>> NARRATOR: Before it meets the
bottle, it's born with water and grain, then lives in a barrel.
The distilling of alcoholic spirits is big business and a
near-sacred religion. Bourbon, Scotch, Rum, Gin, Vodka
or Tequila. What's your pleasure?
Now, "Distilleries" on<i> Modern</i> <i>Marvels.</i><font color="#FFFF00">
Captioning sponsored by</font> <font color="#FFFF00">A&E TELEVISION NETWORKS
>> NARRATOR: They eye the color,</font> swirl the glass, inhale the
bouquet, sip and then ponder their actions.
>> This is absolutely exquisite. >> NARRATOR: These are not wine
snobs; they're whiskey snobs. At the annual "Whiskies of the
World" Expo in San Francisco, the $100 admission offers a
chance to experience the finest that distilleries have to offer.
>> You can smell the difference. >> Great mixer.
It's great on the rocks. >> Bourbon has a flavor profile
that peaks at a certain age. >> This is perfect for early in
the day. >> PAUL PACULT: It all goes back
to one thing, and that is the growing sophistication of
American palates. Consumers are looking for
greater challenge. And they often believe that a
product that costs $25 or $30 is going to give them that
challenge. >> NARRATOR: The emergence of
premium and super-premium bottles is a potent sales trend
in an already huge industry. In the United States alone, the
sale of legal alcoholic spirits tops more than $45 billion per
year. For many distilleries, the
challenge is to marry centuries of traditional distilling
methods with the need for high-tech, high-volume
production. What was once one man and one
still is now a computer- controlled symphony of water,
vapor and spirit. Today's massive commercial pot
stills have revolutionized an ancient technology, but the
science of distillation has never changed.
Alcohol is produced when yeast is added to a mixture, or mash,
of water and a fermentable organic ingredient like grain.
The yeast converts the grain sugars into ethyl alcohol
molecules. When the mixture is heated, the
alcohol vaporizes and rises into the neck of the still.
As it enters the coils, it is cooled and condensed into liquid
form. The result is a colorless,
odorless, neutral grain spirit. >> DAVID WONDRICH: A spirit
means originally in the Middle Ages when it was applied to
distillation, it meant that they were extracting the soul from
the body of the liquid. They're purifying it and getting
rid of the body. >> PACULT: Distilled spirits
really have been around now, we're believing, since around
3000 BC. Recent archeological finds of
terra-cotta stills have been found in Pakistan.
But also the Chinese were very, very likely distilling as early
as 1000 BC, distilling rice wine into spirits.
>> NARRATOR: In 12th-century Italy, monks began producing
spirits from wine. As the technology spread
throughout Europe, spirits were distilled from grain crops such
as barley or wheat. People soon learned that
substituting alcoholic spirits for drinking water was a
practical way to stay alive. >> WONDRICH: One thing distilled
spirits did do is replaced water drinking.
All kinds of horrible diseases would be passed on by unsanitary
water sources and pouring spirits into the water would
kill off some of that. Drinking it in place of the
water would certainly be an improvement up to a point.
>> NARRATOR: In the American colonies, the practice was also
considered crucial to good health.
Initially, colonists distilled spirits from pears, peaches and
cherries. Eventually, many began to favor
an apple brandy called applejack.
But one spirit dominated the colonial palate.
Rum made from sugar cane was America's first drink of choice.
>> PACULT: Columbus brought sugar cane to the Western
Hemisphere on his second voyage in 1494 and planted it on the
island of Hispaniola which is now today, Haiti/Dominican
Republic. >> NARRATOR: Typically, rum was
imported from the Caribbean. American colonists also
purchased a sugar cane by-product: molasses, which
allowed them to make their own rum.
By the 1660s, New London, Connecticut, was the
rum-distilling capital of the New World.
But the Caribbean was and still is the worldwide home of
rum-distilling. >> WONDRICH: Bacardi right now
is the world market leader in rum.
They make and sell more rum than anybody.
They started in the 19th century in Cuba as a small distillery.
The owner, Don Facundo Bacardi, came from Spain and he was
interested in technology and in trying out some of the latest in
innovations. Because yeast converts sugar to
alcohol, sugar cane's by-product, molasses, is an
ideal spirit base. After the juice is extracted and
boiled three times, the molasses is fermented and distilled into
rum. Bacardi set out to tame the
fiery, dark Caribbean "rumbustions."
What he helped perfect was a smoother, lighter rum that was
highly mixable. It was called "white rum."
>> DALE DeGROFF: The<i> Mojito,</i> like all things Latin, is
sweeping the country. This is such a wonderful and
simple drink. I have some leaves of mint in
the bottom of my glass and I'm going to put a little bit of
simple syrup... you can use plain sugar, granulated sugar.
And I want to bruise the mint leaves to open a couple of veins
and let some flavor out into my drink.
Now, I'm going to add a sour ingredient, 'cause I have a
sweet and that's going to be fresh lime juice and some good
superior white rum from Puerto Rico as the base.
Now, we do ice... and we're going to top it with
soda and a great big beautiful sprig of mint of top.
The<i> Mojito.</i> >> NARRATOR: The popularity of
rum, the first drink of colonial America, didn't last.
>> WONDRICH: Once the American Colonies and the British decided
to stop seeing eye-to-eye about things, the British turned off
the taps on the molasses supply. And that forced the Colonists to
look around for other alternatives.
>> NARRATOR: Whiskey distilled from grains became the patriotic
drink of a newborn United States of America.
Irish and Scottish colonists had been privately distilling
whiskey from Indian corn, barley and rye for decades, but now the
demand was huge. >> PACULT: Distilling in the
Colonies was an absolutely necessary part of being a
farmer. Because America was so fertile
and grains of all types grew so well here, they needed to do
something with the excess of grain.
>> WONDRICH: And they found early on that if you distill it,
it won't rot, the volume is much reduced, it's easy to transport,
at least easier than carrying huge bushels of grain.
And there's a ready market for it and profit to be made.
So a very common piece of farm equipment on the frontier was
a copper pot still. >> NARRATOR: Even George
Washington promoted the practice of private distillation.
>> WONDRICH: George Washington was big on encouraging the
colonists to do things for themselves using the latest
techniques. So he had a modern whiskey
distillery built on Mt. Vernon. >> NARRATOR: Archaeological
findings at Mt. Vernon revealed that Washington was producing a
rye whiskey-- the spirit favored by early American whiskey
distillers. More than 200 years later, a new
movement called micro-distilling is following in the footsteps of
Washington. Anchor Brewing in San Francisco
is known for leading the surge in beer micro-brewing; but now
it's tiny distillery is making colonial-style whiskey in small
sized batches. The result is Old Potrero
Straight Rye Whiskey. >> FRITZ MAYTAG: This is a mash
of malted rye that has been crushed in the mill and mixed
with warm water and cooked, and the temperature goes up and up
and then gradually the enzymes convert the starch to sugar.
In the American whiskey tradition, we ferment the mash.
This is a bubbling mash, and then when the fermentation
finishes, we distill the mash. We put the whole thing in the
still. >> NARRATOR: At Anchor, two
copper pot stills complete the distillation: a wash still
converts the mash to a liquid, low-strength alcohol, and a
spirit still refines and condenses the spirit into
high-strength alcohol. >> MAYTAG: And then what comes
out which interests a lot of people and surprises people is
just a clear liquid. It's the same whether you're
making gin or rum or whiskey. There's no color.
>> NARRATOR: Much like colonial distillers, Anchor distilling
ages its whiskey in oak barrels to add color and flavor.
But it was another American spirit that took the art of
barrel aging to fire-charred immortality.
"Distilleries" will return on <i>Modern Marvels.</i>
>> NARRATOR: We now return to "Distilleries" on<i> Modern
Marvels.</i> Distilling spirits wasn't always
a profitable, high volume business.
On October 28th, 1919, the U.S. Congress approved legislation
that sobered up the nation. The Volstead Act enforced an
immediate ban on the manufacture, sale or
transportation of intoxicating liquors.
Prohibition was a major victory for a group of Americans
convinced that alcohol was a scourge of mankind.
>> WONDRICH: The Temperance Movement started soon after the
War of Independence when some people noticed that their fellow
Americans were spending way too much time bellied up to the bar
and not enough time building a country.
And this was always a problem in early America.
Liquor was used day in, day out. >> NARRATOR: But as the
temperance movement celebrated, the large brewing and distilling
companies faced utter devastation.
Another type of distiller moved in to fill the void.
>> WONDRICH: Moonshining was always popular in America just
to escape the taxes, but once Prohibition came in, the
moonshiners found themselves very popular indeed, and their
skills spread to every part of America.
>> NARRATOR: Ultimately prohibition was a failure that
cost the federal government an estimated $500 million a year in
lost excise taxes. It also nearly wiped out an
American institution called bourbon whiskey.
>> DeGROFF: The Manhattan-- next to the martini-- one of the most
classic of American cocktails. I begin with my flavor, a dash
of angostura bitters, some good Italian sweet vermouth, I like
my Manhattans one part vermouth, and two parts bourbon.
The Manhattan can be made with American rye whiskey as well.
And it's a stirred drink. And the traditional garnish for
the Manhattan is the maraschino cherry.
The Manhattan. >> NARRATOR: The story of
American bourbon began with the Whiskey Rebellion.
In 1792, the federal government decided to levy a tax against
all distilled spirits, and farmer-distillers rebelled.
The uprising was crushed, but many packed up and moved to the
frontier away from governmental control into present-day
Kentucky. It was here, in Bourbon county
that bourbon whiskey was born. What the whiskey makers found
was a land perfect for growing corn, the primary grain in
bourbon. The other crucial ingredient is
as important today as it was 200 years ago.
>> PICKERELL: In the whole United States, there's only one
area that's got perfect bourbon- making water and that's the
Bluegrass region of Kentucky and it tails down a little bit into
central Tennessee, but the thing that makes that water perfect is
that it's limestone-rich, so it's really hard water, but no
iron because iron ruins the whiskey.
>> NARRATOR: Prohibition destroyed dozens of bourbon
distillers, but the Jim Beam distillery in Clermont,
Kentucky, was resurrected and today carries on a six-
generation tradition. >> BOOKER NOE III: A lot of
people that think Jim Beam started the company, but it
was actually his great- grandfather Jacob Beam who, back
in 1795 started making whiskey about 30 miles from here, a
little place called Hardin Creek.
>> NARRATOR: The modern Beam distillery has the capacity to
produce more than ten million gallons of whiskey in a single
year. The massive operation requires
constant quality checks, beginning with the grain
shipments. Each batch is checked for odor
quality, excessive cracking of the kernels and moisture
percentage before it is crushed into a powdery grist.
Jim Beam bourbons also contain rye and barley.
At the Makers Mark distillery in Loretto, Kentucky, winter wheat
is preferred to rye to give the whiskey it's own smooth taste.
However, both bourbons agree on one crucial step: the sour mash
process. A small portion of the sour,
leftover mash from a previous batch is taken from the still
and added to the new, incoming mash.
>> JERRY DALTON: What that does is it lends continuity to the
whiskey from batch to batch because you're using some of the
flavor components from earlier distillations.
It also helps us control the pH of the mash, which is a
critical thing. >> NARRATOR: While Kentucky is
the home to bourbon, its neighbor to the south enjoys a
unique, worldwide fame. At the Jack Daniels distillery
in Lynchburg, Tennessee, the whiskey looks like bourbon, but
its distinctive flavor has a hint of sweet charcoal.
>> WONDRICH: Tennessee whiskey is a lot like bourbon except
it's got one extra step where once it comes out of the still,
they pour it in a tub that's full of charcoal and let it
filter through all the way to the bottom.
It takes a long time, but it makes for a smoother whiskey.
That's the theory. >> NARRATOR: The sugar maple
charcoal mellowing is the dividing line between Tennessee
whiskey and bourbon, but both styles ultimately end up in the
same place: a charred, American white oak barrel.
The process begins when the 52- gallon oak barrels are
purchased from a cooperage. These barrelmakers assemble the
staves and fire-char the inside, where the charred wood makes
contact with the whiskey. >> DALTON: You can see the char
here. This is called an alligator
char; the pattern sort of tends to resemble alligator skin.
When we put the bourbon up in this barrel, the changes of
temperature through the day will actually force the whiskey in
and out of the walls of the barrel, through that char.
>> PACULT: It is essentially a living, breathing thing.
The barrel allows it contact with air.
And the barrel, because it's porous, in the warmth of the
summer, expands and breathes out.
And then when the weather turns cold, the barrel contracts and
breathes in. >> PICKERELL: There are some 160
different wood chemicals that get dissolved.
There are six that taste and smell like vanilla.
There's a number of wood sugars. There's caramel.
There's tannins and smoke and all that that get dissolved when
it gets hot. >> NARRATOR: Because the sun and
the wind are so critical to good aging, distilleries are
particular about the location and architecture of the
barrelhouse. At Jim Beam, some contain over
20,000 whiskey barrels and reach a height of nine stories.
>> DALTON: The aging characteristics high in the
house are very much different than they are down here on the
first floor. Up there, temperatures are
higher, conditions are more extreme, and the whiskey will
actually pick up color and flavor quicker high in the house
than they do down here. >> NARRATOR: After aging a
minimum of two years, the individual whiskey barrels have
different color and taste characteristics.
Most distilleries then co-mingle the barrels to obtain a
consistent product for bottling. But at Makers Mark, a process
called barrel rotation is practiced to avoid having any
two barrels age differently. >> PICKERELL: After they've been
up in the top of the warehouse for three summers, the tasting
panel votes on it, and if it's achieved enough maturity, the
ensuing fall we'll move those barrels to a lower spot in the
warehouse to complete their aging, and we think that that
gives us a much more uniform product.
>> NARRATOR: These barrels are also co-mingled and then
filtered before bottling. While bourbon remains the true
spirit of America, it's not the world's top selling whiskey.
Across the sea, Scottish distillers use fire and smoke to
produce a whisky so good, they say angels demand their own
share. "Distilleries" will return on<i>
Modern Marvels.</i> >> NARRATOR: We now return to
"Distilleries" on<i> Modern</i> <i>Marvels.</i>
In Kentucky bourbon country, a charred American white oak
barrel loses its usefulness after aging just one batch of
whiskey. But instead of being discarded,
the barrels are disassembled and sold.
In Scotland, scotch whiskey distillers eagerly purchase the
used bourbon barrels. >> WILLIAM BERGIUS: The casks
that they use are made out of that beautiful American white
oak. It's still got enough wood
sugars in the white oak to give scotch both color and lovely
gentle honey, vanilla-like flavors.
>> NARRATOR: Beyond the barrel, the similarities between
American bourbon whiskey and scotch whiskey come to an end.
While corn is the primary grain in bourbon, scotch distillers
use only 100% barley. >> ROBIN SHIELDS: Everyone in
Scotland would probably deny it, but, uh, it's believed that
distilling came to Scotland from the Irish.
And it's believed the monks would have brought across the
secrets of distilling to Scotland.
>> NARRATOR: Legally, scotch is produced only in Scotland.
If the scotch is made from pure malted barley at a single
distillery, it's known as single malt scotch.
>> DeGROFF: I have a smoky, peaty one here, because they
come in all different styles. And this one is heavy, smoky and
peaty, the way the Scots like it.
And I would suggest that you drink it neat.
But a good master distiller will tell you that if you put a few
drops of water, that water will open up the aromas and the
secrets that are locked inside of your scotch.
>> NARRATOR: On Islay, a remote island on Scotland's west coast,
the whiskies have the smokiest flavor in all of Scotland.
For nearly two centuries, Islay's Laphroaig Distillery has
achieved its trademark smokiness through a tradition known as
barley "floor malting." >> SHIELDS: Well, there are
three raw materials made in making whiskey, and barley is
the first one of them. We need barley, we need water,
and we need yeast. Without barley, we would have no
material that we could use to extract the sugar that we're
then going to ferment. >> NARRATOR: Malting is the
process of forcing barley to germinate.
Laphroaig is one of a handful of single malt distillers that
performs floor malting on premise.
When the barley arrives, it's first steeped in water to a
moisture content of 45%. Approximately six tons of the
grain is then spread onto the malting floor to begin drying.
>> SHIELDS: We're actually trying to trick the barley grain
into thinking it's spring and it's time to germinate and grow
into a new barley plant. It's developing enzymes, and
these enzymes we can use later, and in the process they will
break down all the starch, which is the food store of the grain.
>> NARRATOR: After germination, the barley is introduced to its
famous companion: peat. Peat is a fuel source formed by
decaying plant matter. It remains the primary flavor
catalyst in single malt scotch. >> BERGIUS: So when you dig it
and dry it out, you've got something that's almost like
stone but burns with a lovely fragrance and with some heat.
>> NARRATOR: The barley is spread evenly on the floor of a
kiln. The peat fire smokes the barley
for flavor, and in the process stops the germination.
>> SHIELDS: All that smoke will draw slowly up through the bed
of grain, but as the smoke is actually rising through the bed
of grain, the grain is absorbing that smoky character, and that
ultimately makes the character of Laphroaig.
>> NARRATOR: When the malted barley is finally smoked and
dried, it's ground and introduced to scotch whiskey's
other crucial ingredient. >> BERGIUS: The water is so
important. It almost defines the flavor
that is possible to create in a distillery.
It's not the only factor, but if you don't have the right quality
of water, no matter what size of still or what apparatus you set
up here, you won't get a good whiskey.
>> NARRATOR: The local water is the reason many distilleries in
Scotland have been at the same location for generations.
By combining the perfect water source with the perfect pot
still, a unique whiskey emerges. >> SHIELDS: Every distillery has
their own particular design of still.
Ours here, they're very small in comparison to some you'll see.
Very squat. >> NARRATOR: In the Scottish
Highlands region on the famous River Spey, the Tormore
Distillery uses a different strategy: very large stills.
>> BERGIUS: In practice, we know after 200 or 300 years of trial
and error, if we put small stills on certain locations we
get wonderful whiskies. But in other locations, it's the
big stills that work best. >> NARRATOR: To further refine
the spirit, a unique purifier is positioned at the top of the
Tormore stills. >> WILLIE McCALLUM: It actually
helps to stop any of the rougher spirit elements from going
through to the condenser. It's like a filter in a way.
It's actually very good, but it adds body and character to the
spirit that we have here at Tormore.
>> NARRATOR: Deeper into the Spey-side farmlands, Glendronach
is the only distillery in Scotland that clings to an
ancient still technology. While others heat the stills by
piping in hot steam, Glendronach practices direct firing with
coal. >> THOMAS LEE: It produces
particular compounds within the whiskey as it's being distilled
that aren't produced when the heat is generated within the
still from a steam coil or some other means.
>> NARRATOR: While the shape of the still and the heat source
have influence, barrel-aging is what defines the flavor of
single malt scotch. And in Scotland, it's a long
wait. Single malts are routinely aged
for 12, 15, and sometimes even 30 and 40 years.
As the barrels age, they absorb the character of the air and the
land around them. In exchange, the whiskey barrel
gives something back. It's called the "angels' share."
>> BERGIUS: In the cask, we are losing two percent of the
alcohol per year. Two percent of the volume
disappears. So what is happening as the
whiskey evaporates is, the volume inside the cask goes
down, and the angels get their reward.
>> NARRATOR: The worldwide sales of single malt are exploding,
but it remains only a fraction of the world's supply of scotch
whiskey. Most scotch is blended,
representing over 90% of all scotch whiskey.
>> RIANNON WALSH: In blended scotch whiskies, many single
malts are put into a whiskey vatting along with grain
whiskeys, and that's blended whiskey.
>> NARRATOR: Grain whiskies made from corn or unmalted barley are
used to soften the single malt scotches, making most blended
scotches less expensive, and more appealing to a mass market.
Whether blended or single malt, scotch is the second largest
export in Scotland and a source of intense national pride.
On the other side of the world, there is a wild spirit distilled
from a wicked looking plant that inspires its own passionate
following. "Distilleries" will return on<i>
Modern Marvels.</i> >> NARRATOR: We now return to
"Distilleries" on<i> Modern</i> <i>Marvels.</i>
In the heart of San Francisco, Tommy's Mexican Restaurant is
regularly packed with a devoted crowd.
They come to experience the best that tequila distilleries have
to offer. At Tommy's, all of the tequilas
are distilled entirely from agave, a relative of the cactus.
>> JULIO BERMEJO: At Tommy's, we've taken a conscious stand to
only serve arguably the best tequila, which is 100% agave
tequila. >> DeGROFF: The margarita, made
with the spirit of Mexico, 100% blue agave tequila, and fresh
lime juice. Three quarters of a part of the
sour ingredient, fresh lime juice; one part of the sweet
ingredient, orange liqueur; and 100% blue agave tequila.
And let's shake it up. It is truly one of the most
popular cocktails in the world today.
The margarita. What a beautiful drink.
>> NARRATOR: Tequila distilleries are centered in
only one region of the world: the warm, mountainous area of
Jalisco, Mexico, where the blue agave grows.
While there are over 400 species of agave, by law only the juice
of the blue agave can be used for distilling tequila.
Its seductive flavor has been known for hundreds of years.
The Aztec Indians fermented the agave pulp into a beverage
called pulque. The plant was considered sacred,
and pulque was used in religious ceremonies.
>> EDUARDO VALLADO: With the arrival of the Spaniards in
Mexico in the 16th century, they brought distillation techniques
and applied those to that product that the natives were
using, and that's how tequila came out.
>> NARRATOR: Today, nearly a quarter of a million acres of
blue agave are waiting to become tequila in Mexico's nearly 100
distilleries. The plant takes as long as 12
years to reach maturity before it can be harvested.
The dangerous art of the <i>jimador,</i> or the agave
harvester, is a crucial skill in tequila production.
Using an implement called the <i>coa,</i> the workers shave the
razor-sharp leaves close to the stem, called a<i> pina.</i>
>> SERVANDO CALDERON: This is a <i>pina</i> of agave.
As you can see here, we have the heart of the agave, which is
really the stem. Here is the leaves of the agave.
Is very important the quantity of leaves you leave into the
stem, or into the<i> pina.</i> >> NARRATOR: These 45- to
220-pound monsters are then collected and moved to the
distillery. At the Herradura Distillery,
processing the<i> pinas</i> remains a traditional practice.
The halved<i> pinas</i> are hand-loaded into large masonry ovens, called<i>
hornos.</i> They are cooked for 24 hours to
soften the hard hearts of the agave and turn their starches
into sugars. At the nearby Sauza Distillery,
the larger scale production has embraced modern technology.
Here the<i> pinas</i> are shredded, then heated in a massive open
cooker with super-heated steam to extract the juice.
Shredding the<i> pinas</i> allows more even cooking-- ultimately 20%
more agave juice is extracted than with the traditional oven
method. Finally, an autoclave, or giant
pressure cooker, converts the starches to sugars.
>> VALLADO: So by applying modern techniques, we have been
able to keep the flavor of tequila and the characteristics
that the consumer looks for in tequila, and also improved
productivity, quality, and even working conditions.
>> NARRATOR: Tequila is sold in two forms: 100% agave or mixto.
The mixto contains at least 51% pure agave juice and a mixture
of sugar cane or other sugars. The overwhelming majority of the
less-expensive mixto tequila is exported to the United States,
where it fuels the margarita craze.
But as palates become more sophisticated, America is
catching on to the 100% pure agave tequilas.
Growing agave is an expensive, long-term risk and when demand
for tequila jumped in the 1990s, agave growers couldn't deliver.
>> VALLADO: There was huge acute agave shortage back in the year
2000 when price increased by 15 fold.
So agave was so short that all producers wanted to extract as
much tequila from agave as possible.
So that prompted a major modernization of the tequila
industry. >> NARRATOR: In order to further
maximize sugar yields, researchers turned their
attention to plant propagation in an attempt to clone the
perfect agave. >> VALLADO: So we are doing DNA
analysis of an agave to make sure that it is blue agave.
And from one cell you can go all the way to 1,500 plants that are
identical and disease free. The main advantage is that they
are, first of all, genetically perfect, there is no genetic
modification at all but we know that they are blue agave.
They are disease free and they will grow at the same rate.
>> NARRATOR: More than a quarter of a million cloned agaves are
raised in Sauza's massive greenhouse facility.
After one year under controlled conditions, they are replanted
in the open fields. These "perfect" blue agaves will
mature with larger leaves that will yield more sugar and
ultimately produce more tequila. As growers and researchers learn
to better control the mysterious blue agave, it could mean the
end of an ancient art. The jimadors may one day become
obsolete. The planting of lab-propagated,
uniformly sized agave is paving the way for mechanized
harvesting. Tequila makers struggle to
maintain tradition even as they employ modern technology.
But another, clear spirit revels in high technology.
In fact, its makers are in a race to distill a spirit so
light and pure, it might be hangover free.
"Distilleries" will return on <i>Modern Marvels.</i>
>> NARRATOR: We now return to "Distilleries" on<i> Modern
Marvels.</i> When most spirits are distilled,
they come out clear and colorless.
For whiskey and other spirits, it's off to the barrelhouse for
years of aging and coloring. But some clear spirits skip the
barrel and goes right to the bottle-- including gin.
>> DEGROFF: The classic martini is the king of cocktails, and
I'm talking about the one with a dash of vermouth.
And that dash of vermouth varies from person to person a lot.
And a good London dry gin. Take your spoon... I don't
shake, I stir. Sorry, James Bond.
But to me, when you have only spirits, you should stir.
And then we're going to strain it in.
The garnish-- originally in the 19th century it was a lemon
peel. Now it's become an olive.
I like both. So I'm going to put an olive and
a little bit of the oil of a lemon on top of the drink and
drop it in. This is a true classic.
The king of cocktails-- the martini.
>> NARRATOR: The juniper berry is the predominant flavor in
most gins. In the 14th century, it was
widely believed that juniper- based elixirs could combat the
deadly bubonic plague. In the 17th century, English
soldiers encountered the juniper-based spirit in Holland.
>> DESMOND PAYNE: And they were given quantities of gin to drink
before going into battle. It's what we now know as Dutch
courage. But when they came back to
England after the wars, they brought the recipes for gin with
them. >> NARRATOR: During the "gin
craze" of the early 18th century, it became the crack
cocaine of the English underclass.
In 1733, London distillers produced 11 million gallons-- 14
gallons for every man, woman and child.
Eventually, the government regulated gin and curbed
consumption. In the 21st century gin has
evolved into a refined, multi- flavored spirit.
>> FRITZ MAYTAG: With gin we take pure, neutral spirits,
and we add botanicals or herbs, fruit, all sorts of mysterious,
exotic things. >> NARRATOR: At the Beefeater
Gin Distillery in London, a tradition that James Burrough
began in 1863 is upheld with 21st century technology.
The process begins with a grain spirit made from corn, wheat and
barley. But it's the secretive botanical
recipe that makes it gin. >> PAYNE: So these are the
botanicals that are used in Beefeater Gin.
These are juniper berries, the most important flavor in gin,
angelica root, coriander seed, bitter orange peel, lemon peel,
both from Spain, angelica seed, which gives some of that
spiciness to the gin, ground almond, orice root-- that one
holds in the flavors-- and the last one here is licorice.
>> NARRATOR: After selecting and quality testing all of the
botanical ingredients, the crucial step occurs in the
copper pot still. >> PAYNE: At Beefeater here, we
do one extra process, which is very important to us.
When we combine the botanicals and the spirit in our stills, we
leave them there to steep, to soak, to marinate, if you like,
for 24 hours before we distill. What that does is to get much
more complexity from those botanicals.
>> NARRATOR: As the distilled gin emerges, a highly trained
nose is the final quality control instrument.
>> PAYNE: I can really see... or rather smell what's happening.
When we're running the stills, all those botanicals release
their flavors at different stages.
First thing in the morning, you get very strong citrus notes
coming across. A little later, now we've got...
certainly citrus coming through, but juniper's beginning to come
through. And during the day, all those
botanicals will come through one after another.
>> NARRATOR: Gin distilling has a long and rich tradition, but
in the United States, its sales are only 25% of its clear, yet
flavorless cousin-- vodka. >> NARRATOR: Vodka is associated
closely with a region of origin. Russia and Poland are both
credited with distilling vodka from grain as early as the 15th
century. It was this flavorless, pure
spirit that ultimately conquered America.
Vodka took off in the 1950s and '60s when James Bond and a more
affluent, cocktail-loving crowd fell in love with the mixable
spirit. And the party is still going
strong. In 2003, over 40 million cases
of vodka were sold in the United States-- making it by far the
most popular drink at the bar. >> KEITH GREGGOR: With vodka,
the name of the game is to remove impurities.
So you end up with a very clean alcohol and the bad alcohols,
the impurities, eliminated as far as possible.
>> NARRATOR: In this spirit world, the impurities haunting
the vodka are methanol and other undesirable compounds that are
referred to as congeners. While they occur naturally
during distillation, congeners are suspected to contribute to
the alcoholic hangover. High-tech vodka distilling is
now targeting congeners and delivering super-premium vodkas
so pure, that many consumers are hoping the hangover is a thing
of the past. >> WONDRICH: Unfortunately one
of the compounds that gives you a hangover is alcohol.
So if you drink enough super- premium vodka, you will still
get a hangover. >> NARRATOR: At Belvedere Vodka
in Zyradow, Poland, removing congeners involves a combination
of extremely pure water and multiple distillations.
Distilling takes place in a continuous, three-column still.
While a pot still makes just one batch at a time, the continuous
still provides a constant flow. >> AGNIESZKA KUTA
(<i> translated</i> ): The raw spirit is diluted with water, then
heated and sent to the pre- distillation column.
Here the condensed impurities-- which boil at a temperature
lower than the boiling point of ethyl alcohol, are being
separated and removed. >> NARRATOR: The spirit then
enters the rectification column. Here rising steam heats a series
of 64 perforated plates. As the liquid spirit vaporizes,
the plates help trap and remove the impurities and water.
The vapor is condensed back to liquid and the process is
repeated over and over until virtually all impurities are
removed. What exits is a high-strength
spirit. A fourth re-distillation
finishes the process, producing a pure, super premium spirit.
At the Skyy Vodka Distillery in Pekin, Illinois, the massive
column stills are also quadruple distilling the vodka.
But the process doesn't end there.
The spirit is then triple filtered.
>> GREGGOR: We use a charcoal filtration to begin with and
then a rough cellulose filter and a fine cellulose filter to
remove particulate matter. The result of that is a crisp,
clean, odor-free vodka. >> NARRATOR: Using computer-
controlled technology, Skyy distills more than two million
cases of premium vodka every year.
Here and at other modern distilleries, the process may
bear little resemblance to the pot stills of the American
frontier, but the echoes of tradition are undeniable.
>> WONDRICH: The stuff that actually comes in contact with
the liquids is 19th century technology, and everything else
is 21st century. They're whittling it down to the
bare minimum that has to be traditional to guarantee the
quality of the spirit. >> NARRATOR: Whether it's vodka,
gin, whiskey, rum or tequila-- technology will continue to
influence the process of distilling-- making it faster,
more economical, and more consistent from bottle to
bottle. But the consumer is the ultimate
judge of quality. And despite new formulas and
endless marketing, the great distilleries will always look to
the past to define the future of excellence in the world of
spirits.
Ahhh I love Modern Marvels
Does anyone have any other good distillery documentary type stuff to watch? I'm already drinking, I might as well be watching and drinking.
I went to the Bacardi distillery in Puerto Rico during my honey moon. I recall it having very little information on actual distillation and instead presented such interesting facts as the history of the Mojito replete with animatronic figures.
I recommend Puerto Rico as a travel destination. I would say skip the Bacardi experience.