The Recipe: Reviving the Lost Art of Home Distilling

The Recipe

Reviving the Lost Art of Home Distilling,

2nd edition

Wood Dragon Books

www.wooddragonbooks.com

Box 429, Mossbank, Saskatchewan, Canada, S0H 3G0

ISBN #978-1-989078-52-5

Copyright © 2021 Malcolm Bucholtz

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced in part or in whole without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a critical review.

DISCLAIMER

Although home distilling is against the law in many jurisdictions, some locations have recently started displaying a more relaxed stance towards small batch home distilling, provided it is for personal consumption only. The author and publisher of this book bear no responsibility whatsoever for readers of this book who run afoul of the law while distilling at home.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Special acknowledgement goes out to the Institute for Brewing & Distilling in London, England. I would not be teaching others about the art and science of distillation, I would not be consulting to start-up craft distillers, and I would not have written this book were it not for having successfully written the General Certificate in Distilling Exam that launched me on this most unusual trajectory in late 2014.

An extra special acknowledgement goes out to Dr. Annie Hill of Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland who accepted me into the Master’s Degree (M.Sc.) program in Brewing & Distilling in 2017. In late 2020, I was granted my M.Sc. degree. The knowledge gained from this rigorous curriculum of study has prompted me to write this 2nd edition of The Recipe.

DEDICATION

The winds of change are gently blowing. Governments are relaxing their stance on marijuana, which not so long ago was strictly a taboo subject. Governments, who for years now have allowed only beer and wine to be made at home, are looking less intently at the average person sensibly making small quantities of spirits at home.

I look forward to a day when the winds of change make home distilling in small quantity a social norm. The best way to speed up the winds of change is for more people to sensibly and responsibly start working towards making that change happen. To all of the adventurous souls who want to hasten change and revise social norms by sensibly taking up home distilling in their garages, she-sheds and man-caves on Saturday mornings, this book is for you.

Contents

Note From The Author

A Brief History Of Alcohol

The Drunken Monkey Hypothesis

Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans

Maria The Jewess

Le Cognac

L’ armagnac

Usque Beatha

Gorzatka and Voda

The Rise of Rum

Whisky, Tax and Bourbon

Genever and Gin

Canadian Whisky

Tequila

Microbiology Basics

Cell Types

Gram Staining

Amino Acids

Proteins

Glucose and Friends

DNA and RNA

Genes and Chromosomes

Cell Division

Making New DNA

Making RNA

ATP, ADP, NAD, NADH, FAD and FADH2

Catabolism and Glycolysis

Ribose Sugars

Pyruvate…So What Now?

Higher Alcohols

Esters

Raw Materials

Plant Growth

Pomes, Berries, and Drupes

Sugar Cane

Sugar Beet

Cereal Grain

Enzymes

A Cautionary Tale About Un-malted Grains

Malted Cereal Grains

Inside the Kernel

Malt Specs

Water

Efficiency

Theoretical Yield

Agave

Botanicals

Cream Based Creations

Yeast & Fermentation

Physiology

Cell Division (Mitosis)

Yeast Cultures

Meiosis

Cytoduction

Spheroplastic fusion

Recombinant DNA

Species and Strains

Sensitivity

Water

Cleaning

The 4-Ts of Cleaning

Mashing and Fermenting

Mashing Kettle

Grinding

Agitating

Chiller

Instruments

Fruit Mash – Adjusting the Brix

Fermenter Vessel

Yeast Re-Hydration

Fermenting

Basic Procedures

Distillation Fundamentals

Surface Tension and Vapor Pressure

Francois Raoult

Congeners and Purification

Heating

Latent Heats

Cooling

Pot Distillation

Coffey’s Creation

Column Distillation

Column Stills for Home Distillation

Pot Still for Home Distillation

Oak Ageing Of Spirits

What is Wood?

Oak

Barrel Making

Ageing Parameters

In-Barrel Reactions

Size Matters

Sourcing Barrels

Proofing

Two Essential Instruments

American Proofing System

Canadian Proofing System

Proofing with Other than Water

U.K. Proofing

Basic Recipes

Mashing – Malted Grain

Mashing – Malted Grain & Un-Malted Grain

Mashing – Un-Malted Grain

Distilling with an al-Ambic Pot Still

Distillation with an Electrically Heated Column Still

Grain Recipes

Fruit Recipes

Molasses Recipes

Double Pot Distilled Fancy Molasses Rum

Gin Recipes

Bitters

Liqueur

Final Thoughts

Glossary Of Terms

1

Note From The Author

I have been a home brewer and home wine maker for 30 years. In 2014, I decided it was time for a new challenge – a new mountain to climb. I thought seriously about returning to Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland where I had finished my MBA degree in 2000. This outstanding institution has a Master’s Degree program in Brewing & Distilling Science. While investigating this program, I happened upon another organization, the Institute for Brewing & Distilling in London, England. I decided to enroll in their General Certificate in Distilling program. It was then official. I had caught the distilling bug.

I studied stacks of textbooks and journal articles for nine months to prepare for what I knew would be a tough exam. To assist me with my studies, I purchased a small copper al-Ambic pot still from Portugal and a Vodka flute still from Hillbilly Stills in Barlow, Kentucky. After successfully completing my exam, fate knocked on my door once again and I made the acquaintance of a craft distiller in British Columbia, Canada. We decided to initiate 5-day Distillery workshops that would allow people an opportunity to learn the science of mashing, fermenting and distilling in a classroom setting while giving them considerable hands-on experience on the distillery floor. We launched our first workshop in October 2014, thinking that we might be able to do one or two such events a year. Then the floodgates opened. Demand for our workshops exploded. What we did not quite comprehend at the time was that we were sitting on the leading edge of a craft distilling movement that was sweeping the world.

To make the workshops ever more technical and meaningful, in 2017 I decided to undertake my M.Sc. degree at Heriot Watt University. As I expanded my knowledge, I added it to the workshop curriculum. By late 2019, over 500 people had attended our workshops from all corners of the globe. Along the way, I observed that the vast majority of people coming to the workshops had no interest in starting a craft distillery. They were more interested in engaging in some properly-done home distilling. On a hot summer afternoon in late July 2016, as I sat in my garage getting set to do a small distillation run of rye mash I had fermented, it occurred to me to write a basic book that would help people get started down the path of home distilling. What you now hold in your hands is the 2nd edition of that book. This edition is far more scientific and comprehensive than the first edition. Embrace the science presented in this book and make the best home-distilled product you possibly can.

This book will guide you through the equipment you will need to distill at home. It will provide details on the raw materials you can use to create alcohol. The basics of mashing, fermenting, distilling and oak aging are discussed in detail. Follow this book carefully and you will very quickly find your level of proficiency rising. Before long, you will no longer need this book and you can then pass it on to a friend, a neighbor, a co-worker who wants to get involved in home distilling.

Through it all, I ask you to maintain your composure at all times. Even though the winds of change are blowing, home distilling is still

technically illegal in most, if not all, jurisdictions in Canada and the USA. Please do not be trying to sell your products on the street. Do not give your distilled spirits away. Do not barter your product for services or other products. Whatever you make should be enjoyed for personal home consumption. Moreover, do not be bragging to friends, neighbors, co-workers about what you are doing. Keep your head down and keep your cool.

In early 2020, I shifted the 5-day workshops to a craft distillery in Calgary, Alberta when the distillery in British Columbia shuttered its doors. Covid 19 has certainly put a damper on the economy, but I am confident that an mRNA type vaccine will be developed and the economy will get back on track. When I am not busy home brewing and home distilling, I spend time working with start-up craft distilleries to help fine-tune business and marketing plans as well as recipe and mash bill formulations. And as for Heriot Watt, in October 2020 I was granted my M.Sc. degree. The knowledge that the M.Sc. program imparted to me is stupendous. I remain eager to share this knowledge with as many people as I can.

Dear reader, I do hope that our paths cross one day soon. Home distilling is a wonderful hobby and one that I hope you will take up in a serious way.

2

A Brief History Of Alcohol

Why does mankind have a natural affinity for alcohol? Is alcohol necessarily good for us? Who are some of the characters that have shaped the world of alcoholic spirits? The history of alcohol is a book in and of itself. For the purposes of this publication, let’s take a quick journey through the history of alcohol and stop briefly to examine some of the highlights.

The Drunken Monkey Hypothesis

In 2004, researchers Stephens and Dudley(1) advanced the Drunken Monkey Hypothesis. Their hypothesis suggests that modern man evolved from wild primates. It proposes that in the era of wild primates, fruit was the food of choice. Competition for fruit was obviously intense. Those who got enough fruit to eat survived. Those who did not get enough to eat failed to survive. This was Darwinian natural selection at work.

Fruit ripening on trees is exposed to natural airborne yeast. As the fruit ripens to maturity, the yeast can cause fermentation to occur. One result of fermentation is the production of ethanol. To the wild primates, the odor of ethanol was a sure sign that ripe, edible fruit was close at hand.

Over time, primates evolved into different genera. Some primates evolved into the genus ‘homo’, from whence we come. Stephens and Dudley argue that those that evolved into the genus ‘homo’ developed an appreciation for the aroma and taste of ethanol. Members of the genus ‘homo’ were able to eat the alcohol-bearing, ripe fruit and tolerate its alcohol content. The ability to tolerate alcohol is related to two bodily enzymes, alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase. Modern man, genus ‘homo’, species ‘sapiens’, is the evolutionary progeny of the alcohol tolerant wild primate species.

As time marched on and as homo sapiens further evolved, focus turned to a diet richer in meat, plants and tubers. Fermented fruit was no longer key to survival. But eventually, around 7000 BC, mankind would re-discover fermentation and the enjoyment of alcohol would be rekindled.

Has our reacquaintance with alcohol been a good thing? The line of reasoning involving bodily enzymes at first glance suggests alcohol consumption is acceptable to the human body which breaks down the alcohol molecules using these enzymes. So, why then is alcohol labelled by health practitioners as a potential health problem? The answer rests with the scientific reality that yeast fermentation will generate up to about 15% alcohol by volume in a fermented mash of raw material. The bodily enzymes can digest this level of alcohol. But, in the 15th century, mankind learned how to concentrate the alcohol content of a fermented solution by way of distillation. Distillation can quickly concentrate alcohol such that the liquid emerging from a still can be as high as 96.5% alcohol by volume. This content, the bodily enzymes cannot efficiently digest. Bodily organs thus come under duress and express cellular damage which manifests as disease. As a home distiller, I urge you to bear this all in mind. Distilled alcohol is to be savored and enjoyed. It should not be mass-consumed for intoxicative effects.

Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans

In his book The Quest for Aqua Vitae, Seth Rasmussen presents a

riveting history of alcohol. Archeological evidence supports wine production around 7000 BC in an area of the world that today

includes the lands bordered by the Black Sea and Caspian Sea (modern-day Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey and Iran). Evidence also supports the fermentation of bee honey in 6000 to 8000 BC in what is today Spain.(2)

In reading Rasmussen’s book, my imagination turned to hunter-gatherer inhabitants of these ancient lands enjoying eating the flesh of grapes and perhaps other fruits and drinking the juices squeezed from these fruits. One day, probably by accident, somebody left some crushed apples or grapes in an earthenware pot. Bubbles began to form on the fruit and a gentle hissing sound could be heard coming from the vessel. Although not immediately understood in detail at the time, this was fermentation. After several days, when the juice from the earthenware container was sampled, a most peculiar observation was made. The juice now imparted a mild feeling of happiness to all those who sampled it. Intoxication and its pleasant effects had been re-discovered.

Over the thousands of years that followed, mankind learned how to concentrate the level of alcohol in a fermented liquid. In a 1907 paper presented in England at an annual meeting of the Yorkshire and Eastern section of a brewing society, the author, Mr. T. Fairley, notes that history books contain descriptions of ancient societies placing fermented liquid in an earthenware vessel and gently heating the vessel to bring vapors off the vessel. Animal skins were placed above the heated vessel to absorb and capture the rising vapors. (3)

My imagination can picture people squeezing the captured liquid from the animal skin. Drinking the liquid then yielded a startling observation. The pleasant feeling of happiness and euphoria obtained from a fermented beverage was intensified thanks to vaporizing and condensing the liquid.

Over the ensuing centuries, as hunter-gatherers increased in number, they began to extend their reach into surrounding regions. They took seeds of grapes and other fruits with them. By 1200 BC, civilization had spread as far south as the Mediterranean Sea. The dominant civilization was the Phoenicians who lived in a series of city states called Tyre, Sidon and Biblos. Modern day Cyprus, Sardinia and Sicily also were settled by the Phoenicians. (4)

As Fairley(3) describes, as well as being skilled artisans and seafarers, the Phoenicians were accomplished at wine making and simple distillation. They had a linguistic expression for distilled alcoholic spirits which roughly translated into water of life. The Phoenicians travelled through what is now modern day Spain, France, and as far north as Ireland and Scotland taking with them their knowledge of distilling alcoholic beverages. The Phoenician expression water of life remains with us to this day in the Spanish agua de ardiente, the French eau de vie and the Gaelic usque beatha.

Rivalling the strength of the Phoenician civilization was the power

and reach of the Greek culture. The ancient Greeks ascribed sacred powers to distilled beverages and incorporated distilled spirits into religious rituals. (5)

This ancient Greek knowledge of distillation remains with us to this day. Grape pomace (skin and pulp) plus wine are distilled to make a spirit beverage called Zivania. Grape pomace alone is distilled to make Tsipouro and Tsikoudia. An anise infused version of these spirits remains with us today in the form of Ouzo. (6)

By about 200 BC, the Phoenician empire had collapsed and the Roman empire had usurped the former glory of Phoenicia. By about 150 BC, the Greek empire had faded into the hands of the Romans. We know the Romans were involved in distillation for the Latin expression de-stillare, meaning to drip or trickle down, is the root of our modern English word distillation. (3)

For the next several hundred years, the Roman empire ruled supreme. However, like so many empires before it, the Roman empire eventually collapsed. From about 400 AD onwards, the world, as it existed at that time, lapsed into a period of negligible advancement called the Dark Ages. (7) However, the knowledge that mankind had accumulated to date concerning the art and science of distillation was not to be lost.

Maria The Jewess

Sometime prior to 100 AD, a figure by the name of Maria the Jewess is said to have developed an apparatus that today we would recognize as a still. Her design had three components. The curcurbit was the vessel of the still, the ambix was the still head and attached to it was the solen which connected to the third part, the bikos, which we would recognize as the receiver portion of a still. Maria’s design eventually found its way to Islamic scientific thinkers in the period 700 to 800 AD. These scientific thinkers made incremental improvements to her design and ambix eventually became the expression for the improved still design, the al-Ambic still. (2)

This design refinement is with us yet today in the form of the modern al-Ambic still called the charentais al-Ambic still. Travel to France, Spain and Portugal and you will see distilled spirits artisans plying their craft using charentais al-Ambic stills similar in design to that illustrated in Figure 1.

A typical al-Ambic still consists of a copper pot with an onion-shaped dome mounted on top. Alcoholic vapors flow up from the pot, through the onion dome, down the gooseneck-like tube and into a water-cooled condenser. To ensure no alcohol vapors escape at the junction where the onion dome mounts to the pot, the join is sealed with a paste made of rye flour.

The al-Ambic still design would remain the technology of choice right into the mid-1800s when Anneas Coffey introduced his column still design. But, despite the introduction of a column still, pot stills that resemble the al-Ambic design remain in fashion to this day in places like Ireland and Scotland.

Let’s now turn our focus to a brief look at some of the types of spirits we typically see on liquor store shelves. These are all spirit types that a home distiller could engage in making.

Le Cognac

In the 3rd century, when Roman Emperor Probus extended privilege to a select few citizens to grow grapes in the area around the modern day Cognac region of France. In the centuries that followed, wine production escalated and to ease over-supply situations, some of the wine was exported to Holland where it was distilled into brandwijn (brandy). By the 1600s, the French had started doing their own distilling using al-Ambic stills and were soon exporting barrel aged brandy (called Cognac) to Holland, England and northern Europe. (8) The French may have learned the art of distillation in the mid-1200’s from Arnaud de Villeneuve after his return from Crusades in the Holy Land. Chevalier de Croix Masson is credited with advancing the art of double distillation in the early 1600s. (9)

If you have ever had a French brandy from the Cognac region of France, then you have had Cognac. In fact, Cognac can only be produced in the Cognac region of France. As author Simon Difford notes, this region in the western part of the country is divided into six sub-areas that denote the quality of Cognac produced therein. At the top of this designation list is the Grand Champagne region with its reputation for the very best Cognac. Bringing up the bottom of the list is Bois Ordinaire. (10)

The production of Cognac is tightly regulated. The white wine distilled to make Cognac derives from 95% Ugni Blanc grapes with the remainder being Folle Blanche and French Colombard (8). An ideal wine for making Cognac should have a moderate alcohol content (8-9% abv), crisp acidity, no SO2 added, and the grapes should have been picked early. It is also important that when crushing the grapes, only minimal contact between the skins and the juice should occur. Contact between the two will extract polyphenols from the skins which will impair the wine quality when the polyphenols oxidize to aldehydes.

Cognac is also tightly regulated as to ageing and production. It must be distilled twice on traditional copper stills. The first distillation run yields what the French term brouillis. All of the ethanol, higher alcohols and volatiles present in the wine are captured in the brouillis. The strength of the brouillis will be around 30% abv. The volume of the brouillis obtained will be about 1/3 of the original wine volume. The brouillis will then be re-distilled to further refine it. On the second run, the desirable distillate is divided into two categories. The first portion emerging from the still is termed le cognac and