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PaulO wrote:I think the raisin flavoring must have been made by soaking chopped up raisins in a spirit base thus making an extract. The raisins that were fermented then distilled would be something different. This would produce a clear brandy, probably similar to grappa. The extract would be sweet and have a lot of raisin flavor. The unaged brandy would be more like white dog or vodka. This would be used to fortify wines, not so much to add taste.
gillmang wrote:That is very interesting. It raises a number of questions in my mind:
- to what extent is a well-conducted mash different from a wash (a mash which is filtered to remove all solids)? I always understood a wash and and mash to be different and a mash was a hallmark of bourbon production
- does furfural have a burned taste? If so this may explain the confusion of this congener with a burned mash flavour (which the old writers sometimes called "empyreumatic" - from what I can tell it means burned vegetable matter).
M'Harry (1809) indicated that simple agitation would do the trick. Also, he (or other early writers I have read) advised adding some kind of soap or fat to the still so the oiliness would preclude sticking.
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