 41 Portable Cocktails to Drink Anywhere by Sarah Baird

Happy Hour: The Cocktail Card Game by Laura Gladwin and Marcel George

Spirits, Sugar, Water, Bitters: How the Cocktail Conquered the World by Derek Brown and Robert Yule

The Complete Home Bartender's Guide: Tools, Ingredients, Techniques, & Recipes for the Perfect Drink by Salvatore Calabrese

Bar Chef: Handcrafted Cocktails by Christiaan Rollich

Batch Cocktails: Make-Ahead Pitcher Drinks for Every Occasion by Maggie Hoffman

Floral Libations: 41 Fragrant Drinks + Ingredients by Cassie Winslow

From Garden to Glass: 80 Botanical Beverages Made from the Finest Fruits, Cordials, and Infusions by David Hurst

French Moderne: Cocktails from the Twenties and Thirties with recipes by Franck Audoux

Fancy AF Cocktails: Drink Recipes from a Couple of Professional Drinkers by Ariana Madix, Tom Sandoval

The Postmodern Bartender by Hayden Wood

The NoMad Cocktail Book by Leo Robitschek

The Aviary: Holiday Cocktails by Grant Achatz, Nick Kokonas, Allen Hemberger

How to Cocktail: Recipes and Techniques for Building the Best Drinks by America's Test Kitchen

Let's Get Blitzen: 60+ Christmas Cocktails to Make Your Spirits Bright by Sother Teague

Misc Books: Industry, Bitters, Distilling

Botany at the Bar: The Art and Science of Making Bitters by Selena Ahmed, Ashley Duval, Rachel Meyer

How To Get U.S. Market-Ready: Wine and Spirits by Steve Raye

The Art of Distilling, Revised and Expanded: An Enthusiast's Guide to the Artisan Distilling of Whiskey, Vodka, Gin and other Potent Potables by Bill Owens, Alan Dikty, Andrew Faulkner

Cocktail and Culture Books

The Official Downton Abbey Cocktail Book: Appropriate Libations for All Occasions

Shaken: Drinking with James Bond and Ian Fleming, the Official Cocktail Book

Last Call: Bartenders on Their Final Drink and the Wisdom and Rituals of Closing Time by Brad Thomas Parsons

Are You Afraid of the Dark Rum?: and Other Cocktails for '90s Kids by Sam Slaughter

Drink Like a Geek: Cocktails, Brews, and Spirits for the Nerd in All of Us by Jeff Cioletti

A Sidecar Named Desire: Great Writers and the Booze That Stirred Them by Greg Clarke and Monte Beauchamp

Gin Austen: 50 Cocktails to Celebrate the Novels of Jane Austen by Colleen Mullaney

Gin Rummy: Gin Lovers Playing Cards by Emma Stokes and Jean Andre

Glass and Gavel: The U.S. Supreme Court and Alcohol by Nancy Maveety

Bourbon Justice: How Whiskey Law Shaped America by Brian F. Haara

Beer, Cider, and Wine Books

Drink Better Beer: Discover the Secrets of the Brewing Experts by Joshua M. Bernstein

Cider Revival: Dispatches from the Orchard by Jason Wilson

Spritz Fever!: Sixty Champagne and Sparkling Wine Cocktails by Elouise Anders

The Cider Insider: The Essential Guide to 100 Craft Ciders to Drink Now by Susanna Forbes

The Lager Queen of Minnesota: A Novel by J. Ryan Stradal

Natural Wine for the People: What It Is, Where to Find It, How to Love It by Alice Feiring

Celebrate Rosé: Cocktails & Parties for Life's Rosiest Moments by Ashley Rose Conway

Cheese Beer Wine Cider: A Field Guide to 75 Perfect Pairings by Steve Jones and Adam Lindsley

Sakepedia: A Non-Traditional Guide to Japan’s Traditional Beverage by Jeff Cioletti

The Bucket List: Beer: 1000 Adventures " Pubs " Breweries " Festivals by Justin Kennedy

The World Atlas of Wine 8th Edition by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson

YES WAY ROSÉ A Guide to the Pink Wine State of Mind by Erica Blumenthal and Nikki Huganir

Not enough books for you??? Check out:

All the Cocktail and Spirits Books Released in 2018

All the drink books that came out in 2017

All the Cocktails and Spirits Books Published in 2016 for Reading or Gifting

All the Cocktails & Spirits Books Published in 2015, For Reading or Gifting

More Than 40 Drink Books Published in 2014 for Reading or Gifting

December 3, 2019
A Fascinating Interview with Remy Martin Cognac Cellarmaster Baptiste Loiseau
I was recently in Calistoga to meet with Baptiste Loiseau, cellarmaster for Remy Cognac. We had a quick interview early in the day but I wanted more info, so I ended up monopolizing his time after dinner. We spoke for a very long time (I promised it was "quick questions" but I think it went an hour) and I learned so, so much!

(However, please note that I wrote up this post working from my brief notes, rather than from a transcript, and it has not been fact-checked. )

The trip was to introduce the new permanent expression to the Remy line, Tercet. In this post I'll talk about the points of uniqueness of Tercet as well as Remy Martin cognac in general.

Tercent sits in the range as such:
- VSOP $46
- 1738 $60
- Tercet $110
- XO $200
Plus the older/fancy bottlings. Tercet is aged to the legal VSOP level (4 years) but is closer in average age to an XO, according to Loiseau.

Baptiste Loiseau. All images provided by Remy Martin.

The marketing emphasizes "three artisans," – the wine master (grower), the master distiller, and the cellar master. The flavor profile notes emphasize it being "fruit-forward," "fresh," and with a "long and complex finish." And to me, the bottle evokes earthiness/rusticness/artisanship.

As always, I'm interested in why a brand story and flavor profile are described a certain way. In the process of asking what is unique about Tercet and why it's positioned in this way I learned tons of information.

The Why of Tercet

The brand found that many drinkers didn't know where cognac comes from or that it's made from grapes, even many fans and regular drinkers of cognac. (This is the case for many of the world's strongest spirit brands- people who drink Patron don't know it's tequila, people who drink Jameson don't know it's whiskey.)

Loiseau said, and this is the only direct quote I have in this whole huge write-up, "People are enjoying a brand or a category, but if we want them to choose cognac in future years [if/when they become more educated drinkers] we have to emphasize what makes it special."

To accomplish this goal, Tercet emphasizes grapiness/freshness in flavor, and the three producers on the label. And by emphasizing the producers on the label, this is a visual key to how it's made: it's made from Wine that is Distilled and Aged.

As to how Tercet is positioned in the line, Loiseau said that the 1738 blend more emphasizes woody notes while Tercet emphasizes the fruit.

Tercet is bottled at 42% ABV, which is higher than nearly all cognac. I asked Loiseau if the marketing department had come to him with a brief of needs list of a higher proof, but he said that no – he approached marketing with his desired proof for Tercet and they liked it as a point of differentiation.

Winemaking

Loiseau's history is as an agronomist and oenologist – in other words, an expert in winemaking. The marketing copy seems to imply that Loiseau discovered wines from the artisan winemaker Francis Nadeau that were super interesting and he put some aside for special experimentation, but the reality is a different (not a huge surprise there, but much easier to explain). Loiseau estimated that Nadeau's distillates make up just about 1% of the liquid Remy buys overall.

On the other hand, Nadeau sells about 90 percent of his eau de vie to Remy, and his father and grandfather sold to the house also. So the company and the winegrower have a close and great working relationship, as well as an expertise in winemaking.

The new blend Tercet doesn't have a distinctly large amount of wine from Nadeau's vineyards – his emphasis on the packaging/marketing of the new release is a nod to his involvement of growing/pressing/fermenting/distilling the specific style of grape/wine used in the Tercet blend.

Sidebar: For the wines purchased by Remy Martin, the winegrowers distill at their own properties. Remy only distills wine from their own wineries.

Loiseau said that when he was working on this project, previous cellar master Pierrette Trichet expressed concern that when the distillate aged and evolved, it might not match the Remy Martin house style. But it all worked out: They followed this eau de vie along as it aged until they felt it was ready to take the spotlight. Then they had to make more of it.

Remy buys wine from about 800 winegrowers. They grow the grapes, press the juice, ferment, and distill them. They do this in the style of the cognac house they will sell to – for example some cognac brands distill on the lees (yeast and grape skin bits post-fermentation) and others do not. So going into the harvest, the winegrowers are given directions from the brands they plan to sell to about how they should make their distillates. Loiseau mentioned an "annual winemakers meeting" which sounds exciting to me, but you know, I'm special.

Many growers sell to multiple brands, so they are making different styles of eau de vie in one facility. (Fascinating! My idea of how this works was that after distillation various brands come and just pick and choose what they want from a bunch of vats of eau de vie, but rather it's "here's your order, make sure it's to your specifications, and then pay us!")

So Loiseau and his team must talk to all the growers each year and give them directives – not just specific to their house style, but specific to the wine produced at each vineyard: his team will taste the wines made at a vineyard and tell the local distiller to remove X amount of heads when distilling. A winemaker with a very good wine may be told to keep in a larger part of the heads, while a bad batch of wine will result in being advised to keep a much smaller percentage of the heart and discard more of the heads. Loiseau says that only more skilled winemakers can achieve the style of wine they're looking for (I think he was saying the type of wine specific to Tercet at this point in the conversation), so not everyone is advised to distill their wine the same way.

Only after newly distilled eau de vie is produced do people from Remy evaluate it and choose to buy or reject the eau de vie, so the the winemakers don't actually have to take this advice on how to make it. Remy pays more for distillate that has a potential for longer aging, so I wondered if winemaker/distillers try to include more of the heads than they should. Then the winemaker would have more distillate to sell if they keep in more of the liquid, but Loiseau essentially dismissed this as something that doesn't really happen. They work with winemakers every year to ensure they know what the parameters are going in, so why risk it?

Aging

Remy has two different types of contracts, for aging either at the winemaker's site, or aging in Remy's cellars. In either case, it's aged in Remy-purchased casks. Loiseau says the reason for not aging it all themselves isn't necessarily space issues, but for diversity of cellars and resulting flavor.

Cognac is aged in a combination of dry and wet cellars, but Loiseau says that the balance between cellars is not a point of differentiation for Tercet anyway. The barrels they use for Tercet are the point – they're older and give less wood impact in order to let the fruit shine through.

Make It Rich

Tercet is also meant to have a richness to it, coming from distilling on the lees that bring more fatty acids to the final product. However when you distill on the lees, you have to pay extra careful attention to saponification – when you dilute a spirit too quickly it can make unwanted soapy flavors. Loiseau says that for cognacs not distilled on the lees you can do a faster dilution scheme compared with the stuff distilled on the lees.

Another thing I learned is that you don't proof in the barrel directly due to the fear of saponification – those molecules (don't recall what type they are) tend to stick to the barrel and particularly when you reuse barrels the next thing to age in it is impacted by soapy flavors sticking around.

Even within a line of products from one maker, there are different dilution rates – unlike in some spirits, producers do not simply let a cognac age then add enough water to bottling proof. The richer products aging for longer get a slower rate of dilution: They add some water before putting the fresh distillate into barrels, then more at certain lengths of aging, then slightly adjust the proof before bottling.

Loiseau said that this gentler dilution rate also impacts barrel proof: To cognacs that are destined for younger products, you add water before putting them into the barrel the first time. This meets the ideal or target entry level proof found to best in cognac (overall in the industry – much like in bourbon, barrel entry proof was studied and a common standard was determined). Remy VSOP and 1738 go into the barrel at this standard proof.

So, for future fattier Tercet, less water is added at the outset, resulting in a higher barrel proof. Higher barrel proofs (higher than the ideal standard) do not, as you'd assume is the case, mean more wood extraction from the barrel, but less. So this means that there will be less wood flavor impact on this blend. And this helps ensure that the blend has the less-wood-more-fruit flavor they're going for.

Loiseau used the word "gentle" to describe how Tercet is produced to reach the desired flavor profile and said they use a gentleness in other ways too: There's a gentle pressing of the grapes to get a clearer juice/wine, a slower fermentation (temperature controlled) to keep more delicate aromas in the wine, a slower speed of distillation (longer warm-up), and slower water reduction scheme. So we can see that a cognac maker can identify the end product that they want to make and adjust many factors that will steer it toward that end – in the fermentation, distillation, aging, and dilution.

Dear Reader: This was so much new, exciting, revealing, and mind-blowing information – and most of it explained to me over the course of a single hour – that I was jacked up on science at 11pm and couldn't get to sleep for hours, despite all the cognac. Of course, on rereading this post I could add another 20 questions about how Tercet's wine, distilling, and aging schemes differ from those of 1738 in particular, but that will have to wait for another opportunity I hope to get one day.

The Flavor of Tercet and Why

As mentioned above, Tercet is meant to emphasize fruitiness, freshness, and a long finish.

Distilling on the lees is meant to give the cognac body – softness and also a nuttiness, in addition to a potential for longer aging.

The grape and fruity flavors are emphasized by gentle handling of the liquid to ensure more of the raw material notes stay in the liquid rather than become covered up or evaporate off.

The fresh: notes Loiseau is talking about are actually tropical/exotic fruit notes like banana, pineapple, mango, and lychee.

The higher proof of 42 percent ABV helps these notes pop out first – on nosing they quickly pop. And then it's time for that long finish – tons of Christmas cake, ginger, nutty, nutmeg and spice notes come out. These come in part from the fatty acids there from distilling on the lees. Loiseau noted that the base notes are present in Tercet while the woody, tannic notes of the barrel are not emphasized in the blend.

This long and spicy finish comes from using older cognac in the blend that has had time to develop this complexity and a rancio notes. When we added ice to the cognac (which I was hesitant to do) the extra 2% ABV helped it stand up better to dilution, the creamy body remained in the brandy in the glass, and leathery sort of notes and that ginger dominated. It had the notes of many peoples' ideal Old Fashioned.

Thanks to Remy Martin and Baptiste Loiseau for an awesome opportunity to geek out on cognac!
October 16, 2019
Grains of Peril: The Frivolous Florida Gin Lawsuit and Adulterant Analysis by Lance Winters

You may have heard that a lawyer in Miami is suing Bombay Sapphire gin because it includes grains of paradise in the recipe.

The suit is due to a 150 year old law meant to prevent potentially dangerous adulteration of alcoholic beverages. Also included in the law were several other "adulterants." As posted to the HoochLaw blog, the law reads:

Whoever adulterates, for the purpose of sale, any liquor, used or intended for drink, with cocculus indicus, vitriol, grains of paradise, opium, alum, capsicum, copperas, laurel water, logwood, brazil wood, cochineal, sugar of lead, or any other substance which is poisonous or injurious to health, and whoever knowingly sells any liquor so adulterated, shall be guilty of a felony of the third degree.

When I saw this, I realized cochineal, a common red coloring derived from scale insects, would also render many spirits illegal in Florida if grains of paradise are.

One of those spirits is St. George Spirits' Bruto Americano, an Italian-inspired aperitif liqueur colored with cochineal.

Lance Winters, President & Master Distiller for St. George Spirits, sent me an email with his (amazing!) analysis of the situation.

Winters wrote:

To adulterate something is to corrupt it, often in an effort to perpetrate fraud by creating a counterfeit of something. In 1860 when this law was written, there were small rectifiers and liquor compounders across the country who would often "create" one spirit out of another.

For example, a "French brandy" could be made from a mixture of high proof grain spirits, Cognac oil and coloring. Another recipe in Lacour advises on making Cognac: "One barrel of whiskey, say forty gallons, add tincture of grains of paradise, one quart; powdered catechu, three ounces; mucilage of slippery elm bark, two thirds of a pint; oil of lemon, eighty drops; well rubbed in an ounce of dry white or brown sugar, and added to the liquor; then add six ounces of acetic ether".

As these recipes show, ingredients like those listed in the Florida law were often used to create imitation versions of spirits, hence the use of the term adulteration. Grains of paradise in particular were used for hundreds of years to make a spirit seem stronger than it actually was, allowing an unscrupulous compounder to label a spirit with a higher alcohol content than was actually in the bottle. Capsicum, also listed in the regulation, was often used to give the false sensation of a higher alcohol content.

The statement that the use of grains of paradise was "unconscionable" relates to [the lawyer's] prior claim of the spice to induce abortion. Grains of paradise are not an abortifacient. Their intense flavor was often used to mask the taste of abortifacients which were administered without the knowledge of the pregnant woman.

Cocktail Geeks will know that in the back of the original Jerry Thomas' Bar-Tenders Guide was the Guide to Manufacture of Cordials, Liqueurs, etc., which had similar recipes for adulterating neutral spirit to make gin, whiskey, etc..

Lance Winters then went on to describe what the other illegal ingredients were used for in adulteration:

Cocculus indicus was added to beer to promote a sense of giddiness. It's now commonly used as a homeopathic remedy for motion induced nausea.

Vitriol is good old sulfuric acid, used for the "beading" effect in liquor in an effort to further falsify alcohol content. If it's so dangerous, why is there so much food grade sulfuric acid available?

Grains of paradise were also known as Guinea pepper. In "Lacour, on the Manufacture of Liquor" (1853), an old how-to for both genuine purveyors and shysters, the author states that "Of the different varieties of pepper, none answers for the purpose of giving a false strength to liquors, except Guinea pepper; a tincture prepared from this variety has a taste analogous to alcohol, whereas the taste from the other varieties remains on the palate a considerable length of time after being swallowed."

Alum was used to intentionally impart roughness to wines, again (I assume) to give the sense of a higher alcohol content. We most often use it in pickles.

Capsicum was another tool to falsify alcohol content. It's also food. Packed with vitamin C. Say goodbye to pepper flavored vodkas in Florida.

Copperas is an Old-Timey name for iron II sulfate. Probably used to color spirits that were supposed to have some sort of herb content or to stabilize same. Now found in supplements for people with iron deficiencies.

Laurel water was distilled from the leaves of the cherry laurel and consisted chiefly of prussic acid. Probably used to give almond notes to artificial kirsch. Totally poisonous. Not going to argue that one.

Logwood is a dye, brown, red and purple. Not sure about its toxicity, but was probably used to give the impression of barrel aging.

Brazil wood would have been used in the same way.

Cochineal, same use, currently used to color foods and cosmetics.

Sugar of lead? C'mon, that's just silly. And toxic. And already prohibited.

Thanks to Lance Winters for his analysis/rant in the form of detailed information!

As is probably obvious to all but the lawyer in question, the spirit of the law seems to be to prevent using these ingredients to fool customers into purchasing counterfeit and potentially dangerous alcohol. Most of the ingredients are Generally Recognized as Safe by the US government, so they're permitted in the standard production of food and beverages.

October 14, 2019
Ramping up Aromatics in Cognac: How Camus Does it

When I was in China helping judge the Camus cognac Shanghai Shake, I had the opportunity to interview president Cyril Camus.

Recently the language on Camus' core line changed to invoke "intensely aromatic" language on the branding. Cyril says that this has rolled out in the US and some other markets, with more to come. They're particularly promoting the VSOP (using the phrase "Very Special" instead of VS on that marque).

I asked Cyril about the reason for the rebrand/change in flavor profile- particularly from a marketing perspective. What was the consumer demand for the change, if any? Was it to be more useful in cocktails?

He says that this was not the case. "I think that the density of aromas and lower level of wood allows you to make more aroma-forward cocktails. It's good timing, but wasn't the reason we did it."

In the first place, I didn't realize that this flavor profile change wasn't instant; it's more of an evolution of flavor profile building up to the VSOP/XO of today. Cyril says about 15 or 16 years ago, they were trying to define from a consumer standpoint how people define or judge a cognac as the best. They wanted to have a "measureable, distinctive point" of quality over other brands so that they didn't need to rely on the typical language of 'a blend over over X cognacs aged up to Y years' that all the other brands use.

They determined three important factors: the density of floral aromas (which they measure via concentration of terpenols); density of fruity aromas (measured in count of esters); and the balance between fruit notes and wood impact. With this in mind, they set out to move the flavor profile towards something "obviously distinctive."

[all images in this post provided by Camus]

The biggest change made (about ten years or so ago) was distilling on the lees – the dead yeast and other particles from the winemaking process left unfiltered. According to their materials, this raises the amount of esters from 30mg/L up to 70 mg/L.

One thing that hasn't changed is Camus' use of grapes from the Borderies region, where Camus is based. Cognac from this region is said to be more floral than from other regions, and this adds to the terpenol count. The Borderies is only about 5% of the total cru for growing cognac grapes.

In the vineyard, they make efforts to have the best wine by putting weather stations in the vineyards (only about 10-15% of the grapes they use are from their own property) to know best when to harvest, and then harvesting extra-quickly with larger machines than are strictly necessary. As grapes are being transported to the presses they are seeded with yeast, which I'm guessing is to ensure any natural fermentation that happens along the way happens with their own yeast strains rather than the natural ones from the vineyards.

Camus distills about 90% of the wine sourced from about 200 growers (plus their own grapes), and the rest is distilled according to their patented process.

About that: another factor in ramping up aromatic intensity is including more of the heads of distillation in the product. Cyril says that the first 20L of the second distillation are the heads are removed and stored separately liter by liter. Cyril says that though the heads are known for being very aromatic and full of esters, they're also pretty unpredictable in quality. So the master distiller will go through and taste/nose the heads and include back into the heart the desired heads fragments. These heads are not aged separately but put into barrel with the hearts.

This brings up the esters from 30mg/L without lees to 70 with lees to 200 mg/L with their "intensity distillation" process.

I asked Cyril if since they were making these adjustments gradually if the XO (a minimum of 10 years old) was of the same level of aromatic intensity as they were seeking to achieve with the VSOP. He said that distilling on the lees, which they've been doing for 10 years now, has the majority of the impact, and though the flavor profile will change a bit in the future years, those changes will be minor overall. But, he says, they're now in the position to explain to consumers why they're different.

As for the balance of fruit to wood notes, they're also using fine grain oak for their barrels low in tannins and lightly toasted to minimize the wood impact on the spirit. They also use older barrels that have had many of their tannins stripped already.

It's terrific to see some numbers and logic behind what a cognac brand is doing!

September 18, 2019
Sour Mashing as Industrial Waste Recycling

Another exciting bit of information to come out of my visit to the George Dickel distillery was learning more about the sour mashing process.

To review (from a recent post about souring at Jack Daniel's):

"Souring" is not like sourdough starter in that the process' job is to remain consistency between batches. "Souring" means lowering the pH, making it more sour/acidic. "Sour mash"ing is adding backset (stillage) from the previous distillation run to the next one. The stillage contains lots of dead yeast that is food for the new yeast, but also it is acidic and lowers the pH.

At Jack Daniel's they use 30% backset/sour mash. That seems like a lot, so I was wondering: If the purpose of it is to simply lower the pH and provide nutrients, wouldn't a far simpler way to do that be to add some dried nutrients and acid like citric or hydrochloric acid?

Dickel's distiller Nicole Austin set me straight: the sour mash process is smart industrial waste reuse. Yes, the yeast get nutrients from the sour mash (dead yeast; they're cannibals like that). But the distillery also gets recycled water and heat out of it.

The sour mash is the hot liquid that comes off the still, separated from the grain solids but still containing dead yeast and other small particles. It has just been boiled during distillation, so obviously it's hot.

That stillage is added to the cooking as well as the fermentation process at Dickel. In preparing grains for distillation, they are ground up, cooked with hot water to break down carbohydrates into fermentable sugars, and then fermented in the next step. The cooking requires lots of super hot water, and a free source of hot water is the stillage!

At Dickel they also add some stillage/sour mash to the fermentation process as well as in cooking.

Austin says that in the ideal situation, you'd use all stillage water for cooking and fermentation – that would save fresh water. But the dead yeast solids are a limiting factor – too many of them and they stress the live yeast that needs to ferment the cooked grains. So the stillage water needs to be watered down, essentially. Additionally solids retain a lot of heat so it doesn't cool down as fast and this limits how much they can use.

I asked Austin if the sour mashing process then actually has much impact on the flavor of the finished whiskey. She said that it's basically "setting yourself up for success" with a good fermentation.

In conclusion, in addition to acidifying and providing dead yeast as nutrients for a healthy fermentation, the sour mash process is industrial recycling, using stillage both for water and for heat.

Hooray for new-to-me information!

June 21, 2019
A Daylong Visit to the George Dickel Distillery

I first visited the Cascade Hollow Distillery aka George Dickel in 2012, and rereading my previous post it seems a lot has changed since then!

This May (2019) I had the opportunity to revisit the distillery in advance of their release of the new Dickel Bottled in Bond Tennessee Whiskey. For the trip they had us "intern" with various members of the production staff. We didn't really have to do anything (so don't worry I didn't screw up the whiskey); we just got to spend time with team members and were able to ask lots of questions.

At Dickel they distill 6 days per week, on two shifts per day. They shut down distillation every night, unlike larger distilleries that run 24/7. Dickel is expanding but it will take a lot of work to expand to 24/7 production; it didn't sound like that was going to happen in the next couple of years anyway.

They run two staff shifts, roughly 6AM-2PM and 2PM to 10PM.

Grinding and Cooking

The Dickel Tennessee whiskey mashbill is 84% corn and 8% each rye and malted barley. Their rye is made at MGP so for the most part they're just making the same thing every day. Distiller Nicole Austin said that though you'd think she'd be in the distillery actively tasting and blending and such, all the work you'd assume she does daily only takes a few weeks per year. The rest of the time seems to be administration, marketing, research and other tasks related to running the brand.

They receive two truckloads of grain per day. The grains are measured for moisture content to ensure it's less than 15%. They said they've only had one bad load of grains in 15 years, and that was due to someone at the grain producer accidentally mixing in wheat.

The corn they mill (grind up) in advance of using. The corn, malt, and rye are each milled separately then combined by weight into the cooker at different times. The guy in charge of this "drops" grains into the cookers located on the floor below.

They go in order : pre-malt, corn, then rye then the rest of the malt. I missed what the pre-malt is for. But the order is because the corn needs a hard boil to cook it properly. After cooking, the liquid cools a bit before rye is added ("We don't want to cook the crap out of it" because it's there for flavor, says Austin.). Then most of the malted barley is added- they don't want it too hot because that would kill the enzymes in the malt. Each of these stages begins or ends when the mash reaches certain temperatures.

They also add liquid enzymes to the mash – it looked to be about 4 cups worth of liquid to each cooker.

The mashing/cooking process takes 3-4 hours.

Some of the sour mash, the yeasty water from the previous distillation, goes into the cookers along with fresh water, and some goes into the fermenters directly. They say splitting it in these two stages is just because of volume, not for any flavor reason. I have another post just about the sour mash process going up later this week.

Fermentation

Grains and water come out of the cooker at 150 (Fahrenheit, I think) and are cooled to 72 as they go into the fermenter so that the hot water doesn't kill the yeast. They use a custom made dry yeast that's propagated elsewhere.

They have 3 sets (distilling 3 vats daily) of 3 vats. Because of the 6 day workweek, they have "3 day beers" and "4 day beers" for the fermentation that needs to go an extra day. They said the only difference between them is the fermentation temperature is slightly different to allow for the extra time.

The fermentation expert also takes samples of the uncooked, cooked mash and the backset (sour mash) and measures/makes notes of their pH, total acid, and brix. After fermentation the beer is 10% ABV.

Distillation

It takes 4.5 hours to distill 1 fermenter.

The distillation column has 19 plates. The mash goes in at the 17th plate near the top and drips down the column as it removes alcohol from the mixture. The alcohol passes up through the column and comes off the top above the 19th plate.

The alcohol comes off the still at 135 proof, then it is redistilled in the double up to 150 proof.

After the spirit comes off the still, it is run through a copper reactor filled with copper "Raschig rings" before it goes into the doubler. Though I'm not positive, I think in other distilleries the top of the still above where solids enter is filled with these copper rings, rather than being in a separate container as at Dickel.

Because they shut down the plant each night, the heads and tails at the beginning and end of each day are simply redistilled in the next run.

The byproducts of distillation are the wet grains and the yeasty liquids. Some of the liquids go into the sour mash. The wet grains are sold as animal feed. (At some distilleries like MGP the drains are dried first. Here they are not.)

Charcoal Filtration

Because this is Tennessee Whiskey, it is filtered through charcoal before aging, like at Jack Daniel's. But unlike at JD, they chill the whiskey to 42 (Fahrenheit, I think) before running it through the charcoal. The chilling increases flocculation.

The sugar maple charcoal is prepared on site – burned and then extinguished at a certain point.

It takes about 24 hours to filter one day's worth of distillate. The distillate comes off the still at 150 proof, is reduced to 126.5 before charcoal filtration, and comes out at 125 proof.

Virgin wool blankets line the bottom of the filtration tubs to collect the charcoal dust. In my last visit to Dickel, I noted that they fill the charcoal vats up with liquid then let it drip out rather than having it drip into and out of the vats continually. I'm not sure that's the case anymore, though I could be mistaken.

Austin gave more detail on the charcoal filtration process. She said that the liquid comes off the still very oily, buttery, and fruity smelling with popcorn notes due to their distilling with low reflux. Filtration through charcoal is a selective filtration that takes out the heavy oily notes while leaving the fruity ones in the spirit. So according to Austin they can distill in a way that builds lots of character because the charcoal filtration takes out notes that they don't want in the final spirit.

Aging and Warehouses

Barrels are filled at the distillery and then are delivered to the warehouses. We took a hay ride up the road behind the distillery to where several warehouses are located – and where many more are being built.

Most of the time this distillery produces their Tennessee whiskey, just making the same mashbill daily. But distiller Austin has been doing some experiments. She said they're "exploring" making their own rye "to see if there is a reason to do it" themselves, rather than continuing to use MGP's rye in their bottling. They've also tried some other mashbills recently, but I don't know if any new products are in the pipeline.

The warehouses are all single-storey warehouses 6 barrels high. There is only about 5 degree temperature variation between the bottom and top of these warehouses, unlike the 6 storey warehouses many bourbon producers use. The newer warehouses are palatized, meaning the barrels stand on their flat ends rather than on their sides. This is more space efficient than rickhouses.

The angel's share takes about 50% of the liquid in each barrel after 7 years. And because they don't combine and refill barrels, the angel's share is even more as the barrels get emptier. They told me that each 9 year old barrel makes between 10 and 16 12-packs of whiskey. Not a lot!

Thanks to George Dickel for a great visit!

Stay tuned for a couple more posts related to my visit.

June 19, 2019
Deeply Nerdy Stuff About Jack Daniel’s Production – Charcoal, Souring, Fermentation
I just attended an amazing talk by Kevin Brent Smith (Micro-Biologist & Distillery Manager – Jack Daniel's Distillery). I wasn't planning on doing a blog post about it but I learned so much I wanted to write it down!

Kevin B. Smith authored the chapter on "Yeast practices in the production of American whiskies" in The Alcohol Textbook.

First up, you may want to review my notes on my visit to the distillery from 2012 to see the production process in general and in order.

Miscellany
- According to Smith, if your fermentation doesn't finish and you still have sugars in your mash, these can burn and stick in your still, lending off flavors to the final whiskey.
- Whiskey isn't made from grain, it's made from the seeds of grain. (not his point, but my observation)
- When grinding grains before fermentation, the grinding process can release heat and damage the quality of the grain, but a hammer mill works well and doesn't have an impact.
Souring In Two Places
- "Souring" is not like sourdough starter in that the process' job is to remain consistency between batches. "Souring" means lowering the pH, making it more sour/acidic. "Sour mash"ing is adding backset (stillage) from the previous distillation run to the next one. The stillage contains lots of dead yeast that is food for the new yeast, but also it is acidic and lowers the pH from about 5.6 to 5.3.
- They use about 30% backset in each distillation.
- There is another place where they used soured mash, in the production of "lactic soured yeast mash." This is used in yeast propagation.
- Yeast is started from a lab-preserved copy, then propagated in several steps. It grows on a medium for the first couple of rounds, then it's transferred to a grain mash – the lactic soured yeast mash – to propagate further.
- In essence, lactic soured yeast mash is propagating yeast with lactic material (lactobacillus; not from the stillage) to lower the pH to about 5.0.
- Not all distilleries do this, but Smith says it's a traditional process. All Brown-Forman distilleries use lactic soured yeast mash.
- This lactic soured yeast mash will have flavor impacts on the whisky.
Enzymes, Fermentation, and Rye Grain
- Rather than, or in addition to, using malted barley (whose job in American whiskey is to provide enzymes that break down long chain carbohydrates into fermentable simpler sugars), commercial enzymes (not from the barley) can be added to whiskey. This has become common.
- Jack Daniel's does not use commercial enzymes, and in fact most Brown-Forman whiskies do not. This is because commercial enzymes produce less maltose in the conversion process, which they feel leads to less flavor in the whiskey.
- (However they keep some enzymes around in case of emergencies, for if a batch of mash didn't convert all the way they could add some enzymes rather than trying to throw away a huge vat of basically sticky grain pudding.)
- Rye as a grain is notoriously viscous/sticky and tends to gum up the process. At Jack Daniel's they do use a type of enzyme (different from the standard one for conversion) to help make it less sticky; but not to convert its starches into sugars.
- Another thing that helps rye not be so sticky is that it is added to the mash later in the process than the corn is. Corn is mashed at a hot temperature which is necessary for gelatinization, but if you leave rye with the hot water for very long it gets stickier. So it's added just before the malt is added at the end of the mashing process just before fermentation. You can see this on the graph below.
- After fermentation, their beer is at a pH of 4.6, while companies that don't use the soured yeast mash have a more acidic 4.0 beer.
Note that the next three charts are the same, with added information each time.

Charcoal
- Charcoal mellowing (aka the Lincoln Country Process) was needed in the olden days because distillers didn't have a good handle on consistent fermentation; charcoal filtration was needed to remove some off flavors in whiskey.
- Running the newly-distilled spirit through charcoal is not a purely subtractive process, which is what I thought until today.
- Sugar Maple trees are used to make the charcoal because it's an abundant but not terribly useful wood generally, and it doesn't impart much flavor. The wood is burned and then the fire put out. The larger pieces of charcoal are broken up and filled into vats.
- The charcoal production does not make activated charcoal. However the charcoal does do some adsorptive filtration of the whiskey to remove certain components.
- The additive quality of the charcoal is that minerals in the charcoal are extracted by the whiskey. The whiskey comes off the still at around 5.5 pH, and after charcoal filtration it goes up to a pH of 7.5 - 8.0! So this has lowered the acidity of the whiskey substantially and probably adds to the perceived "mellowness" of the whiskey. FASCINATING.
- Why is this exciting? Because it makes me think about either running spirits/cocktails through a Brita to raise the pH for certain purposes, and or taking the direct route of "mellowing" spirits (or just de-acidifying them) by adding minerals to them.
- (I've done lots of work on how the minerals in water affects how whiskey tastes, would be curious to try things with just minerals and whiskey.)
- For example, most spirits are a bit acidic so if we filtered them or added minerals that will raise the pH. Butterfly pea flower tea usually starts out blue in water (neutral pH) but purpleish in spirits. If we want it to start out blue in spirits, maybe we just alter the pH first?
Charcoal Practicalities
- In olden days, the charcoal vats were used until the charcoal was no longer effective, as measured by taste. Then (I think in the 1980s-ish) they standardized it so that vats were used for 6 months then the charcoal was replaced. However in recent years they did chemical analysis and found that this was excessive, so now they use the charcoal for one year before replacing it. [When I last visited the distillery in 2012 it was 4-5 months.]
- When the whiskey is poured over new charcoal it comes out watery (as the charcoal starts out wet) and they cannot use it until it comes out the bottom of the vat at the same 140 proof that it went in. Also, at the end of the year before they replace the charcoal they run water through it and the resulting water has lots of whiskey in it. So these watery "heads and tails" of the charcoal mellowing process are redistilled. [I'm not sure if the redistilled parts are used for whiskey or, more likely I'd guess, refined into neutral spirit for other products.]
- To make sure all the whiskey comes through the process tasting the same, their many different vats are spaced out in the freshness of their charcoal so that there is an average age of 6 months age on the charcoal being used, rather than having all whiskey from one vat change over time and be barrelled tasting different.
Thanks to Jack Daniel's for a wonderfully nerdy session.
April 10, 2019
A Visit to MGP’s Lawrenceburg Distillery
As most of you nerds already know, most of the rye whiskey produced in the US is made at MGP Ingredients, aka Midwest Grain Products. They also make a ton of bourbon and neutral spirit used for vodka and gin. These products are fermented and distilled on site, aged on site or elsewhere, and bottled up as a zillion different brands on the marketplace.

Now in the past few years, MGP has begun to release a range of their own products. Interestingly they're not all under MGP as a brand name but under various names including George Remus bourbon, Till vodka, and Rossville Union rye whiskey. The press trip I took to the distillery was more about introducing these products to the world than the various client brands made here, but naturally that was of interest too.

History and Products

The distillery was officially founded in 1847 by George Ross as Rossville Distillery, though they've found evidence that there has been distilling on the site going back to at least 1808. In 1933 at the end of Prohibition, the distillery was purchased by Seagram and run by the company until 2001. The company was sold to Pernod-Ricard and owned by them until 2007, when it was purchased by MGP.

MGP itself is a company founded in 1941 to make high-test alcohol for torpedos to support the war effort. They actually own two distilleries though we only hear about this one.

At the Lawrenceburg distillery (outside Cincinnati but on the border of Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana) they mostly produce the aged products – whiskies- though they also do some gin and neutral spirits. The other distillery, located in Atchison, Kansas (the site of the company headquarters where it was founded) distills neutral spirits and makes gin.

(The Lawrenceburg distillery, pics from MGP)

(The Atchison distillery that I did not visit. Pic from MGP.)

Of all the products (listed here), the most well-known and popular that they sell to various brands are the:
- 95% rye whiskey (a mashbill of 95% rye, 5% malted barley)
- 51% rye whiskey (51% rye, 45% corn, 4% malted barley)
- bourbon 36% rye (60% corn, 36% rye, 4% malted barley)
- bourbon 21% rye (75% corn, 21% rye, 4% malted barley)
So when you see those mashbills listed on products with various names (particular the 95% rye), there is a super good chance they were distilled at MGP.

Since they're dealing with lots and lots of grain, they also make grain products (list here), including raw ingredients for everything from pastries to pizza crust to imitation cheese.

I asked them how many mashbills they make in total. "We make a lot," came the definitive reply.

MGP Spirits

I was a bit worried that the MGP brands were just going to be the regular MGP products as all the various other brands with a different label and not have anything to say about them. Luckily there is a clear point of differentiation. When it comes to the vodka, theirs is made from wheat, when most of their clients' vodka is made from corn. But more importantly, the whiskies:

While nearly all their clients bottle whiskey that's of a single mashbill, MGP brand whiskies are all combinations of multiple mashbills. So George Remus Straight Bourbon Whiskey is a mix of the 21 and 36 percent high rye bourbons, and Rossville Union is a blend of the 95 and 51 percent rye mashbills.

This gives these products a point of differentiation from their many clients' products.

A Look Around the Distillery

The facility is a bunch of brick buildings located on one site, like a campus with no student lawns or a really big depressing orphanage. Different buildings house different parts of the operation – the grain store, fermentation room, distillery, grain dryer, barrel warehouses, etc.

The facility is not set up for tourists or photography, and basically we were able to see what we could see.

The water for the distillery comes from an aquifer, and it remains a constant 56 degrees Fahrenheit year-round. That's very convenient as in the hot summers the water is still cool to run through the condensers.

The fermentation room (there are 14, 27,000 gallon vats in this room; there is another room but I'm not sure if it's the same size). Fermentation takes about 3 days.

We were unable to take pictures in the distillery room, but as it passes through several floors of a building we could really only see one section of the column still and a part of the squareish gin stills anyway. In this facility there are three gin stills and two continuous column stills.

We visited one warehouse – there are seven on-site and I think 5 more elsewhere (though I'm not confident in those numbers).

This warehouse has six floors with six tiers per floor, with each floor separate from those above and below it acting as a "horizontal aging chamber." This is unlike the "vertical aging chamber" rickhouses in Kentucky where it's an open model (there's a frame on the outside but it acts as one big room) and the bottom level is cool while the top floor is super hot. The Kentucky rickhouses lose more water, as opposed to the humid ones here. They say that makes for a mellower whiskey.

Their standard barrel entry proof for whiskey is 120. We visited just the one warehouse that was racked. I inquired if their others might be palletized and the person I spoke to was evasive enough about answering that we can assume some are.

Product Specifics

So far, most of the line of MGP spirits is available in about 13 states. They're moving systematically rather than hitting the whole country at once.

Tanner's Creek whiskey, a blended bourbon, is only available in Indiana.

Eight & Sand blended whiskey is the newest product. It contains no GNS (grain neutral spirits), and no coloring. It's more than 51% bourbon bottled at 44% ABV. It's a blend of bourbon, rye, light whiskey, and corn whiskey.

"Eight and Sand" refers to a train going full-throttle (the eight) with added traction (sand on the tracks).

George Remus Bourbon is a blend of 21 and 36% rye bourbons, aged 5-6 years and bottled at 47%.

George Remus, the person, was a pharmacist turned attorney. He wrote prescriptions for medicinal whiskey during Prohibition and had his own brand of medicinal whiskey. Not only that, but he had his own medicinal whiskey trucks "hijacked" so that he could report the whiskey stolen and sell it illegally. He was known as "King of the Bootleggers" and may have been the inspiration for Jay Gatsby. He murdered his wife but was acquitted for 'temporary insanity.' More about his life here.

There is also a George Remus Reserve bottling and so far there have been two of these.

Rossville Union rye whiskey is a blend of their 51% and 95% rye whiskey mashbill whiskeys aged about 5-6 years. The standard bottling is 47% ABV.

They also sell a barrel-proof Rossville Union rye, and it's my favorite of their products. It's about the same age as their standard rye, but with a different ratio of rye mashbills. It has all that lovely pickle brine flavor but bottled at 56.3% ABV.
April 9, 2019