THE ART OF
MAKING GIN,
AFTER THE PROCESS OF THE
HOLLAND DISTILLERS.

Having indicated the most proper means of obtaining spirits, I will
now offer to the public the manner of making Gin, according to the
methods used by the distillers in Holland. It may be more properly
joined to the art of making whiskey, as it adds only to the price of
the liquor, that of the juniper berries, the product of which will
amply repay its cost. Many distillers in the United States have tried
to imitate the excellent liquor coming from Holland, under the name
gin. They have imagined different methods of proceeding, and have more
or less attained their end. I have myself tried it, and my method is
consigned in a patent.

But those imitations are far from the degree of perfection of the
Holland gin: they want that unity of taste, which is the result of a
single creation; they are visibly compounds, more or less well
combined, and not the result of a spontaneous production.

To this capital defect, which makes those imitations so widely
different from their original, is joined their high price, which
prevents its general consumption. In fact, it is made at a
considerable expense: the whiskey must be purchased, rectified and
distilled over again[Pg 40] with the berries. These expenses are
increased by the waste of spirit occasioned by those reiterated
distillations. This brings the price of this false gin to three times
that of the whiskey: consequently the poorer sort of people, whose
number is always considerable, are deprived of the benefits of a
wholesome liquor, and restrained to whiskey, which is commonly not so.

The methods used in Holland, have reduced gin to the lowest price;
that of the juniper berries being there very trifling, and increasing
but little the price of whiskey: still that small addition is almost
reduced to nothing, as will be seen hereafter.

The United States are, in some parts, almost covered with the tree
called here cedar; which tree is no other than the juniper, and grows
almost every where, and bears yearly a berry, which is in reality the
juniper berry. Some Hollanders knew it at Boston, collected
considerable quantities of it in Massachusetts, and shipping it to
some of the eastern harbors, sold it as coming from Holland. I have
seen some at Philadelphia ten years ago, at the house of a Hollander,
who received it from Massachusetts in hogsheads of about ten hundred
weight, and sold as the produce of his own country, what was really
that of the United States.

I collected myself a great quantity of those berries, at Norfolk, Va.
by means of negroes, to whom I paid one dollar per bushel of 40 lbs.
being 2½ cts. per pound. Two years ago, it sold for 6 cents in
Philadelphia, and bore the same price at Pittsburgh.

There is a great deal of cedar in Kentucky, and consequently of
berries. I have seen them at Blue Licks, and they abound near the
Kentucky river.[Pg 41]

Although an incredible number of those trees is cut down daily, there
is still a greater number standing, in the United States; and millions
of bushels of berries are lost every year, while only skilful hands
are wanted, to make them useful to mankind. The juniper berry has many
medical properties: it is a delightful aromatic, and contains an oil
essential, and a sweet extract, which by the fermentation yields a
vinous liquor, made into a sort of wine in some countries; that is
called wine for the poor: it strengthens the stomach, when debilitated
by bad food or too hard labor.

The Hollanders, who have long had the art of trading upon every thing,
have constantly turned even their poverty to account. They have
immense fabrications of gin, and scarcely any juniper trees. They only
collect the berry in those countries where it is neglected as useless,
as in France and Tyrol, which produce a great deal of it. The United
States need have no recourse to Europe, in order to get the juniper
berries: they have in abundance at home, what the Hollanders can only
procure with trouble and money. They can therefore rival them with
great advantage; but they must follow the same methods employed in the
Holland distilleries.

The juniper berry contains the sweet mucous extract, in a great
proportion: it has therefore the principle necessary to the spirituous
fermentation; and, indeed, it ferments spontaneously. When fresh, and
heaped up, it acquires a degree of heat, but not enough to burn, as I
have ascertained: it is therefore safely transported in hogsheads.
From that facility of fermenting, it must be considered as a good
ferment, and as increasing the quantity of spirit, when joined to a
fermentable liquor.[Pg 42]

A distiller may at pleasure convert his whiskey into gin. He needs
only to perfume the wort which he puts in fermentation, by adding a
certain quantity of the berries, slightly broken: the fermentation is
then common to both; their sweet mucosity enriches that of the wort,
and increases the spirit, while at the same time the soapy extract,
which is the proximate principle of vegetation, yields the essential
oil, which perfumes the liquor.[c]

The fermentation being common to both substances, unites them
intimately; and when, by the distillation, the spirit is separated
from the water, there remains an homogenous liquor, resulting from a
single creation, and having that unity of taste, and all the
properties of Holland gin, because obtained by the same means.

One single and same distillation can therefore yield to the distiller
either gin or whiskey, as it requires no more labor, and its
conversion into gin costs only the price of the berries, which repays
him amply, either by the spirit it yields, or by its essential oil,
which, floating on the surface, may be easily collected. This oil
bears a great price, and the Hollanders sell much of it.

We have seen, in the 10th chapter of this work, that my hogsheads for
the fermentation, contain about 120 gallons of wort, being the
production of the saccharine extract of 12 bushels of grain. The
intelligent distiller will himself determine the quantity of berries
necessary for each hogshead to have a good aromatic per[Pg 43]fume. He
may begin with 10 lbs. per hogshead; and will, upon trial, judge
whether or not this quantity is sufficient, or must be increased. At
any rate, economy should not be consulted in the use of the berries,
since their price does not increase that of the whiskey. This low
price must naturally become the principle of an immense fabrication of
gin; and henceforth it will be an important article of exportation for
the United States, as well as a considerable and wholesome object of
home consumption.