SC - Re: liqueurs/spirits

[Christina van Tets]

Hello the List!

Ian Gourdon of Glen Awe wrote:

>
>I'd guess that beer may not have been distilled, as such.
<snip>
>     Whiskey/scotch is mentioned a number of times in
>historical sources, notably: "The earliest documented record
>of distilling in Scotland occurs as long ago as 1494, when
>an entry in the Exchequer Rolls listed "Eight bolls of malt
>to Friar John Cor wherewith to make aqua vitae" (water of
>life). This was sufficient to produce almost 1500 bottles.
>Thus, it is clear that distilling was already a well
>established practice. -Edited from and ©: "The Original
>Scotch". Michael Brander [Hutchinson, 1974...)

Forgive my ignorance, but I understood that whisky was distilled from what 
_was_ effectively beer??

>     Vodka is quite inferable, but very lightly documented.
>Someone mentioned Russian Gov't records a while back. Period
>vodka would almost certainly have been grain based,
>certainly not potatoes, and possibly not from a grain overly
>similar to modern wheat.
>     Rum is probably not a good inference for cordials, even
>though they are making it in volume during the 16th cen.
>1509 sees a rum factory in the new world, but no comments
>about using it for cordials.
>     Gin is probably right out.

Making it or using it for cordials?

Now, don't I remember from the jenever distillery in Hasselt (Belgium) some 
charters banning the distillery of jenever in period, which forced the 
removal of the distillers to France and England?  I'll check at home, so no 
need to rely on a potentially faulty memory.

Unless you're referring to using it for cordials.  You can get several 
different types of jenever now (apart from old and young):  coriander 
flavoured, among others.  You can also get Bessenjenever, which is a 
blackcurrant liqueur made from jenever, tho' I don't know how old that is.  
Do we have any period refs for sloe gin??

>     The fact that we are macerating in distillate to make
>liqueurs instead of a more common Medieval practice:
>distilling after macerating in wine or something else, is
>another problem entirely.

Abelard mentioned, as I wrote yesterday, 'herbed liquor', according to my 
translation.  I would be interested to know how that fits into the picture.  
Most cordials/liqueurs I've heard of have been spices or fruit, so this is a 
new one for me.

Cairistiona
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