1868 The complete Practical Distiller

THE COMPLETE PRACTICAL DISTILLER.

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burning to the bottom of the still. Thus they commo- diously reduce the business of brewing and fermenting to one operation. By using cold water, uniformly, to wet the malt, all danger of clogging the spending of the tap would neces- sarily be avoided ; but here there is no occasion to do any thing more than to dilute the wash, consisting of the whole of the grain, thin enough to be fermented and dis- tilled together, by which means the spirit of the bran and husky part, as well as of the flour, are completely ex- Yet this wash, compared to the ordinary distil- lers' wash of this country and England, is about three- eighths thinner. For these reasons, they obtain more spirit from their grain, and of a better quality, with not half the trouble taken by other distillers. Their backs usually contain as much wash as serves for one distillation. The gravity of the distillers' wash at Weesoppe, in the neighbourhood of Amsterdam, is but 18 pounds per barrel — very little more than half the gra- vity of that of the English distillers. Their stills usually hold from 300 to 500 gallons each ; they constantly draw off 3 cans of phlegm after the runnings cease to form on the head of the still, when distilling wash, and 5 cans when distilling low wines ; a practice not followed else- where. This, and the great quantity of rye they use, causes their spirit to be much more acid ; and the diluteness of their wash is a very good reason for the greater purity of their spirit, though most writers contend that it is not so tracted.

clear.