Commercial Production of Brandies

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION OF BRANDIES M. A. JOSLYN and M. A. AMERINE BULLETIN 652 September, 1941 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA CONTENTS PAGE Introduction 3 Economic status of the California brandy industry 5 The composition of brandies and the factors influencing it 7 Alcohols 7 Aldehydes 13 Esters 14 Acids 15 Other constituents 15 Significance of analytical tests 15 Factors influencing the composition of brandies 16 Classification of brandies 24 California 25 France 26 Greece 27 Other countries 29 Pomace brandies 29 Fortifying brandies 30 Principles of brandy making 30 Production of wine 30 Theory of distillation 32 Method of distillation 39 Types of stills 41 Distillery operation 48 Directions for making beverage brandy 48 Production of fortifying brandy 51 Production of pomace brandy 51 Federal laws and regulations 52 Distillery-slop disposal 55 Preparation for market 58 Brandy storage and aging 59 Tasting 63 Blending 64 Bottling 64 Analysis of beverage and fortifying brandies 65 Alcohol determination 65 Acid determination 67 Ester determination 67 Aldehyde determination 68 Higher-alcohol determination 70 Miscellaneous tests 71 Acknowledgment 72 Selected references for further reading 73 Index 78 COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION OF BRANDIES' M. A. JOSLYN2 AND M. A. AMERINE3 INTRODUCTION The commercial production of table and dessert wines in California has been discussed in Bulletins 639 and 651/ In the present publication the production of brandies from wines by distillation is considered. Beverage brandies are grape spirits sold at a proof of 100° or below for use as a beverage. Fortifying brandies are grape spirits of 160° to TABLE 1 Alcoholic Strengths by Various Systems i France Italy United Great and and Germany Cartier States Britain Belgium Russia system at 15°C at 15.6°C proof proof volume volume weight spirit spirit per cent per cent per cent 5.7 5* 2.8 2.9 2.3 11.4 10 5.6 5.7 4.6 — 22.8 20 11.3 11.4 9.2 — 34.4 30 17.1 17.2 13.9 — 57.3 50 28.4 28.6 23.5 — 85.8 75 42.7 42.9 35.9 — 100.0 87.5 49.8 50.0 42.5 — 114.2 100 56.9 57.1 49.3 10.1? 142.8 125t 71.3 71.4 63.9 26.7 171 3 150 85.5 85.6 80.1 33.9 194.3 170 97.0 97.2 95.3 41.5 200.0 175.08 100.0 100.0 100.0 44.0 * Or 95 under proof. f Or 25 over proof. Source of data: Simmonds, C. Alcohol. 574 p. (See p. 275.) Macmillan and Co., Ltd., London, England. 1919. 189° proof intended for use in the fortification of wines or for sale for other legal purposes. Spirits distilled at 190° proof or over are desig- nated as "spirits-fruit" or "fruit spirits"; they may not legally be called "brandy." "Proof" is an old English term for the strength or quality of spirits. In England 100 per cent proof spirit contains 57.1 per cent by volume of alcohol. In the United States, proof spirit, or 100° proof spirit, con- 1 Received for publication May 27, 1941. 2 Assistant Professor of Fruit Technology and Assistant Chemist in the Experi- ment Station. 3 Assistant Professor of Enology and Assistant Enologist in the Experiment Station. 4 Amerine, M. A., and M. A. Joslyn. Commercial production of table wines. Cali- fornia Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 639:1-143. 1940. Joslyn, M. A., and M. A. Amerine. Commercial production of dessert wines. Cali- fornia Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 651:1-186. 1941. [3] : 4 University op California—Experiment Station tains 50 per cent by volume of alcohol, and 200° proof spirit is absolute alcohol. The legal United States definition is as follows Proof spirit is held and taken to be that alcoholic liquor which contains one half its volume of alcohol of a specific gravity of 0.7939 at 60° F referred to water at 60° F as unity. Proof spirit has at 60° F a specific gravity of 0.93426 (in vacuo), 100 parts by volume of the same consisting of 50 parts of absolute alcohol and 53.73 parts of water. The difference of the sum of the parts of alcohol and water and the resulting 100 parts of proof spirit is due to the contraction which takes place when alcohol and water combine.5 A comparison of the alcoholic strengths as given by the various systems in use in different countries is shown in table 1. The problems of the California beverage-brandy industry are many. The quality of the wines used for distillation could be improved; pomace wines or wines of low quality make the production of the best-quality potable brandy difficult. The rational operation of the stills under existing government regulations is difficult ; since these regulations, which have been adopted to insure protection of the revenue, greatly restrict the distiller's free- dom of operation. There is need for wider knowledge of the factors influencing efficient still operation. Finally, the present economic status of the industry and the competition of the product with other distilled spirits are complicating factors. Although the production of wines for distillation purposes is briefly considered here, a more complete discussion of the methods of making table wines is found in Bulletin 639. The use of fortifying brandy for fortification purposes is treated in Bulletin 651. The present bulletin is based on investigations of the divisions of Fruit Products and Viti- culture, as well as on observations of the best current distillery practices. 5 United States Bureau of Internal Eevenue. Gauging manual embracing instruc- tions and tables for determining the quantity of distilled spirits by proof and weight. 579 p. (Quotation from p. 41.) United States Government Printing Office, Washing- ton, D.C. 1939. Bul. 652] Commercial Production of Brandies ECONOMIC STATUS OF THE CALIFORNIA BRANDY INDUSTRY6 Official data on brandy production and consumption in the United States, shown in tables 2 and 3, do not segregate grape brandy but cover all fruits. In California practically all brandy (99 per cent) is grape brandy, whereas in other states brandy is made largely from other fruits. As shown in table 2, the consumption of fruit brandy as a beverage TABLE 2 United States Per-Capita Consumption of Alcoholic Beverages, Years Beginning July 1, Averages 1909-1913 and 1935-1939 Wine Distilled spirits Period Malt average liquors Total Dessert Table Total Brandy* Other gallons gallons gallons proof proof proof gallons^ gallons gallons gallons 1935-1939 0.77J 0.34 0.43J 0.79 0.02 0.77 12.65 1909-1913 0.52 0.20 0.32 1.48 0.03 1.45 20.77 * Includes all fruit brandy used for purposes other than fortification of wine, t Converted from barrels at 31 gallons per barrel. t Includes homemade table wine in 1935-1939 of 0.25 gallons; commercial table wine amounts to 0.18 gallons and total commercial wine 0.52 gallons. Sources of data: Compiled by S. W. Shear, Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics, College of Agriculture University of California. 1909-1913 from: Shear, S. W.,and G. G. Pearce. Supply and price trends in the California wine- grape industry, Part 2. Univ. California Giannini Foundation Mimeo. Rept. 34. tables 3 and 7. June, 1934. 1935-1939: Wine data from : Shear, S. W. Deciduous fruit statistics as of January, 1941. Univ. California Giannini Foundation Mimeo. Rept. 76: 72. 1941. Other data are United States imports for consumption plus tax-paid withdrawals from bonded warehouses; malt liquors also include tax-free withdrawals consumed on premises. Import data from releases of United States Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. Withdrawals from releases of Bureau of Internal Revenue, Alcohol Tax Unit. has been less since Repeal than before Prohibition. It averaged 2,414,000 gallons7 during 1935-1939 as compared with 3,195,000 gallons during 1909-1913, or 0.02 gallon per capita as compared with 0.03. The consumption of beverage fruit brandy produced in the United States averaged only 0.02 gallon per capita, which is small in comparison with that of other distilled spirits (0.77 gallon). Consumption and production of •Prepared in collaboration with S. W. Shear, Associate Agricultural Economist in the Experiment Station and Associate Agricultural Economist on the Giannini Foundation, who supplied the statistical data used. General references on this sub- ject will be found on p. 73. 7 A wine gallon in the United States contains 231 cubic inches. A wine gallon of 100° proof spirits is known as a proof gallon. A wine gallon of 180° proof spirits is therefore said to be 1.8 proof gallons. For a discussion of the proof gallon and its use in taxation, see Henderson. (Henderson, Y. The proof gallon: a federal tax strait jacket. Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol 2:46-56. 1941.) 6 University of California—Experiment Station California brandy, in general, paralleled one another until the peak production in 1938. The increased production in that year, was due largely to the brandy made for the Growers Grape Products Association from the grape surplus. Fortifying brandy, made almost exclusively from grapes in Califor- TABLE 3 California Production of Fruit Beverage and of Fortifying Brandy and United States Consumption of Fruit Beverage Brandy, Years Beginning July 1, 1933-1940 California production United States consumption of of brandy* beverage brandy Year beginning July 1 California brandy ft Fortifying Beverage Total Quantity Per cent of total 1 * 3 4 5 thousand thousand thousand thousand proof proof proof proof per cent gallons gallons gallons gallons 1933 4,711 2,324 1,477§ 1,180 79.9 1934 8,034 1,258 1,893 1,457 77.0 1935 17,606 1,627 2,151 1,526 70.9 1936 10,543 1,402 2,650 1,713 64.6 1937 18,920 2,314 2,407 1,270 52.8 1938 17,0551 9,8121 2,390 1,236 51.7 1939 16,3031 1,3801 2,460 1,164 47.3 1940 21,570|| 2,500|| 2,657 1,359 51.1 * An average of about 99 per cent of California fruit brandy is grape brandy, t Includes annual average exports of 1933-1939 of less than 500 proof gallons.

Load more