Six New Distillation Papers From The IRS

Unfortunately I only have these as paper copies and cannot scan them as yet.

1941 REPORT ON WHISKEY AND RUM
Valaer, Peter
J. Association of Official Agricultural Chemists (1941), Vol. 24, No. 2, pp.224-231

This paper turned out to be about a new method of determining tannin content for analysts and isn’t too important these days

1937 ACID CONTENT OF WHISKEY
Schicktanz, S.T. and Etienne, Arthur D.
J. Industrial and Engineering Chemistry (1937), Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 157-159

This paper looks at how the pH of whisky taken by an electrode can be biased by the alcohol content and is still somewhat relevant today. This is another paper about methodologies for analysts.

1945 CARAMEL AND OTHER ARTIFICIAL COLORING MATTER IN ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS
Valaer, Peter
J. AOAC (1945), Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 467-470

This paper was a new methodology for detecting caramel which can either be lawfully used or as an adulterant. The method was developed as a collaborative effort and was rigorously tested and commented on by numerous analysts across the country.

1956 REPORT ON METHANOL IN DISTILLED SPIRITS
Mathers, Alex P.
J. AOAC (1956), Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 737-738

This is very brief and is just a comment on new methods for measuring methanol which is tricky due to its similar volatility to ethanol. The paper requests more trials with collaborators.

1956 LABORATORY CARBONATION OF WINE
Etienne, Arthur D. and Mathers, A. P.
J. AOAC (1956)
This interesting paper develops a means of investigating small levels of carbonation that can be left in wines categorized as still as opposed to sparking. This is important because sparkling wines were taxed at a higher rate at the time. The authors built an apparatus similar to my champagne bottle manifold and use a laboratory shaker to agitate the bottles which is similar to my hand shaking method in effect. To measure carbonation they don’t rely on a gauge but rather build a mercury manometer as a more reliable means of measuring small amounts of pressure. This is apparently why pressure can be measured in cmhg or centimeter of mercury as well as PSI or BAR.

1968 ANALYTICAL PROFILE OF CISTERN ROOM WHISKIES
Schoeneman, Robert L. and Dyer, Randolph H.
J. AOAC (1967), Vol. 51, No. 5, pp. 937-987

This extensive paper is pretty much a blockbuster and I definitely need to create a scanning. Amazing data I’ve never seen is collected from 85 whiskeys taken from 42 distilleries. No first names are given, even still, the most exciting parts are the tables that report the grain bill, fermentation process (sweet or sour mash), lactic culture added, spent beer used %, gallon / bushel beer yield, fermentation hours, details of the beer still and the doubler, the distillation proof, and the proof of entry into the barrel.

A particularly cool part are the comments from the author on previous studies of the same type and whether whiskeys then (1968) where like those of 1898 studied by Crampton & Tolman. The paper also features a spectacular bibliography with entries I’ve never seen.

1 thought on “Six New Distillation Papers From The IRS

  1. Hello!
    I was wondering if you had ever gotten around to scanning the Schoeneman/Dyer article? I tried looking through your post history and through a couple of other sources, but haven’t found a copy yet. Looks like Schoeneman also did similar articles for Scotch and Bourbon in the early 70s though. Thanks!

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