With distilling workshops not possible over the past several months due to Covid restrictions in Canada, I took the time to update my books.
The 2nd edition of The Recipe is now available on Amazon in paperback format and on Kindle & Kobo in eBook format.
If you are wondering about the title of this book, think waaaay back in time to a TV show called The Waltons. Two characters that made occasional appearances were a pair of elderly spinsters. Their father had been a Judge before he died. But he apparently had also been a home distiller. In episodes where these ladies appeared, they would always display hospitality to visitors by offering a drink of the “Recipe”. One of them would then toddle off to the basement and return with a mason jar full of clear liquid.
The 1st edition of The Recipe was released in 2016 and shortly thereafter was banned for sale due to its provocative title. But that was then. Society has evolved over the past 5 years to the point where “weed” is now sold at retail shops and individual home-owners can grow up to 4 plants in many locations. Likewise, home distilling no longer carries the stigma that it did 5 years back.
This book contains an easy to read presentation of the science and the equipment you will need to make your own product. Just bear in mind, that whatever you make should be used for personal consumption at your house. Do not be giving it away or selling it.
I hope that as vaccines roll out over the next month or two, Covid will recede back into its corner. I hope to be offering workshops in Calgary again soon. If you want to become a serious home distiller, give some thought to taking one of my workshops….
Recently I took a break from updating my Field to Flask book. I used this brief break to make a batch of raspberry mead. I used 1/3 tap water from Mossbank, SK where I reside and 2/3 RO water. I added some additional CaCl2 as well. By my calculations I had close to 100 ppm Calcium in my process water. I decided to use a yeast I had never heard of before called Mangrove Jack’s Mead Yeast. It is made in new Zealand from what the package says. The best before date on the packet is Dec 2021, the attenuation is listed as high and the floculation as high. My OG was 1.080 which according to the yeast packet is suitable for the yeast which is alcohol tolerant to 18%. The ferment was slow, taking 15 days to ferment. I have since moved the mead into a keg and it is carbonating now. I am disappointed with the floculation of the yeast. For sure, it does not rate as high my by observations. According to the yeast book of knowledge by Boulton & Quain, yeast will floculate and drop to the bottom of the fermenter because surface proteins on the yeast cell will bind to carbohydrate receptors on neighboring cells. There are a series of genes that have been identified ( the FLO genes) that also play a role in floculation characteristics. To date, I have brewed many batches of beer with combinations of tap water and RO water. No problems with floculation on the beers, so I know it is not the water chemistry at fault. I am sorry to say that I think Mangrove Jack’s mead yeast is at fault. I have several more batches of mead to make in the coming months. I will NOT be using Mangrove Jack yeast for any more batches. If you are reading this post and have used Mangrove Jack’s yeast, I would like to hear from you about your experiences (good or bad). Meantime, I will have to navigate my way through one batch of hazy mead. Won’t kill me, but it is not something I want to serve up to a guest.
Hey Gin drinkers! Was doing a bit of late night history reading over a few drams last night.
Did you know….. on Feb 20, 1736 a petition was presented to the British House of Commons asking for regulation on Gin. The petition alleged “that the drinking of Gin had excessively increased amongst people of inferior rank”. This excessive consumption had “destroyed thousands and rendered great numbers of others unfit for labour, had debauched their morals and had driven them into every vice”.
What came of all this was the Gin Act of 1736 which passed on Sept 29, 1736. The Act imposed a tax of 20 shillings per gallon on Gin plus a 50 Pound annual license fee on retail sellers of Gin.
BUT, the Act was evaded. People pretending to the “chemists” set up shop selling Gin as baby’s colick water. Gin also started to be sold under disguised names such as Tom Row, Make Shift and Ladies Delight.
By 1743, Gin intake had actually increased. To counter this, Gov’t encouraged the drinking of Rum from the Colonies, provided that it was sold to the retail consumer at 1 part Rum and 2 parts water. This came to be known as “2-water grog”. But that’s a story for another time…
source: The Historians History of the Word, vol 20, published 1904.
I recently received a bottle of this fine Gin from Distillerie Vent du Nord in Baie Comeau, Quebec. This creator of this fine nectar took my Workshop in 2017.
I drink all my Gins with just a splash of water to open up the flavors. In the case of this Gin, I get a wonderful hit of sweet earthiness likely from Angelica Root and Licorice Root. There is also some very pleasing citrus woven into this Gin. The finish is smooth with just a hint of spice.
I could drink this Gin every day, all day. I am giving it a rating of 96/100 on the Prohibition University Gin Scale.
If you are in Quebec, you will find this Gin at any SAQ store. Outside of the Province, you will have to ask your local private liquor store to contact Distillerie Vent du Nord and arrange for a shipment. This will trigger some provincial liquor taxes based on the wholesale selling price.
In our Gin Master classes, there are always plenty of questions about Gin distillation parameters. My Microbiology Prof from Heriot Watt University and one of her pH.D. candidates just released a paper that confirms a lot of my practical hands-on observations across the 100+ Gin creations I have done either myself or in a Gin Master class.
I will skip the heavy academic content and summarize the findings in a simple way:
The more Juniper you add to your recipe formulation, the more intense the Juniper notes will be in the final Gin. This was confirmed in their study using sensory panels of 20 persons. For my small scale 3-Liter recipes I usually add 60 grams per liter of 96% ethanol. I have in past added more and yes, I get a more intense Gin.
Doing the distillation run low and slow will extract more Juniper notes into the final Gin. This seems intuitive, but now there is scientific data to support the matter. Making Gin is not a race. Take it easy, and slow down. A slower run will give the ethanol more time to extract the oils from the Juniper.
Diluting the ethanol charge in your still to 45% will give more Juniper note extraction ( versus a 60% abv dilution). I have always viewed this as intuitive. A more dilute charge in the still takes longer to heat up. Remember q=(m)(Cp)(deltaT). All that extra water in the still takes energy and time to heat to the point where the ethanol vaporizes. But, now this study proves out this notion. In the Gin Master classes I typically dilute the ethanol to 50%, but I may start using 45% to see what happens. For a home connoisseur in possession of a small copper A’Lambic still, store-bought Vodka at 40% would even suffice just fine in the still.
This is the kind of academic research that I really appreciate because it ties so forcefully to the practical realities of distilling. I look forward to hopefully seeing more content of this nature from Heriot Watt…
In my studies at Heriot Watt University a great deal of attention was placed on a beer defect called ‘diacetyl’. In fact one of my exam questions called for me to write an essay explaining the diacetyl metabolic pathway. Ever since starting my studies 3 years ago, I have been on the hunt for a beer exhibiting the diacetyl defect. Believe me…I have consumed a lot of beer as part of this hunt. Literature says it is identifiable with its butterscotch candy cloying sweetness. Some brewers have told me its aroma resembles that of a freshly opened can of corn niblets. And last week I finally found an example in a lager from Farmery Brewing in Manitoba which I purchased at the local SLGA agency store in Mossbank, Saskatchewan. When I took the first mouthful of beer, my immediate thought was that Farmery was maybe using a unique yeast strain. As I finished off the can and smelled the aroma of the empty can, my inner beer sense said this was not a yeast strain issue. A couple mouthfuls of the 2nd can….and I had to stop. The butterscotch cloying sweetness on my palate was too much. I knew at that point what I was tasting was diacetyl. On one hand, I felt a sense of elation at finally having discovered a real example of this defect. On the other hand, I started to feel badly for Farmery Brewing as putting out a defective beer can work against one’s brand image.
Let’s take a quick technical look at diacetyl. When yeast is added to the fermenter, the yeast can sense from the osmotic pressure surrounding it that there is fermentable sugar to be eaten. This triggers the yeast to begin the process of producing the microbiological building blocks needed for cellular growth and reproduction. Two building blocks yeast needs are valine and isoleucine. These are amino acids used in the manufacture of cellular proteins. If per chance the yeast cannot find enough of these amino acids in the fermentable barley wort medium, it will synthesize its own valine and isoluecine from carbohydrates (sugars) in the wort medium. This synthesis involves the formation of alpha-keto acids and yeast in its enthusiasm tends to over-produce these acids. The cells will then excrete the alpha acids into the surrounding fermentation wort. The secreted acids are decarboxylated ( a Carbon and two Oxygen atoms are cleaved off making Carbon dioxide) into a chemical substance called diacetyl.
Diacetyl Molecule
Towards the end of the fermentation cycle, IF the yeast cells are healthy and viable, they will absorb the diacetyl into the yeast cell cytoplasm where it is converted to acetoin and thence to a compound called 2-3-butanediol. This latter compound is virtually impossible for us to taste. The exact reason why yeast will absorb diacetyl remains to be fully understood by science. IF the yeast cells are unhealthy ( perhaps the brewer has serially re-pitched his yeast one too many times…) then the cells will not absorb the diacetyl and the beer will get canned or bottled and sent out into the world with the defect, unless the brewer catches the defect through his quality assurance program.
Now here is where it gets interesting. Diacetyl can also be formed in perfectly good packaged beer if that beer ends up not being properly handled. A chemical reaction called a Maillard reaction can result in the 2-3-butanedione (or acetoin) being oxidized back into diacetyl format. A brewer sending out what he thought was good beer to the SLGA warehouse in Regina, Sask, can have that beer made defective through poor handling practices at the warehouse. We are in the midst of the coronavirus economic shutdown and with a wee bit of imagination I suggest we can all envision a scenario where a lack of employees working at the warehouse led to beer not being properly kept cool.
At the end of the argument, this defect may not be the fault of Farmery Brewing. It could well be the fault of poor handling practices, but such practices may be the result of the coronavirus economic shutdown. There may be nobody to blame.
In any event, if you are looking for a real life example of diacetyl and if your travels take you 40 minutes south of Moose Jaw to Mossbank, Sask, grab a 6-pak of Farmery Lager at the local Food Store. Share the beers with friends so they too can learn what diacetyl tastes like.
For a more academic, technical treatment of diacetyl, the following link will take you to a well written paper from the Journal of the Institute of Brewing.
This past week-end, I was offered a taste of a recently launched hard seltzer product. What I was offered was some White Claw cherry flavored seltzer.
Call me strange, but I was expecting to see a colored liquid emerge from the can into my waiting glass. Instead what I saw was a clear liquid. My thoughts immediately turned to a segment of my Distilling Workshops where I discuss flavored alcoholic beverages. My message to Workshop attendees is to “keep it real”.
There are many vendors across North America that will sell you flavor additives. At one of my Workshops back in 2018 it so happened that the regional sales rep for one of these flavor companies stopped by the Distillery on a routine sales call. He was gracious enough to take 15 minutes to speak to the class. What he emphasized was that there are Natural flavors and Artificial flavors. Natural flavors are extracted from real sources. In other words, a natural cherry flavor derives from real cherries. An artificial flavor is a chemically created substance. What this sales rep told the class next came as a surprise. He pointed out (obviously) that there are natural flavors that contain the color of the source material. He went on to explain that additional flavor (think … terpene type molecules) can be extracted from the source material using chemical solvent type compounds. This additional extract will tend towards being clear. Ever since this startling revelation, I have been very leery of any flavored drink that appears clear. Think about all those (clear) flavored vodkas you see on liquor store shelves. These represent a good example of flavors that are derived using some solvent material. When I ask people if they have ever had these flavored vodka products, the observation leans heavily to the ‘cloying’ sensation left in one’s mouth. This is no doubt due to the remnants of the solvent extract.
As I raised to the glass of White Claw to my mouth, I commented to my host that there was a very strong cherry aroma emanating from my glass. As I took a sip of the liquid, the cherry flavor was also very much present. But, then it hit me. That sickly, cloying sensation that made my taste buds scream – “one of these will be enough, thanks!”. And in fact, it was a struggle for me to finish drinking the contents of my glass. At one point, the thought of dumping the contents down the sink even crossed my mind.
White Claw is the brainchild of beverage giant Mark Anthony Group. Think Mike’s Hard Lemonade…. I am shocked at the decision to resort to a clear color format. Surely the calorie count and other metrics demanded by the demographic pursuing these seltzers could still largely have been adhered to by adding some natural type flavor that contained the color of the source material. In my mind, this display of color would have added to the marketing sensation of the product, AND steered the profile away from the cloying sensation.
I plan to now include a sampling of White Claw products in future Workshops to firmly illustrate much of what I have mentioned in this blog post. Meanwhile, this recent experience has heightened my resolve to AVOID clear, flavored alcoholic beverage products.
For those not familiar with this expression, it alludes to taking a day off work when it snows outside. Instead of going to work, you instead spend the day doing something you really enjoy, like skiing perhaps.
This colloquial expression has now been twisted around and applied to the name of a craft distilled Gin – Sno Day Gin.
This creation is the hard work of Alberta entrepreneur Dr. Brett Shonekess who was kind enough to send me a “wee” bottle of his Gin for evaluation (what??? … no 750 ml bottles available to send??) . I first met Brett in 2017 when he took one of the 6 day Distillery Workshops in Kelowna, BC.
But here is where the story takes an interesting twist. Dr. Shonekess understands the dynamic of the craft industry. He realizes that when you build a craft distillery you are creating a brand and an experience. And these items require investment capital if they are to be done right.
Along with the Gin I received in the mail was enclosed an Offering Memorandum. Dr. Shonekess and partners are in the midst of raising up to $5 million to fund the creation of two craft distilleries on the outskirts of Calgary, Alberta. And from what I gleaned from the Memorandum, things are well on their way. Land has been bought and building designs are complete. But, what’s more – the team has had the brilliant foresight to engage a BC based distillery to craft some Gin (Sno Day Gin). Now this is not just another storied attempt at a capital raise. Potential investors can now have a sneak peek at what the product will taste like before they put their money on the table.
And to that point, last evening my wife and I sampled Sno Day Gin. On the nose, you are immediately hit with Juniper which is followed by a blast of Citrus. The Gin has body, texture and mouthfeel. This is not your typical London Dry style of Gin. This is Gin with personality and character. This is Gin that rightfully and righteously belongs in a martini glass. Mixed drinks need not apply for this job! You will understand then why I have had to hide the bottle at the back of my liquor cabinet. It is just that damn good….that it will not last very long around my house if left out in the open. Full disclosure – I even had a wee nip this morning after breakfast before I sat down to write this blog post.
If you have ever thought about owning a portion of a craft distillery in Alberta, I would suggest that you at least have a talk with the team behind Sno Day Gin. They can be reached at (Five Eight Seven) 997-9391. Or email John <at> twopineventures<dot>com for more details. Shares are offered at $2.50 each and the minimum investment is $5000.
Since my last post to this site I embarked on a strict diet of reduced carbohydrates ( read….reduced beer intake…). Only a temporary measure I keep telling myself….
I recently bought some low alcohol beer at the grocery store made by German brewing company Becks. I was disappointed when I cracked open a bottle. The skunky, foxy aroma was overwhelming. I was further disappointed when a family member told me that Becks low alcohol beer always has that aroma – that’s why he never drinks it.
My thoughts immediately hearkened back to the brewing course I took in Semester 1 at Heriot Watt University taught by Dr. Dawn Maskell. I learned that the skunky aroma in beer is an aroma-active compound called 3-methyl-2-buten-1-thiol. Called MBT for short, it has an aroma threshold of 0.2–0.4 nanograms/L in water and 4–35 nanograms/L in beer. MBT was detected as early as 1875 by a scientist called Lintner who described it as having meaty, sulfury, and skunky-foxy notes. Modern day science has now determined that when a brewer adds hops to the wort boil, the alpha acid in the hops changes structure slightly (isomerizes). The isomerized molecule present in beer stored in clear or green bottles that get exposed to UV light of wavelength 350 to 500 nanometers will shed a chunk of its molecular structure called an isoprenyl leg. This isoprenyl leg portion of the alpha acid molecule is the MBT.
Science has also revealed that during fermentation yeast can assimilate amino acids. Ssulfur-containing amino acids, cysteine and methionine also have been implicated in the formation of skunky flavor. There are a number of ways of creating low alcohol beer. I am not entirely sure how Becks does it, but somehow in the fermentation process, cysteine and methionine have not completely been taken up by the yeast. And the use of green bottles then only adds to the problem.
I long for the day when I can resume my beer consumption. In the interim, I see no grounds for continuing a relation with Becks Low Alcohol Beer.
This week I had a unique opportunity to visit Simpson’s Malt plant at Berwick Upon Tweed (England). This facility malts about 6 different varietals of 2-row barley for the distilling industry. Other Simpson’s locations do malting for the beer industry.
The annual intake into this facility is something like 8 million bushels per year. In a word – HUGE!
When we were there on site, trucks were coming in fast and furious loaded with barley.
Each incoming truck was sampled by the receiver technician. He was examining his collected samples for evidence of bugs and other debris.
Received barley is stored in huge silos until needed. When a quantity is needed for malting, it is washed to remove dust and debris. The wetted barley is then moved to massive steeping tanks. The general approach is to wet the barley for 8 hrs, drain and let rest for 10 hrs, wet for 8 hrs and rest for 10 hrs. Through it all, the barley is periodically stirred and wetted to control temperature.
What was interesting was the fact that not all distillers want the usual malted barley. Some of the barley at this Simpson’s plant was passed through rotating drums where the grains were wetted and air rested alternately. After sprouting, the so called “green malt” was loaded onto trucks and hauled away to the North British distillery near Edinburgh. By accepting non-dried / non-kilned malt, North British is saving $$$$ a lot of money. This is important because North British is simply making the grain alcohol that comprises the bulk of blended Whiskies (such as Johnny Walker).
For the rest of the barley, after the wetting routine, it is transferred by conveyor to the germination / kilning vessels (GKV’s). Here the grain is allowed to develop its root and shoot (acrospire) over a 96 hr span of time. Once the acrospire is about 2/3 the length of the kernel, heat is applied to the GKV vessel to halt any further progression of the acrospire. The moisture level of the grain is reduced to about 4%. It is then sent via truckload to distillers across Scotland.
We also learned that some distillers request peated barley. To accomplish this, Simpson’s takes some of the dried barley malt and loads it into a separate vessel where peat smoke at ambient temperature is allowed to filter through the grain for a set period. The longer the time, the more ppm phenol content of the barley. I was surprised to learn that the barley need not be wetted prior to smoke exposure.
This was an amazing trip. If you ever have a chance to visit a malt plant, I suggest you jump at the opportunity. You will be amazed….
