Musings On A Couple Of Recent Posts.

Reading back through some recent posts, I had a few thoughts that seemed to be worth sharing.

On the subject of the Old Fashioned, I know what I'm about to say is blasphemy, but whiskey and Sprite, with a few dashes of bitters, is a reasonably authentic shortcut for an Old Fashioned. The only really inauthentic thing is the carbonation. After all, the drink is whiskey, water, bitters, sugar, and citrus. To keep it, again, reasonably authentic, you have to use a light hand with the soda. A ratio of about one-to-one seems to work pretty well, and I'm also generous with the bitters.

Most recipes that call for bitters call for a 'dash.' Gaz Regan taught me to disregard that. Watching him make a Manhattan once, I counted 14 dashes. The folks who have looked into this sort of thing say bitters are essential, both in the drinks that traditionally call for them, and in many that don't. I find the bitterness is what gives the drink its sophistication.

On the subject of 'legal moonshine,' I did notice since I made that post that Short Mountain's label describes a spirit made at least in part from sugar, which I've seen in a couple of other labels and label applications, but have never actually seen on the street as a product.

Several of my critics say I'm behind the times. That people want a legal moonshine product and thus they shall have one. The problem remains, however, that there is no agreement about what moonshine is as a spirit type. Most real moonshine is made using 100% table sugar as the fermentable substrate. This has been true for as long as cane sugar has been plentiful and cheap.

Remember, moonshine isn't about 'craft' or 'quality.' It's about making money, which means making spirit as quickly and easily as possible without getting caught.

One hears about corn being added in some recipes but unless there is cooking involved, and the introduction of enzymes, the corn is just for show. You need to cook corn to get the starch to dissolve, then you need to add enzymes to convert the liquified starch into sugar. If you don't, the corn is just a prop. It has no effect on the final product.

Most of the products that have made it to market labeled as moonshine, such as Junior Johnson's Midnight Moon, from Piedmont Distillers, are either vodka or corn whiskey. Midnight Moon is vodka, distilled from corn. Georgia Moon, a venerable product made by Heaven Hill, is corn whiskey.

Short Mountain isn't the only micro-distiller toying with the 'real' moonshine (i.e., sugarjack) idea, but unless they distill it out to something like vodka, it's probably going to taste awful. That's what people expect from moonshine, they think (mistakenly) that the bad taste means it's strong. (It doesn't, it just means it tastes bad.) It remains to be seen if people will actually buy a true sugarjack product and, most importantly, buy it again.

Under the rules, a distilled spirit made from cane sugar is rum. If it's not 100% cane sugar, then you probably have to call it a 'distilled spirit specialty,' which is a catchall category for products that don't fit any of the established types.

It should be noted that no product made from cane sugar, nor any product distilled above 95% ABV (i.e., vodka) is whiskey. Even the Piedmont product, which is made mostly from corn, is not whiskey because they distill it to vodka alcohol levels and, in fact, it is classified as vodka; which it says, in very small type, on the label.

And, as vodka goes, it's not bad.

But it's not whiskey, and it's not moonshine.

That's another thing that has been going on with the mirco-distillery movement, people griping that they want to call things whatever they want to call them and that the rules should be changed so they can. People have always wanted to do this, and that's precisely why the rules (laws, actually) exist.

I hasten to add that not all micro-distillers are this way. There are some terrific people running small distilleries, people who do things the right way, who are steeped in both the science and the history, and who work their asses off. It has been a pleasure for me to get to know many of them. The poseurs, we reassure ourselves, will surely wash out and go away in time.

It can't happen soon enough.

A Few Words About Vodka.

Sometimes I just can't resist poking the bear. In that spirit, I offer some thoughts about vodka.

Kevin Erskine is a writer who I know as a scotch guy. He recently published an ebook about vodka. I churlishly commented that a proper book about vodka would be all blank pages.

Even vodka enthusiasts will admit that vodka is a tabula rasa. By itself, there is very little to it. It is an ideal platform for cocktails because it doesn't get in the way of other ingredients.

The Russian/Polish word 'vodka' was introduced into the American distilled spirits lexicon because its legal synonyms, 'neutral spirits' and 'alcohol,' sounded more like ingredients than beverages. Indeed, 'vodka' is an ingredient in gin, liqueurs, and American blended whiskey, not to mention products like vanilla extract and mouthwash, and medicines such as NyQuil. 

U.S. rules define vodka as "neutral spirits so distilled, or so treated after distillation with charcoal or other materials, as to be without distinctive character, aroma, taste, or color." Vodka is not defined by a particular character, aroma, taste or color, but by their absence.

Some vodkas are better made than others. There are differences. But even vodka enthusiasts generally agree that the poorest ones taste like alcohol while the best ones taste like water.

Although virtually all vodka available for sale in the United States is made from grain, U.S. rules allow vodka to be made from any raw material. The raw material used must be disclosed on the label. Circoc is the best known grape vodka. Chopin is the best known potato vodka.

Most people think all vodka is made from potatoes. Funny that, because even historically, in the vodka heartland of Poland and Russia, potatoes were used only when grain was scarce. Potatoes are native to the Americas so they are relatively recent arrivals in Europe, not an ancient and fundamental part of the culture like barley, wheat and rye.

Periodically, Poland and Russia try to get the EU to declare that vodka must be made from either grain or potatoes, nothing else. Grape-growing Europeans typically object.

In addition to grain, potatoes, and grapes, vodka is sometimes made from sugar cane or sugar beets.

Moon Mountain Vodka. Crafty. But Crafted?

Moon Mountain is a new vodka launched this week by Diageo, the world's largest drinks company. They have a big promotional push on now so if you haven't heard about it yet, you will.

Diageo loves the new brand's catch phrase so much they've claimed it as a trademark. The phrase is "Crafted. Not Made."

Giant Diageo is not exactly known as a craft distiller, but they are a crafty marketer. They say things in a way that creates a certain impression which may or may not be accurate, but you'll never catch them in an outright lie. The picture above may be as close as you'll get.

They claim Moon Mountain Vodka is made in copper pot stills. The six copper alembics they show are what you will find at Diageo's distilleries in Scotland, but such stills are rare in the American Midwest. They don't actually say these are the stills in which Moon Mountain Vodka is made, but you're entitled to that impression.

They are vague about exactly where Moon Mountain Vodka is distilled. The press release says it is "at a Midwest distillery using a small batch copper pot still." Since it is technically impractical to make vodka in an alembic like the ones in the picture, they presumably mean a hybrid, so called because it is a pot on the bottom with a rectification column on top. Any non-continuous, i.e., charge, still is technically a "pot" though not an alembic. Exactly how Moon Mountain is made, where, and by whom they're not saying.

They hang a lot of the brand image on Master Distiller Gerry Webb. I can confirm that he is a real guy, long time U.S. Master Distiller for all of Diageo's U.S. plants such as the one in Plainfield, Illinois, a 450,000 square foot distillery, brewery and bottling plant, one of the largest in the world. About 26 million cases of spirits and malt beverages are produced in Plainfield every year, including the plant's flagship brand and #1 distilled spirit in the world, Smirnoff vodka.

They disclose that they are bottling Moon Mountain Vodka at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, presumably in the old Schenley plant Diageo owns there.

The Moon Mountain name is interesting because although it is borrowed from a Diageo-owned California winery, it subtly suggests moonshine.

Why is Diageo doing all this? As they told investors earlier this year, "Vodka is the most contested and fastest growing spirits category in the US and this is where we have unleashed our most comprehensive innovation programme. We have protected and extended our well-established brands of Smirnoff, Ketel One and Ciroc with exciting new line extensions. We are tactically introducing brands such as Rokk vodka in the premium tier and Ursus in value tier to compete with the influx of new entrants. At the same time we are strategically introducing Moon Mountain Vodka in the super premium and Godiva vodka in the ultra premium tiers to position us even more strongly as the economy recovers and consumers start trading up."

So crafted? Maybe. Crafty? Definitely!

Who Or What Is Jeremiah Weed?

About a year ago, when Beam Global announced Red Stag, I speculated about the risk of category confusion. I need not have bothered, as that cat is long since out of the bag.

Consider Jeremiah Weed. The brand, a Diageo product, has been around since the 1960s. (Get it, ‘weed,’ heh heh heh.) It is a bourbon liqueur, which means it combines a little bit of bourbon with other flavors, neutral spirits, and sweetener. It is 50% alcohol. Wild Turkey American Honey, Southern Comfort and Yukon Jack are similar products.

Since the Federal government must approve all labels but has fewer controls on advertising, Diageo can get away with calling Jeremiah Weed ‘bourbon’ in a casual way, at jeremiahweedbourbon.com, for example. It is okay as long as the ‘mandatory copy’ (the small type at the bottom of the page) is accurate.

That original liqueur product has a cult following among American fighter pilots, not a bad endorsement to get, where it functions much like Jagermeister or Malört or just about any tequila, in that it is drunk ceremonially in shots, not because it tastes good, but specifically because it does not. It’s not a big seller, but steady and predictable.

So far, so good, but recently Diageo has decided to see if the brand has legs, so they’ve introduced new Jeremiah Weed-branded products that are classified, not as liqueurs, but as flavored vodka, blended whiskey, and flavored whiskey.

The vodkas are Southern Style Sweet Tea Flavored Vodka, Country Peach Sweet Tea Flavored Vodka, Sweet Tea Flavored Vodka & Bourbon Whiskey, and a ‘Half & Half’ that combines the Sweet Tea flavor with Lemonade. They’re all 35% alcohol. The web site jeremiahweed.com is dedicated to these products, not to the original bourbon liqueur.

Then there are the two new Jeremiah Weed Blended Bourbons. A blended bourbon is half bourbon, half vodka, but entitled to call itself whiskey. The Jeremiah Weed line now includes a blended bourbon and a flavored blended bourbon. Both are 45% alcohol. The flavored version (pictured) is, not surprisingly, cherry flavored.

Since the original Jeremiah Weed is not a big brand, these new expressions seem unlikely to set the world on fire, but they give people who already buy into the Jeremiah Weed image something else to buy, and that’s what line extensions are all about. The philosophy of companies such as Diageo is that consumers buy brands, not categories, so category confusion isn’t their concern.

Maybe they’re right, but I get a lot of “what is this stuff?” questions from consumers.

At least some people want to know what they're drinking.

One More Effen Thing.

This is the final part in a three-part series about recent moves by Beam Global Spirits and Wine. Part one is here. Part two is here.

For the past decade, Beam has been part of various distribution alliances which helped it and its partners compete more effectively against Diageo, the world’s largest drinks company. Until recently, one of Beam’s partners was Absolut Vodka. When Absolut came up for sale, Beam sniffed around but the prize went to another sometimes-partner, Pernod Ricard, which immediately ended the distribution compact.

Beam wants to be a major international distilled spirits producer but you can’t be a major international distilled spirits producer without a premium vodka.

The closest thing Beam has now is Vox. Never heard of Vox? Exactly.

Effen Vodka isn’t a major brand, far from it. It is a tiny blip on the radar screen but Beam sees potential, as it does in Cruzan Rum.

The biggest problem with Effen is that its Achilles heel is also its only asset. The brand’s whole selling proposition is a dirty joke. Calling a vodka “Effen”—regardless of whether it really does mean “smooth” in Dutch—is the lowest form of drunken frat boy humor. At best, it is funny once.

Beyond that, what? It’s imported from the Netherlands (so is Vox, by the way)? It’s distilled five times using a patented distillation process? So Effen what? To borrow a metaphor from Terry Sullivan, it doesn’t matter if it is filtered through the hair of 1,000 Dutch virgins. This product’s name is one that can be spoken only by smirking adolescents, albeit of legal age.

Can you think of any major brand based on a vulgarity? Maybe Hooters, but they at least deliver on the name. What is Effen’s brand promise?

“Effen Vodka is an excellent fit with our brand portfolio, and we’re excited to put our sales and distribution muscle behind it to accelerate the brand’s growth,” said Matt Shattock, president and chief executive officer of Beam Global Spirits & Wine, in last week’s press release. “Effen has built a strong following in select markets, and we believe our sales and marketing organizations can help expand distribution and build excitement for Effen in many more markets in the U.S. and around the world.”

With annual net sales of approximately $10 million, Effen’s distribution is currently concentrated in Chicago, Southern California and major Florida markets. The Effen product line includes Effen Vodka, Effen Black Cherry Vodka and limited edition Effen Raspberry Vodka.

The Effen ad pictured here is not Beam’s. It was done by a previous owner. Can Beam afford to walk away from that positioning? What else does Effen have?

Building a vodka brand to rival Absolut may be a pipe dream anyway. Haven’t consumers finally begun to realize what “100 percent grain neutral spirits” means? Aren’t most major vodka brands exclusively pushing their flavored expressions? Yet Bacardi paid 2.2 billion for Grey Goose in 2004, and Pernod paid $8.3 billion for Absolut in 2008, so apparently vodka is not over yet.

The die is not necessarily cast. Perhaps Beam just sees Effen as a profitable niche brand for up-market vulgarians, but you can hear in Shattock’s words a belief that Effen just might, in time, fill the void left by Absolut. The scary part is that Beam has such a great track record he may be right and Effen will be the biggest Effen thing since Grey Goose.

A Question for Craft Distillers: Where’s the Craft?

All of a sudden, in the past few years, small "micro" distilleries have popped up all over the country. The first ones were associated with wineries and made brandy. More recently, and in much greater numbers, people with brewery backgrounds have begun to make grain spirits.

There is no question that these operations are universally small. A few years back, one of the big distilleries tried to pose as micro, but was quickly exposed. No, the micro distilleries really are little.

But are they really craft? Are they truly artisanal?

In most cases, the answer is no. If you add the word "traditional" to the equation, that no is even more emphatic.

To reach that conclusion, compare the practices of micro-distillers to those of America’s big distilled spirits producers, whiskey-makers such as Jim Beam, Jack Daniel’s, and Wild Turkey; rum-makers such as Bacardi and Cruzan; and brandy-makers such as Gallo, Christian Brothers, and Paul Masson. Who employs more craft, those big guys or the micros?

This critique is not across the board. A small number of craft distillers take a back-to-basics approach, with no short cuts. More common are the ones who put a lot of craft emphasis on one or two parts of the process, but also use short cuts. An even larger number use every short cut they can to make products that barely meet minimum legal requirements for distilled spirits, let alone qualify as craft or artisanal.

One issue is ingredients. Rum, by law, is a distilled spirit made from sugar cane, but for hundreds of years the actual base material in rum production has been molasses, a by-product along the way from cane juice to table sugar. Molasses can be hard to handle. It’s much easier to dissolve table sugar in water and ferment that, which many so-called craft distillers do. Bacardi and Cruzan don’t, they use molasses.

But at least the table sugar-users do their own fermentation. Many of the micro distillers who make whiskey buy their wash—beer before it has been hopped and carbonated—-from a brewery. Of necessity, this means they are making malt whiskey, like they do in Scotland and Ireland, rather than corn whiskey like Jim, Jack, and all those other guys do here.

You can’t entirely blame them. It’s what their fledgling trade association tells them to do. "Why reinvent the wheel?" asks Bill Owens, President of the American Distilling Institute.

He recommends that you put your distillery next to a brewery, contract with them for wash, and start making whiskey. There’s nothing wrong with that idea, except where is the craft in buying your way past two-thirds of the process? It’s exactly like buying frozen bread dough, baking it in your oven, and calling yourself an artisan bakery.

Every industrial-scale, grain-based distiller in America, from the makers of Kentucky bourbon, to vodka-makers, to the folks who make fuel ethanol for cars, starts the process with whole grain, but not Bill’s guys. How come?

Micro distillers who make brandy and rum don’t mind fermenting, but it’s harder with grain. Fruit juice and molasses are fermentable just as they are, but grain starch is not. It must be converted. For that you need enzymes. In Scotland, the law requires distillers to use endogenous enzyme systems only. That’s a fancy way of saying you have to use malt, which is barley that has been malted, i.e., sprouted, to produce the necessary enzymes.

Some large American whiskey distillers use supplemental enzymes, which are permitted here but not universally used. No one has abandoned endogenous enzyme systems altogether except micro distillers, not because it’s better—-it isn’t-—but because it’s easier.

Another issue is equipment. Most micro distillers make a big deal about how they use pot stills, not column stills. What they actually use are hybrid stills. They are batch process, like pot stills, but instead of an alembic (the simple, one-piece still top that’s shaped like a tear drop), their pots are topped by...columns, exactly like the ones that give column stills their name.

Part of the problem is that these hybrid stills aren’t designed to make whiskey the way Americans make whiskey. They are European and designed to make brandy and other fruit spirits. They will distill a grain wash okay, into whiskey or even vodka if that’s what you want, but they can’t handle an American distiller’s beer, which contains husks and other undissolved grain solids. Even a wash made from corn and rye, instead of just malt, will give these stills fits.

Then there’s aging. Except for vodka and other clear spirits, most distilled spirits are aged in oak barrels, typically for years, occasionally for decades. Most micro-distillers can’t wait that long, so they sell unaged or very lightly aged products. There’s nothing wrong with that. There always have been unaged and young spirits sold, but aging is another part of the craft and most micro distillers give it short shrift. Virtually all bourbon whiskey is aged for more than four years. I know of only one micro distillery whiskey aged that long and it costs $300 a bottle.

It gets worse. Some micro distillers don’t make anything. They buy bulk spirits and bottle them. They have a distillery, or plan to; it’s making something, or will soon. The bulk goods are just a bridge until their own product is ready for sale, they say, but several have been saying that for years and not exactly publicizing how the only product they sell is one they didn’t make and probably can never duplicate.

The moral of this story is caveat emptor, let the buyer beware, especially if you think you are buying an artisanal product and that matters to you. Do some research, ask questions, be skeptical. Most producers won’t lie to you outright, but you have to ask the right questions and listen to the answers very carefully.

Do these practices make these distillers, or their products, bad? Not necessarily, but that’s not the question. The question is, are these practices craft? Are they artisanal? Are they traditional? That’s where many of these new micro distilleries have issues.

The Problem With Artisan Vodka.

Yes, I'm a whiskey guy, but that is not my sole interest.

I look at the spirits industry as a whole. Right now, vodka is huge. There are about 100-times more vodkas than there are distilleries, but that's another story. Vodka sales in the U.S. are growing at more than 7% per year. All across the United States, small distilleries are springing up. Almost all of them sell vodka.

It is the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB for short), not me, that decides what you can call spirits products if you want to sell them in the United States. It says vodka is a neutral spirit made from any material, distilled above 95% ABV, then "treated after distillation with charcoal or other materials, as to be without distinctive character, aroma, taste, or color." All the TTB is saying there is that said treatments may only enhance neutrality, not diminish it. They can remove aroma, taste, or color, they can't add it.

According to the TTB, vodka is a subset of neutral spirits or alcohol.

The TTB definition certainly does not describe the spirit called vodka in the 18th century and before, but unless the TTB changes its definition, that is what vodka is in the United States and there is no way around it.

Distillers can make something that doesn't comply with the TTB description of vodka, they can make something more like the way vodka was made before the invention of the column still, they can make anything they want, they just can't call it vodka.

Phil Prichard would like to make rum from Tennessee sorghum. He can make all the spirit from Tennessee sorghum that he wants, he just can't call it rum. Nation-of-laws and all that. We may wish the laws were different, but we play the hand we're dealt.

In India, they make a spirit from sugar cane that they call whiskey. They are unhappy that the United States, the European Union, and most other markets won't accept that product as whiskey.

By the TTB definition, all vodka should taste alike, but we know it doesn't. It doesn't because human senses are incredibly sensitive and can detect flavor elements in parts per billion. Some people believe the best of vodka is revealed when the spirit is distilled at the highest proof technology allows, then heavily filtered. Other people have different ideas.

I am a spirits enthusiast and here is what I would like from someone who calls him- or herself a craft distiller or artisan distiller. Make something original. Make it as well as it can be made. Tell me the truth about it.