HOME BREW - HISTORY OF FERMENTED BEVERAGES

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN TOMB BEER MAKING SCENE

Archaeological evidence shows that fermented beverages, in this case beer, emerged during the development of cereal agriculture (wheat, barley, etc.) 12,000 years ago. Where it originated is still a mystery. Historians believe that fermented beverages was brewed around 7,000 BC in china in the village of Jiahu. Neolithic pottery showed evidence of a mead-type of brew made from rice, honey and fruit. The first barley beer was most likely originated in the Middle East around 5,000 years ago by the Sumerians of Mesopotamia. An 1800 BC hymn for the Sumerian goddess of beer describes a recipe for the ancient brew by a female priestess. Beer then became popular and most importantly it was safer than drinking water from nearby canals and rives because of animal waste contamination. Beer consumption was also popular with Babylonians. The Code of Hammurabi, a collection of ancient laws decreed that a daily ration of beer was to be provided to citizens. Laborers received two liters per day, while priests and administrators received five liters. The beer was unfiltered so sediment would gather at the bottom of the drinking vessels, which prompted invention of a special drinking straw to avoid the sediment.

PREHISTORIC BREWERY JARS, CHINA

The ancient Egyptians probably loved their beer more than any other culture of the time. Workers were often paid with beer. Many ancient beers were flavored, some with strange additives like mandrake, dates and olive oil. The modern beer derives from the medieval Christian monks who began brewing beer with hops.

It is thought that when cereal agriculture had been developed and found that sugars undergo spontaneous fermentation with wild yeasts in the air, an accidental discovery was found. Historians contrive that the invention of bread and beer led to the development of technology and civilization. The earliest known barley beer was discovered at Godin Tepe in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, where fragments of a jug was discovered dating between 5400 and 5000 years ago coated with “beerstone” which is a byproduct of the brewing process. Beer was also discovered in the Neolithic Europe era dating back 5000 years. Before the Industrial Revolution, beer was made domestically and in the 7^th century being produced and sold by European monasteries.

ROMAN MOSIAC DEPICTING WINE

The Greek writer Sophocles (450 BC) discussed the concept of moderation when consuming beer and believed that the best diet consisted of bread, meats, vegetables and beer or wine. Ancient Greeks also made “barleywine” and this was mentioned by Greek historian Polybius in his work The Histories where he states that Phaeacians kept barleywine in silver and golden kraters. In ancient Greece and Rome, wine was more popular than beer. 

During the upgrade in Campbridgeshire in the UK, evidence was found of beer being brewed dating back 2,000 or more years.

MONKS ENJOYING THEIR BREW

During the medieval period, the brewers' guild adopted a patron saint of brewing. Arnulf of Metz (584-640) and Arnulf of Oudenberg (1040-1087) were recognized as patron saints by French and Flemish brewers. As previously stated, Christian monks built breweries in their monasteries to provide food, drink, and shelter to travelers and pilgrims. Thus the term "drunk as a monk" originated.

Charlemagne, the famous Frankish king and ruler of the Holy Roman Empire in the 8^th century, enjoyed beer and it is said he trained some brewers himself. Beer became a more common part of the common culture, wine being the drink of the upper class.

There was a lapse in legal beer making during the Prohibition era in the United States from 1920 to 1933. This brought about “bootlegging” and “whiskey runners” and an epidemic of the infamous “Speakeasies” along with gang violence and confrontation with federal authorities known as “G-Men”, a branch of the FBI. Herbert Hoover may have enjoyed prohibition, but FDR certainly didn't, he celebrated the repeal of Prohibition by drinking a “dirty” martini. It was during this Prohibition era that cocktails were invented and became popular at Speakeasy establishments when customers preferred liquor instead of beer. 

However, it was the 18^th century British who developed it from the popular punch drink. Of course, people had been mixing drinks for over 3000 years ago. Punch was created by Indians (the real ones, not Native Americans). With the British colonization of India, Punch immigrated to Britain who then refined it into cocktails adding alcohol to the “Punch”.

MIXED DRINKS - 1800S

Sometime afterwards around 1806, the cocktail immigrated to the United States, describing it as “a stimulating liquor composed of any kind of sugar, water and bitters”. In 1845, a man in Florida created the first ice machine and that increased the popularity of cocktails. In 1862, the first Bartenders Guide was written by Jerry Thomas, an American bartender, when cocktails had become the “thing”, especially in the world of the wealthy. In the 1920s, cocktails were primarily based upon gin – which was made illegally in bathtubs. Gin was the easiest and cheapest spirit to brew and purify. Rum was also popular, much of it being imported in the darkness of night aboard water crafts. Joseph Kennedy, the patriarch of the Kennedy family made his fortune running whiskey and rum from Canada with his fleet of boats. When the Prohibition ended, he wisely used that fortune in legal enterprise and investments accumulating the Kennedy family fortune. 

During this period the Mary Pickford and Bacardi Cocktail was popular. Cocktails also refined the art of bartending – where knowledge and finesse was key for a successful bartender because no longer just shots of whiskey or rum and a mug of beer were just served. It is interesting to note that many bartenders moved to Europe during the Prohibition era in order to continue their trade (legally). The Speakeasy kept cocktails alive in the United States until the Repeal of 1933.

In the middle of the 20^th century, the advent of the “drug culture” diminished the cocktail popularity. In the 1990s, people like Dale Degroff (“King of Cocktails”) of the famous Rainbow Room in New York City revived the classic cocktails. This new era ushered in drinks like the “Pink Squirrel” and “Training Bra” cocktails. In 1930s, when the Shirley Temple films were popular, a cocktail was made in her name – Shirley Temple cocktail.

The following is a list of some popular cocktails:

• Bloody Mary

• Paloma Cocktail

• Bikini Martini

• Mint Juleps

• Sangria

• Beer Margarita

• Mai Tai

• Mojito

• Margarita

• Strawberry Daiquiri

• Moscow Mule

• Bahama Mama

• Blue Hawaiian

• Tom Collins

• Cosmopolitan

• Vodka Martini (James Bond's favorite)

• Dirty Martini

• Rum Runner

• Canadian Caesar

• Grasshopper

The colonization of the New World in the Americas brought fermented brew along with missionary monks by the Spanish, as well as the British and Dutch who settled in the American colonies.

In the British colonies, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia, and Tennessee mostly, farmers and distillers were developed into a culture. 

1794 - WASHINGTON AND MILITIA TROOPS

When the United States was young and George Washington was our first president, the government needed revenue, so it was decided to tax whiskey. This became a confrontation between the Washington administration and the farmers and distilleries who had made brewing beer and alcohol beverages as a family tradition. It culminated into an uprising in 1794 because after all, the colonists had rebelled against over-taxation by King George and as the Founders put it “taxation without representation”. George Washington not only sent troops to quell the revolution, despite being opposed to the tax that was suggested by Alexander Hamilton. With a cadre of troops, George Washington personally rode through Virginia and Pennsylvania to speak with citizens about their views. Local government officials were for the tax, so he went back to the new capitol that was founded in 1790, the district site being chosen by George Washington to present the tax to Congress who passed the bill. While the local officials approved of the tax, the producers of fermented brew were not pleased. The new law forced producers to pay an annual tax of six cents per gallon and the more they produced the cheaper the tax. This stuck the small producers, mostly farmers, with a tax of nine cents per gallon. Naturally the law became as much a failure as the 1920s Prohibition Act. Excise officers sent to collect the tax were met with defiance and often violence. It soon came to a head, when on September 11^th, 1791, an excise officer, Robert Johnson, was riding in western Pennsylvania to collect the tax when he was surrounded by 11 men dressed as women. The mob stripped the tax collector naked and then tarred and feathered him as well as stealing his horse and abandoning him in the forest. Johnson recognized two men in the mob and made a complaint that culminated into warrants being issued for their arrest. A cattle drover by the name of John Connor was sent with the warrants and he suffered the same fate as Johnson. Authorities found him tied to a tree in the forest being there for five hours. Johnson then resigned his post.

GETTY IMAGE

In 1793, incidents began to escalate. The home of Pennsylvania excise officer Benjamin Wells was broken into twice, the first time a mob forced their way in and assaulted Wells' wife and children.

The second incident involved six men in disguise who attacked Wells' home. The intruders demanded Wells' account books at gunpoint and insisted he resign his position.

Western Pennsylvanians felt they were not being represented in Congress and gathered their own assembly with three to five representatives per county. Radicals began to push an open rebellion, but moderates like Hugh Henry Brackenridge and future Secretary of Treasury Albert Gallatin urged negotiation and peaceful protest instead of rebellion.

In the summer of 1794, federal marshal David Lenox began to the process of serving writs to 60 distillers in western Pennsylvania who had refused to pay the tax. On July 15^th, Lenox and John Neville approached the home of William Miller, who refused to accept the summons. Of course an argument began and when Lenox and Neville rode off, they came upon an angry armed mob with pitchforks and muskets, some believed to be drunk. Someone had told the mob that federal agents had dragged people away, but Lenox and Neville were allowed to continue their journey when it was discovered that it was untrue. However, a shot was fired as the two rode away hitting no one.

WHISKEY REBELLION 1791-1794

On the morning of July 16^th, Neville was awakened by a mob of angry men, some who had been served a summons the day before. The men stated that they had come to warn Lenox there was a threat upon his life. Neville did not believe them and ordered them off his property. The mob refused to do so and so Neville grabbed a gun and shot at the crowd, killing Oliver Miller. The mob immediately shot back at Neville. Making it inside his house and sounding a signal horn, his slaves attacked the crowd with firearms. Six members of the mob were wounded before they fled with Miller's body. By that evening, the mob had gathered at a meeting and decided to seek revenge against Neville.

On July 17^th, 1794, about 700 armed men marched to the beat of drums and gathered at Neville's home. They demanded he surrender, but Major James Kirkpatrick and ten soldiers who came to help defend Neville and his property, stated that Neville was not home. Kirkpatrick had helped Neville escape by hiding him in a ravine. The mob then demanded that the soldiers surrender. Of course, it was refused. The mob then set fire to a barn and slave quarters. The Neville women were allowed to flee to safety and the mob began firing on the house. After an hour of gun-fighting, the mob's leader, James McFarlane was killed. Angry, the mob set fire to more buildings and the soldiers then surrendered while the Bower Hill estate was burning.

A week later, local dignitaries warned the locals that George Washington would send a militia to strike them down because they had struck first. Wealthy landowner David Bradford and several other men attacked a mail carrier and discovered three letters from Pittsburgh expressing disapproval of the attack upon Neville's property. Bradford used those letters as an excuse to attack Pittsburgh and 7,000 men showed up at Braddock's Field, just east of the city. The city of Pittsburgh sent a delegation to denounce the three letters and offered a gift of several barrels of whiskey. As the day ended, the crowd ended up being drunk and no longer desired to attack the city of Pittsburgh. They requested permission to march through Pittsburgh in peace.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON

With signs of more violence, Alexander Hamilton wanted to send troops to Pennsylvania, but George Washington wanted the option of employing a peace envoy instead. The envoy failed. Washington then met with his cabinet members and presented evidence of violence to the Supreme Court Justice James Wilson, who ruled a military response was justified under the Militia Acts of 1792. Washington assumed emergency power to assemble 12,000 men from surrounding states and eastern Pennsylvania as a federal militia because at this time there wasn't any standing army. This action was the first and only time a sitting president led troops personally.

Washington met with the rebels who assured him that the militia was not needed and that order would be restored by their local authorities. Washington remained with troops until proof of submission was obtained. The large force of militia marched into western Pennsylvania and was met by angry citizens, but little violence occurred. When a rebel army did not appear, the militia rounded up rebel suspects.

Most of the rebel instigators had fled and those taken prisoner were not involved in the rebellion. They were marched to Philadelphia to stand trial nevertheless. Only two men were found guilty of treason and both were pardoned by Washington to prevent the lawful death penalty for treason.

The whiskey tax that had caused all the trouble remained in effect until 1802 when Thomas Jefferson was president and the Republican Party (who had opposed the Hamilton federal tax policy), repealed the act being impossible to collect anyway.

Today, alcohol beverages are still highly taxed with both federal and state taxation. Washington state has the highest spirit tax in the United States at $33.22 per gallon as of 2022. Ten dollars more than the state of Oregon at $21.95 per gallon. Virginia follows with $19.89, then Alabama at $1911, and Utah with $15.92. Ten states with highest tax on spirits are listed HERE. The state of Alaska adds an excise tax of $12.80 per gallon. With the added federal tax it comes to $26.30 per gallon. On top of that there is an excise tax of $1.07 on beer and $2.50 on wine. Like tobacco tax, it is over-taxation and the government claims it is taxed heavily to encourage people not to use tobacco and spirit products. It is a form of Prohibition all over again, as well as not taxing for the reason of funding government expenditures. Today everything is taxed to a certain degree as well as almost invisible “fees” by the federal government. The American Revolution began with unfair taxation – but government bureaucracy has abused the taxation process. Instead of budgeting, politicians either add a new tax or increase the taxes already in place. We the People have representation, but it is no good if citizens do not get involved with and make themselves knowledgeable to the actions of their representatives and senators in Congress and state assemblies.

THE PROHIBITION ERA

In the 1820s and 1930s, a wave of religious groups swept the United States calling for temperance as fervent as the abolitionist movement was to end slavery. In 1838, Massachusetts was the first state to pass a temperance law banning the sale of spirits in less than 15-gallon quantities. Two years later, the law was repealed. Maine passed prohibition laws in 1846, followed by a stricter law in 1851 as much as the so-called “gun control” laws imposed by Blue states that were colony-turned-statehood after the American Revolution was won and the Constitution of the United States was ratified and our nation's government was created. Other states followed this temperance movement by the time the Civil War began in 1861.

By the time 1900 rolled around, temperance societies were commonly seen in communities across the United States, along with temperance against brothels. Alcohol and prostitutes were considered to be destructive for families and marriages. Women were the strongest element in this movement.

ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE RALLY

In 1906, a new wave of temperance against liquor was led by the Anti-Saloon League established in 1893, as well as the rise of evangelical Protestantism; their view that saloons were a culture of corruptness and ungodliness. Some factory owners supported prohibition to prevent accidents and increase the efficiency of their workers in an era of industrial production with extended working hours.

In 1917, after the United States became involved in World War I, President Woodrow Wilson, the first democratic socialist politician, instituted a wartime prohibition in order to save grain for producing food for the troops and citizens. In the same year, Congress got into the act and increased the prohibition in the advent of the 18^th Amendment which banned the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors. Congress stipulated that the process should take seven years, but the amendment received such widespread support that three-quarters of the U.S. states ratified it in 11 months.

Ratified by a majority of states on January 16^th, 1919, the 18^th Amendment went into effect the following year of 1920. By that time, 33 states had already enacted their own prohibition legislation. In October 1919, the Volstead Act was legislated, sponsored by Representative Andrew Volstead of Minnesota who was also the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

Through the 1920s, federal and local government struggled to enforce Prohibition. Enforcement was initially assigned to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), but was later transferred to the Justice Department. Enforcement mostly occurred in urban areas because rural areas population was more sympathetic towards Prohibition.

KRAZY KAT KLUB - WASHINGTON DC SPEAKEASY

Those who wanted to keep drinking spirits became inventive in illegal manufacturing and selling liquor and became known as “bootlegging”. Nightclubs, saloons and liquor distributors began to develop establishments known as “speakeasies”. The production of liquor came to be known as “moonshine” or “bathtub gin” made in private homes and rural areas in several states.

Soon the Prohibition Act encouraged the rise of criminal activity. The most notorious and prolific of these gangsters was Al Capone of Chicago. Capone earned $60 million a year from bootleg operations alone as well as ownership and management of speakeasies. 

This led to gangland wars that included incidents as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre on Clark Street, Chicago. 

REEANACTMENT OF 1929 ST. VALENTINE'S DAY MASSACRE

In 1929, several men dressed as police, believed to be associated with Capone, shot and killed a group of men in a garage owned by George “Bugs” Moran who was a rival of Al Capone and his empire. The occupants at the time were lined up against a wall and shot by four unknown assailants. It is suspected that some of the men involved were members of the Chicago Police who were seeking revenge for the killing of a police officer's son. While the object was to terminate Bugs Moran, the leader, but Moran was not there because he left his Parkway Hotel apartment late. The gunmen had thought Moran was there because there was a man of same build and facial features. Two of the killers opened fire with Thompson sub-machine guns, one with a 20-round magazine and the other with a 50-round drum magazine. They sprayed the victims against the wall left to right and continued to fire until all seven men had hit the floor. Afterwards, two shotgun blasts occurred into the faces of John May and James Clark, according to the coroner's report. To deceive any passerby witnesses, the men in street clothes came out of the building with their hands up followed by two uniformed policemen. The only survivors was May's dog “Highball” and Frank Gusenberg who survived despite 14 bullet wounds. He was still conscious when he was whisked away by an ambulance, but died in the hospital three hours later. He never identified the killers. The St. Valentine's Day Massacre set off a public demand to end gang violence where in other cases innocent bystanders were injured or killed in the crossfire. Previously, Capone was looked upon as a celebrity in Chicago, but after that bloodbath, he lost local support.

SPEAKEASY JAZZ CLUB

By 1932, after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the Great Depression put a tremendous burden upon Americans as well as affecting Europe. Creating jobs and revenue by legalizing liquor once again was appealing. Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt was running for president and his platform called for the repeal of Prohibition, which helped him win the election against incumbent President Herbert Hoover. In February of 1933, Congress adopted a resolution for the 21^st Amendment to repeal the 18^th Amendment. In December 1933, 36 states ratified the amendment. Some states continued prohibiting alcohol, but all those finally ended in 1966. However, some state counties in the South have continued restrictions to this day, forbidding the sale of anything but beer and wine.

“Moonshiners” were a part of American culture dating back to colonial times. In the '40s, '50s, and up to the '60s, moonshine was transported in “souped” up cars that were modified with stiff springs and shocks to hide the fact they were carrying a load of moonshine in their trunks. The backwoods of the southern Appalachians, the hills and ravines of Kentucky and Tennessee no longer has back woods stills for a couple of reasons, one that alcohol was being distributed more and “dry counties” were changing their laws. In the late '60s and '70s, this was replaced by hidden fields of marijuana plants.

MOONSHINE RUNNERS OF THE 1940-1960s:

JUNIOR JOHNSON OF NASCAR FAME WAS ONCE A MOONSHINE RUNNER

Hollywood made a film Thunder Road (1958) that was a big hit (and the film's theme song sung by Robert Mitchum was on the Top Ten music charts for a time), especially in the South were moonshiner drivers were found. Indeed, big names at NASCAR racing circuit like Junior Johnson were once moonshine runners. My Tennessee friend was a second generation moonshine runner for a time, his father was killed in an accident while delivering brew to a local saloon. It was during that period, moonshine gained a nickname “Mountain Dew” which would become a famous non-alcoholic beverage in the United States.

As aforementioned, whiskey making was made in the hills of Kentucky and Tennessee for generations since the colonial period. Well-known brand names have become an historical significance like Jack Daniels, George Dickel, and Wild Turkey. While living for a summer in Ripley, Tennessee, Bobby Williams and I would reward Ma Williams with a gift of a bottle of Wild Turkey and a case of Coca-Cola, the brew being purchased in another county because Ripley was in a “dry” county only selling beer and wine. Ma Williams cooked the best catfish filet steaks (breaded), served with greens, homemade cornbread and corn-on-the-cob when in season. She had seven daughters and none of them were ugly. After her first husband died, she had some “bottom” land adjoining the Mississippi River where we would catch catfish for eating. Her second husband tended the cotton fields. Her home was built on stilts because sometimes the river would rise. There was a rowboat on the porch so mail could be retrieved during flood times and gain access to the road above the “bottoms”. 

FISHING FOR CATFISH

While there was plumbing in the home, there was no toilet – so we would have to use the outhouse next to the hog pen. Disconcerting to relieve oneself with pigs snorting. Hunting squirrels and rabbit was ongoing, especially in the winter. Ma Williams loved making squirrel/rabbit brain soup. I experienced what it was like to butcher hogs. The hard part was rounding one up, but Bobby taught me the best way to do it. Get hold of the hog's hind legs and steer it toward the spot where the butcher apparatus was at. A chain/rope pulley was hanging on a strong limb of a tree and a large iron pot on a makeshift campfire stove was. After the hog was killed and gutted, the hog was dipped into a boiling pot before skinning. It made it easier to scrape the hair off of the hide. Then the process of butchering the parts for ham and bacon and other pork cuts. There was a smokehouse on property for the hams and bacon slabs.

Memorable times, indeed.

SUGAR MILL FOR MAKING RUM

Rum had been around for centuries, a favorite drink of pirates and honest seafarers. It was custom for British ships to have barrels of it on board and administer it to the sailors by rations. To this day, the British navy upholds this tradition, but instead of rum it is ale and ale (beer) rations are also administered to the British army troops. The best beer I have ever consumed was while in Germany, although I like some British and Irish ales. After returning to the U.S., I found that American beer seemed watered down. In Germany, beer is poured from kegs into steins (mugs) – not beer glasses like in pubs, bars and saloons of the U.S. Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser) still imports hops from Germany and Austria. I used to frequently pick up a load of hops from Germany at Norfolk and haul it in my 18-wheeler to St. Louis. Before unloading, an expert tests samples from the bales to ensure quality and accepting the load.

During Prohibition rum became popular in mixed drinks at speakeasies. Rum usually came from Canada. However, when spiced rum became popular, much of that comes from the Bahamas (like Jamaica). Popular spiced rum in the United States are:

• Boukman Botanical Rum, a spiced rum from Haiti made from fresh sugar cane, not molasses.

• Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum, US Virgin Islands.

• Sailford Spiced Rum, from England – ginger, pineapple and cinnamon. Most enjoy mixed with Coca-Cola or Pepsi. Distilled and bottled in the Manchester area of England.

• Calypso Spiced Rum has the flavor of toasted nuts, marshmallows and baked fruit, it is produced in the US Virgin Islands and is a good budget option while still providing good flavor.

• Chairman's Reserve Rum is made in Saint Lucia and has been awarded for its aroma of bitter orange, nutmeg, and sweet raisin. It is blended and aged.

• Foresquare Spiced Rum is distilled in Barbados with the aroma and taste of caramel, vanilla and cinnamon. “All the spices are there but not overly sweet or artificial.”

• Don Q Oak Barrel Spiced Rum is distilled and bottled in Puerto Rico. It is one of the best sellers from this island, a U.S. territory.

• Mai Tai Spiced Rum is not just a rum, but a classic rum cocktail. It is a standard drink at any tiki bar. Its flavor is vanilla and nutmeg and has a “secret blend of spices”. It is distilled and bottled in the Virgin Islands.

• Cardinal Lake House Spiced Rum is an American spiced rum made in Indiana. American distilleries these days are making excellent spiced rum. Baked spices are infused that include black pepper, cardamon, cinnamon, orange peel and vanilla. No artificial flavors.

• Bumbu Rum is based upon a recipe that dates back to the 17^th century providing a unique character. It is distilled in Barbados and aged for up to 15 years in used bourbon barrels. It is affordable and considered the best of the Caribbean rums.

• Twenty Boat Spiced Rum is another American rum made in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It has a flavor and aroma of anise, rose and vanilla. Spices used include cardamon, vanilla bean, anise, and rose hip. This rum proves that American distillers can make good spirits other than whiskey and bourbon.

• Captain Morgan Spiced Rum – this popular 70 proof rum has the familiar vanilla and cinnamon aroma with mixed fruit flavors. Bottled in the UK, depending upon the blend. The “Original Rum” is produced in Jamaica and matured & bottled in the UK. Captain Morgan is the classic “rum and coke” drink. However, because Captain Morgan costs more, Calypso Spiced Rum has become more popular. The “original” blend is the best, so watch out for those in markets not labeled as such. The Captain Morgan icon comes from the famous Welsh privateer, Henry Morgan.

RICK ASPEN AS CPT JACK SPARROW & MISS ILLINOIS

The Disney film series Pirates of the Caribbean became successful and also boosted the popularity of rum. Like Dean Z has done with the memory of Elvis, Rick Aspen has done with the lovable but naughty pirate character Captain Jack Sparrow.

WINE:

I will not get into the wines here in any length, but the most famous wines & vineyards come from Italy, Germany, France and in the United States, California. Although the growth of vineyards in Arizona and places like Door Peninsula (Door Peninsula Winery) in Wisconsin have made its mark in the wine producing market. Kurt Russel and Goldie Hawn have invested in a vineyard (Gogi) in California and produce and sell an excellent wine (I am told), but out of my price league at $700 a case. Until 2006, when the common sense governor Janet Napolitano signed legislation, the shipment from other states was forbidden in any quantity. I believe it was to protect the wineries in Arizona. In 2017, Governor Doug Ducey signed another bill that permitted residents to have up to 6 cases of wine a year to be shipped to their home from any winery.

BRANDY:

Since brandy and cognac is a special spirit blend, I will end this article by mentioning it and its history.

Brandy began to be distilled in France by monks around 1313. It was originally made for medicinal purposes and recommended by physicians calling it the “water of life”.

It became popular in the American colonies as an after dinner refreshment (like French cognac), George Washington began distilling it at his farm and selling it commercially in 1797. An experienced distiller from Scotland, farm manager, James Anderson helped Washington in this endeavor. As a result, Washington became one of the largest distillers in the American colonies and later when America became the United States. Washington's farm had five copper stills that operated all year long growing many of the fruits required on his farm. Clear-fruit brandies are traditionally not aged in order to retain the intensity of the fruit. When bottled it is about 80-proof or higher. Typically, as mentioned, at the end of a meal or between courses. In Normandy, France, the home of apple brandy, shots of brandy are consumed mid-meal. Apple and grape brandies are aged, matured in oak barrels. The fruit mash is carefully fermented and the spirit distilled in copper stills. When the hydrometer was invented around 1730, the strength of proof spirits became more accurate at the specific gravity of 0.920 and a temperature of 68°. This strength of proof was fixed in Britain by an act of Parliament which is a mixture of 49 pounds of pure alcohol with 51 pounds of water. Brandy, rum, gin, and whiskey contain similar proportions. Brandy has a traditional age grading system that makes it apart from Cognac and Armagnac.

COGNAC:

Cognac is strictly a French concoction produced in the wine-growing region in Charente and Charent-Maritime. It is a type of brandy produced by double distilling grapes for white wine. After the grapes are pressed, the juice is fermented for 2-3 weeks and wild yeasts convert to fruit sugars and into alcohol – sugar or sulphur is NOT added. At this point it is 7% to 8% alcohol. Distillation is achieved in copper alembic stills. After distillation, it is aged in oak casks for at least two years. When put in casks it is usually having an alcohol content of 70%. When in oak barrels for more than ten years, the cognac's alcohol content decreases to 40%. The cognac is transferred into large glass bottles called bonbonnes. The blending is done with different ages. Each cognac house has a master taster responsible for blending the spirits to ensure quality. Cognac is not cheap. A good cognac back when I was stationed at NATO LSE Turkey was $45 a bottle – and that was without the federal excise tax applied. (military personnel do not pay excise tax sold at the local PX (Post Exchange or Base Exchange).

Around the late '60s and into 1970s, moonshine stills disappeared and planting marijuana plants in tobacco fields and in the woods of Kentucky and Tennessee, as well as Louisiana Bayou and Florida Everglades became more prolific. Some veterans of the Vietnam War returned with a "brand new plan".