Richard Seale just lately posted a really informative and fascinating sequence of articles surrounding Steady and Batch Distillation on his private web page, together with his settlement I’ve collated them into one single reference article under.
Aeneas Coffey, John Dore and Foursquare
Half One – The Steady Nonetheless
Aeneas Coffey was not the primary to invent the continual nonetheless, nor was it the primary steady nonetheless for use in Scotch Whisky nevertheless between 1834 and the 1876, seventeen newly put in Coffey stills can be making whisky in Scotland. It proved the inspiration for the event of blended scotch whisky (developed round 1860), arguably probably the most profitable spirit class of all of them. How did all of it occur? What follows is de facto solely a short overview of a historical past that’s each very complicated and really profound.
The late 18th century by means of the mid nineteenth century noticed outstanding developments in spirit distillation. A drive to extend proof, effectivity and throughput underpinned these developments. We’re specializing in the British, Irish and European developments as this instantly impacted the West Indies however the American story can also be very complicated and value your time.
Early stills by Adam (1801), Pistorius (1817) and Corty (1818) and several other others too quite a few to element had been basically modifications of the easy batch (pot) nonetheless so as to add fractionation to easy distillation. In London on the Belmont Distillery in Vauxhall Jean-Jaques Saint Marc patented a batch (pot) nonetheless with a rectifying head in 1824. Whereas utilized by Saint Marc for potato spirit, this idea can be a forerunner of the carter-head and the ‘Lomond’ nonetheless at Loch Lomond distillery. A notable step (see the submit script) however nonetheless within the realm of discontinuous (ie batch) distillation.
The primary real steady nonetheless was patented by Jean-Baptiste Cellier-Blumenthal in 1813. In 1828 Robert Stein, a member of the Stein-Haig distilling household would additionally patent a steady nonetheless and this is able to be the primary licensed steady nonetheless utilized in Scotland at Cameronbridge in 1830. Coffey would first patent his steady nonetheless in 1830 and it bore outstanding similarity to the Cellier-Blumenthal nonetheless.
Aeneas Coffey had been an Irish Inspector of Excise till his retirement in 1824. Throughout his work as an excise officer he invented the Spirit Secure an early perception to his genius. Purportedly of French beginning he might have had contact with the work of Cellier-Blumenthal. It was additionally thought he was aware of one other early steady nonetheless of Cork distiller Anthony Perrier patented in 1822 in addition to the continual nonetheless of Robert Stein. Coffey’s Father, Andrew Coffey was the engineer in command of the waterworks for the Dublin Company and reputed to be fairly ingenious. He might have additionally had an affect on Coffey’s engineering abilities. Coffey’s first nonetheless was at Dock Distillery in Dublin and licensed in 1832. This distillery was not profitable and the enterprise was quickly modified to considered one of nonetheless manufacture. The primary Coffey nonetheless in Scotland was at Grange in 1834.
Coffey proved not to achieve success in Eire. Kerr (1946) humorously mirrored:
“between good promoting and the effeminate palates of the English, which weren’t sturdy sufficient to understand actually good whisky just like the Irish, such a whisky [blended] captured the English market and nonetheless holds it to an undeserved extent”.
The explanations had been possible extra nuanced. The early Coffey stills used iron pipes which gave the whisky an disagreeable flavour little question contributing to the early failure. Eire didn’t license small distillers and authorized Irish whisky was dominated by massive stills. We suspect this is able to have performed a task in making Coffey’s steady nonetheless much less engaging by comparability. Large pot stills would have good throughput if not the gas effectivity of the continual nonetheless. Sarcastically, it was Coffey in his position as Excise Workplace who suppressed the small illicit distillers. In 1810, he was left for lifeless having been attacked with a bayonet throughout the ‘poitin wars’. A reward for the seize of his attackers was unsuccessful, excise officers then as now had been lower than well-liked.
In 1835, the agency Aeneas Coffey and Sons was established in Bromley within the UK. His failure in Eire contrasted by early success in Scotland (Inverkeithing and Bonnington had quickly adopted Grange) and potential gross sales of his nonetheless to rectifiers and gin distillers in all probability prompted the transfer. In 1840, Aeneas Coffey Jr established the primary patent distillery in London at Lewisham which resulted in somewhat unlucky circumstances. The Secretary organized for a big launch of spirits from bond and offered the cheque for excise responsibility at a Administrators assembly which didn’t include the payee’s identify. The secretary crammed in his personal identify, cashed the cheque and was by no means seen once more. The distillery went bankrupt and the Coffeys as soon as once more continued on as nonetheless makers.
The success of the Coffey nonetheless was actually because of the evolution of the unique design which had been little greater than an improved Cellier-Blumenthal nonetheless. By 1840, the Coffey nonetheless would have copper piping, copper plates (trays) perforated with bubble caps and the nonetheless was break up into two columns – analyzer (or stripping) column and the rectifying column. This separation of stripping and rectifying can be the inspiration of practically each spirit nonetheless in operation right now. Using perforated copper plates (trays) can be a marked enchancment on the Stein steady nonetheless which didn’t have contacting plates and the wash wanted to be misted to make sure good liquid / vapour mixing. Even the Haig household would set up a Coffey nonetheless.
The Cellier-Blumenthal nonetheless would even be improved by French Engineer and Dutch Sugar Dealer Armand Savalle and by French Pharmacist Louis-Charles Derosne. Savalle and Cellier-Blumenthal had been collaborators. Cellier-Blumenthal would promote his patent to Derosne who improved it and filed his personal patent whereas Savalle continued to work independently. Savalle stills may be discovered right now in Demerara and the French Islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe.
Whereas some un-malted grains had been utilized by highland single malt distillers the arrival of the continual nonetheless precipitated the break up the place highland batch stills had been solely single malt with the cheaper un-malted grains going to the lowland steady Coffey stills. This extra financial and extra accessible ‘grain whisky’ within the arms of entrepreneurs like John Dewar, James Chivas and William Trainer was the inspiration of the large success that Scotch Whisky is right now. Some luck performed a task as effectively. In 1863, there was the phylloxera in France which had affected most of Europe by 1879. Blended Scotch crammed the void for the effectively to do English created by shortages of claret and brandy.
The affect of uncooked materiel on the acceptance and adoption of the continual nonetheless shouldn’t be underestimated. We see the identical in rum. Demerara was the primary to develop vacuum pan sugar – the famed Demerara sugar – however the corollary of that’s vacuum pan molasses decrease in worth to muscovado molasses and Demerara was the primary of the anglophone producers to undertake the continual nonetheless. In Martinique, early restructuring of the sugar business into central factories (and thereby pan sugar) within the mid nineteenth century is the pre-cursor to town based mostly (Saint Pierre) manufacturing of Rhum Industrial with pan molasses.
In Barbados the rum business collapses after 1870, as a consequence of taxation and financial malaise. By the Nineties, the one estates nonetheless making rum are utilizing decrease worth pan molasses because the well-known ‘Barbados Molasses’ (made both because the prime product of the property or secondary to muscovado sugar) is just too precious to be transformed into Barbados rum (which is simply offered domestically at the moment). Barbados would see its first steady nonetheless utilizing pan molasses in 1893 to fill the void as muscovado estates went out of rum manufacturing. By the Nineteen Twenties centralisation of sugar factories (producing pan molasses) can be effectively underway and two extra steady stills would observe – one at Mount Homosexual and one other in Bridgetown.
For Jamaica in contrast, rum was the first product for a lot of estates because it was extra precious than Jamaica Sugar. Rum in Jamaica was produced from cane juice (Appleton) or ‘first boil’ molasses. Jamaica wouldn’t undertake the continual nonetheless till the Nineteen Sixties.
However the success of nonetheless gross sales to Scotland, the enterprise of nonetheless making slowed by the late 1860s and in 1872, Philip Coffey, son of Aeneas would switch the enterprise to his very long time foreman John Dore. Aeneas’s grandson, Aeneas H Coffey would act as guide to John Dore for a few years. By 1887, enterprise would revive and Barnard’s – ‘The Whisky Distilleries of the UK’ – printed that 12 months reported Coffey Stills in all main Scotch Whisky distilleries.
John Dore & Co Ltd would proceed as successors to Aeneas Coffey, nonetheless working from Bromley and provide Coffey Stills to the West Indies together with to Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana, St Vincent, St Lucia and Grenada. Coffey stills and their by-product designs can be even be offered by Scottish nonetheless makers reminiscent of Blairs and McMillans together with to rum distillers within the West Indies. Following the final demise of British manufacturing, Blairs would stop operation in 1977 and John Dore would stop working within the early Nineties though the commerce mark was offered and has been used subsequently on stills constructed by different copper works. McMillans continues operations until today though now it completely builds pot stills.
Put up Script:
The addition of rectification in 1824 to a batch (pot) nonetheless earlier than the event of the continual (column) is notable. In actual fact as early as 1813, Florentine Baglioni added a column part to a batch nonetheless for grappa. Sadly, it didn’t work effectively with the ‘vinnacia’.
At present phrases reminiscent of ‘hybrid nonetheless’ are a supply of confusion. There isn’t any such factor as a hybrid nonetheless. The dichotomy shouldn’t be pot nonetheless v column nonetheless however batch nonetheless v steady nonetheless. All nonetheless designs fall into one of many latter two classes. The addition of fractionation or enhanced rectification to a batch nonetheless remains to be a batch nonetheless. The straightforward batch nonetheless depends solely on the lyne arm for rectification. Enhancing this impact doesn’t change the basic nature of the nonetheless.
A batch nonetheless will produce a altering output over time (colloquially the heads, then hearts, then tails) from a single cost (batch) that itself adjustments as it’s distilled. A steady nonetheless produces an unchanged output that varies by place (not by time) on an unchanging cost that’s fed constantly. Heads, hearts, tails are drawn off concurrently from totally different positions. That is the basic distinction between the 2 processes which additionally explains why the 2 can by no means make the similar spirit.
Early column formed stills (e.g. the columnar Pistorius nonetheless) shouldn’t be confused with a column or steady nonetheless, it was a batch nonetheless and the Savalle or Cellier Blumental stills aren’t fitted with “a pot nonetheless” simply because they’d a pot formed base/kettle – there have been the truth is steady (or column) stills.
Half Two – The Batch Nonetheless
The myriad of nonetheless patents developed between the late 18th and mid nineteenth century is extraordinary and the few talked about partly one doesn’t do it remotely justice. This work, utilized to easy batch distillation led to the event of the continual nonetheless and the distillation world by no means appeared again.
Curiously, the in depth developments on batch distillation had little affect on the batch (pot) stills of Scotland, Eire and Cognac and so they proceed to make use of easy batch distillation, both double or triple to make whisky and cognac right now. To see superior batch distillation within the nineteenth and twentieth century, one should journey to the West Indies and observe rum distillation.
It’s usually claimed that the double retort nonetheless utilized in West Indies is an “Adam’s nonetheless”. No clarification is ever provided as to why the English colonies would have bought a French nonetheless (of which solely three had been made) on the peak of the Napoleonic wars (not to mention been in a position to import it). As talked about partly one, Edouard Adam (1801) made an enchancment to the easy nonetheless. He did so by including fractionation to the batch nonetheless by way of a sequence of egg formed vessels. Adam’s work was based mostly on the work of Professor Laurent Solimani and the 2 would go on to collectively patent additional enhancements. There isn’t any denying the equally in precept to a pot nonetheless with a number of retorts however how the West Indies got here to make use of the double retort is somewhat extra nuanced and more likely from a parallel bit of labor of Joseph Corty.
In 1818, Joseph Corty developed a double “compound” nonetheless with the second nonetheless containing exterior cooling (much like that of Pistorius). DT Shears & Sons of Bristol would purchase this design and these double stills proved to be of “such reputation” that Shears would provide “numbers of them for the colonies, however notably Demerara” – Wray (1848). Double stills of various designs might additionally discovered within the West Indies, some notable examples embrace one on the Londonderry Property in Dominica (constructed on the copper works in Barbados) and naturally the one at Port Mourant nonetheless in operation right now. These double stills are the forerunner of the pot/double retort in frequent use right now in Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana, St Lucia, Grenada amongst others. Early retort stills carried exterior cooling heads, little question the affect of the unique Corty Nonetheless.
Leonard Wray (household to the maybe higher recognized J Wray) in his seminal work – The Sensible Sugar Planter (1848) – wrote:
“However of all of the preparations, I’ve by no means recognized any to surpass the frequent nonetheless and double retorts”
This was no idle boast, Wray had in depth expertise together with of the Stills of Cellier-Blumenthal, Laugier (one other kind of double nonetheless) and Coffey.
At the moment double stills, single retort stills and double retort stills had been all in use and every of those varieties had been equipped by Shears of Bristol. Enhancements would proceed – hooked up is a single retort of Blairs, produced across the flip of the century with the open cooling head changed by a contemporary condenser. Rectification heads can be added to retort stills in Barbados and Guyana however notably not Jamaica. Yow will discover a rectification head on the Port Mourant double nonetheless in Guyana.
Whereas there’s little evolution within the easy batch (pot) stills of Scotland, Eire or Cognac on the size of that within the West Indies, there are some frequent enhancements which have been adopted.
In 1802, Charles Wyatt patented the applying of steam “tubes” to distillation as an alternative of direct fired stills which avoids the burning the wash on the underside of the nonetheless. At present nearly all stills in Scotland are steam heated however even right here the West Indians had been the extra progressive. The steam used within the Coffey stills was thought to destroy the esters and it might not be till 1887 earlier than Glenfiddich put in a nonetheless with steam coils. Famed Jamaican chemist HH Cousins carried out analysis in Jamaica on the usage of steam and located it superior. This resulted in a faster widespread adoption in Jamaica of the steam coil over Scotland. The Individuals would even be faster to undertake steam distillation over direct hearth. Famously right now cognac have to be distilled by direct hearth.
“I’m satisfied from the outcomes obtained at Shrewsbury property in Westmoreland, that every one dwelling commerce rums might with benefit be distilled in stills heated by a steam coil. Burnt rum ought to then be unknown. The fetish of the ‘direct hearth’ that also lingers within the minds of Scotch whiskey distillers has no foundation in any respect the place Jamaica rum is anxious, since any extreme firing leads to a most severe harm to the spirit produced”
H H Cousins, West Indian Bulletin, 1907
The earliest stills cooled the vapour by passing it by means of a easy worm (or coil). Initially this was solely atmospheric cooling however in 1771, German Chemist Wiegel invented the worm tub the place the worm is positioned in a bathtub into which chilly water is constantly pumped. In 1825, William Grimble invented the shell and tube condenser which changed the worm tub for cooling the distilled vapour. Barnard’s encyclopedic work on Scottish distilleries in 1887 reveals they had been broadly in use by then. At present only a small minority of Scottish distillers use a worm tub and most rum producers in Anglophone Caribbean use shell and tube condensers. The shell and tube condenser proved superior as a result of it cools the vapour markedly extra slowly and this in flip has a big affect on the copper’s catalytic impact in eradicating undesirable sulphur compounds from the spirit. As vigorous molasses fermentations have a tendency to supply extra sulphury parts over different washes, the recognition and speedy adoption of the shell and tube condenser in rum is of little shock.
Visiting the area you may see the fruits of this historical past with double retort stills (some with rectification heads) dominating the rum producers of the Anglophone Caribbean.
Half Three – Foursquare
The myriad of nonetheless designs from previous is overwhelming. Nostalgia makes us imagine there’s something higher that has been misplaced to time whereas the truth is that a lot of what was discarded was inferior to how we distill right now. Improvements that didn’t ship didn’t final. Evolutions that labored grew to become the norm. Totally different spirit cultures advanced although the totally different routes that labored for them and the progressive rum distillation strategies might not have delivered for Scotch what they delivered for Rum.
By inspecting this temporary overview of the evolution of distillation, everybody can higher grasp what we do at Foursquare and why.
Our twin column steady nonetheless relies on that design precept of separation of the analyser and the rectifier first developed by Coffey within the 1830s. Likewise it produces a spirit that enhances somewhat than competes with the spirit produced by our batch nonetheless. Nonetheless, in contrast to the traditional Coffey nonetheless the nonetheless operates beneath vacuum stress. As an alternative of our wash boiling at just a little over 100°C, our wash boils at nearly 80°C with the resultant marked enchancment in spirit high quality. The excessive suspended stable content material of a molasses wash make this technological advance all of the extra rewarding.
Our two batch stills are the traditional pot/double retort design as used all through the West Indies from Grenada to Jamaica. A design developed within the first half of the nineteenth century, “unsurpassed” within the phrases of Wray. Our retorts function cooling heads, a function first developed by Pistorius (1817) and Corty(1818) and well-liked within the West Indies within the stills constructed by Shears. It was Simon Dore, nice grandson of John Dore who urged to us that we revive the usage of cooling heads on retorts.
Apprenticed to John Dore had been the Carter brothers who developed the Carter-Head, an evolution of the rectification heads discovered on Shear’s double nonetheless and Saint Marc Nonetheless of 1824. Loch Lomond operates related rectification heads right now. At Foursquare, we’ve got our personal evolution of the Carter-Head on each of our stills. We now have included in these heads the usage of ‘nano copper’ surfaces. This was developed by the CREA Analysis Centre (College of Siena) in collaboration with Inexperienced Engineering. The sensible impact of those copper surfaces is to enhance the catalytic impact of the copper. On this method, the thermodynamic course of is unchanged however the chemical impact is improved. That’s to say, one nano copper tray has the catalytic impact of six trays however the rectification energy of a single tray.
Our older batch nonetheless has steam coils however our new batch nonetheless incorporates a twin system of steam coil and bain-marie. A bain-marie is a steam or water jacketed nonetheless developed within the sixteenth century however primarily utilized by alchemists. At present, a number of craft distillers use small stills heated by way of a bain-marie. The dual system gives probably the most constant and even method of heating a batch nonetheless. A smoky flavour is a pure element of a peated whisky however a smoky flavour in rum is simply unhealthy distillation.
We additionally use the shell and tube condenser on our batch stills for its superiority over the older worm tube vapour cooling system. Sulphury, metallic, “petrolly” rums aren’t our type.
As a homage to all that that has been discovered and included from the previous, the person door on our new batch (pot) nonetheless is from an precise solid as utilized by John Dore & Co Ltd.
There may be one other innovation on our newest batch nonetheless, in all probability probably the most bold of all. However we’ll wait until its proved within the subject earlier than revealing.
Large because of Richard for agreeing to permit me to collate this data….Keep tuned for the Six Half collected article “Yeast In Rum (or S. Pombe Revisited)”
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