CRAFT by Under My Host® Issue No. 15 Classics | Page 145

If you’ve ever walked around any distilleries
in the United States, then you’ve probably
seen equipment made by Vendome Copper
and Brass Works, Inc. In fact, 95% of Ameri-
can Whiskey is made in Vendome stills. Think
about it. That is a lot of equipment. And did
you know they’re located in Louisville, Ken-
tucky? Vendome has been fabricating stills
and other related equipment on the banks of
the Ohio River for 113 years. Over a century
of production may seem like a long time, but
distilling equipment goes back even before
the discovery of the United States of Amer-
ica.
There are theories that the Africans were
making palm wine as far back as 14,000 BC
and the South Americans were making Chich,
an alcoholic beverage made from potatoes,
in 11,000 BC. There is also chemical evidence
that fermenting and distillation goes back to
Jiahu, China 9,000 years ago. Even with this
evidence, the earliest written history of dis-
tilling only goes back to Mary the Jewess/
Maria the Prophetess. According to writings
of Zosimos of Panopolis, she lived between
the 1st and 3rd centuries AD in the Middle
East. She is attributed to being the inventor
of several pieces of apparatus, including the
first Alembic still and the Baine Marie, or
Double Boiler. During that time, there were
two types of Alembics she would have used:
the Dibikos with two arms and the Tribikos
with three. Mary/Maria has been called the
First Alchemist.
The Alembic still is the forerunner of the mod-
ern pot still. Ibn al-Awwam, an Arab agricul-
turist who lived in Seville, Spain, described
in his book on agriculture an Alembic being
used to get beverage alcohol sometime af-
ter the 10th century. “Spirited water” was
a healing elixir made from distilling grapes
into wine or honey into mead. Around the
11th century, a coiled cooling pipe was in-
vented and this made the vapor cool down
better than a straight pipe that had been
used previously. This type of Alembic was
improved in the early 1500s when the Swiss
physician, Paracelsus, started using a water
bath (balneum mariae) to stabilize the liq-
uid’s temperature. It also prevented the flask
from cracking when heated. In the late 1700s,
a type of condenser was invented which has
become the prototype of condensing equip-
ment we even use today. The tube with the
distillate coming out of the vessel was en-
closed in another tube with cold water run-
ning through it.
Pot stills have changed their size and shape
depending on the country using them. An
example being the Portuguese alembic
which had a rounded shape because the
earlier distillers found it would promote
more water to condense back into the liq-
uid being distilled and create a better spir-
it. Different size pot stills are also employed
to affect the spirit as well. Bigger pot stills
have more copper surface area to hold onto
the bad flavors and don’t get as hot at the
top. Being cooler in the ceiling of the pot
lets more of the heavier compounds contin-
ue condensing (reflux) and fall back into the
boil, allowing the lighter flavored product to
rise. A lyne arm that turns upward serves a
similar purpose. Smaller pot stills have less
surface area and will get hotter at the top,
MARY THE JEWESS, FIRST ALCHEMIST
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