Rum Historian by Marco Pierini
HISTORY OF CUBAN RUM
8. HANDBOOK FOR DISTILLERS, SECOND PART
In the previous article of this series (Handbook for Distillers - First Part, published in the January issue of GOT RUM?), I introduced the first part of the Cartilla para Alambiqueros (Handbook for distillers), awarded a prize in 1832 by the Real Sociedad Economica de amigos de este Pais (Royal Economic Society of Friends of this Country).
For new readers, or for those among our readers who may have forgotten, I remember that the Real Sociedad had held a prize contest for the best proposals aimed at promoting the economic and social development of the island. In particular, which is what interests us the most, an award had been intended for those who presented a proposal for improving the production of sugar and rum.
I think it is worth repeating that translating is never simple, even between languages like Spanish and English which, especially when it comes to rum and distillation, have had a history of strong mutual influences. Actually, words often have a different meaning depending on those who use them, and where and when they are used. In early 1800s Cuba, they called rum aguardiente de caña (sugarcane burning water), rom or even just aguardiente. Moreover, they made a distinction between low degree, cheap, common aguardiente and high degree, expensive, refino (refined).
As in the first part, I left the most specific, technical terms in Spanish the first time they appear, giving the translation in brackets; afterwards I wrote them in the English translation. My direct interventions were kept to a minimum, inserted within square brackets. Now, let’s read.
HANDBOOK FOR DISTILLERS Second part
Q. How do you replenish the mosto muerto (dunder) on the first day you load the washes?
A. Mix equal parts molasses and water, and pass this caldo (broth) into the still, boil it for a while, and then use it as dunder.
Q. Will it then be useful to use this broth instead of the dunder?
A. This can only take place when the task of loading the wash begins for the first time; for to continue in this way it would be necessary to have a well-covered still or boiler for this purpose alone; and on the other hand, the spirituous portion thrown in with the dunder would be lost. So far, therefore, it has been found that the dunder is absolutely necessary to charge the wash, for the reasons mentioned above. [And here, I have to confess I felt a bit lost]
Q. And for what purpose did the use of adding mosto vivo (live wort) to the wash on this island become normal?
A. To make the broth ferment more quickly; although it ferments well without this addition; the most experienced distillers say that the live wort makes the fermentation more effective. For the rest, I can’t see why the English do not use it, after all, the live wort is nothing more than the wash in the highest state of fermentation, and its addition, I believe, does not harm the new wash, nor does any loss occur, for in the distillation it releases its spirit, as well as the other ingredients. Only one thought occurs, and that is that mixing two fermenting liquids is bad when the degrees of fermentation are unequal. Rum was already made on the island many times without the addition of live wort, but none has been curious to compare the rums. If refining removes the bad taste that dunder imparts to spirits, and also the bad taste that live wort may impart to it, then refining will be the remedy of all this harm.
Q. What are the other advantages of refining the rum?
A. Refined rum sells better when it has more degrees; fewer tanks are needed; freight costs are much lower; and it sells more quickly.
Q. What kind of stills are used in our mills?
A. The old ones are the most common; there are several distilleries that have continuous distillation. The defects of the old stills are well known; the defects of the continuous stills have already been pointed out. It would be very advantageous for the mills where there are two or three stills to have them sitting on a fire shared by all, like the reverberatory pails of the boiler houses; in this way they will work well with less than half the fuel consumed during the day in these mills, I am speaking of continuous distillation stills; the work of at least one man would also be saved through this method. They would give the same result; but this plan requires some precautions, such as that of filling the still with water when it is not working for whatever reason.
Q. Which is the best still?
A. Winter’s still, as described by Porter, is the best known; and it would be highly useful to introduce it in this island.
Q. What are its advantages?
A. There are many, but the main ones are that it produces refined rum to whatever degree is desired, siendo la carga de batición y no de aguardiente común (the batch being normal, fermented wash and not a batch of first distillation low wines); it produces more rum from the same wash than any other still; it consumes little fuel; and it takes much less time than the old stills to complete its task.
Q. What care do the coils of the stills require?
A. The coils are immersed in water for the purpose of cooling it, so the water should be replenished as often as necessary to keep it cool; where running water is not constantly available to cool the coil, one will find it very useful to keep it in very large tanks, which, when filled with water, will keep it cool for a long time.
Q. How are the washes distilled or burnt?
A. The still should be filled two thirds or three quarters full with the mixture, and the head should be well positioned, so that the evaporation does not escape at any point, and abundant heat should be applied until it boils, in which case the fire should be reduced to prevent the mixture from boiling together with the spirits, as happens when it is excessive; a slow fire, monitored and fed with care, is sufficient to extract all the spirit it contains from the broth.
Q. How do you know how strong rum is?
A. The strength of the spirit can be determined with the aid of a hydrometer; this instrument is a cylindrical column of glass or silver, 8 to 10 inches long and 2 lines in diameter, which serves as an axis for a sphere one inch in diameter; the column is numbered on a scale from 10 to 40, and when placed in the rum, it remains floating and the strength of the liquor is that of the degrees which number touches the surface of the liquid. The stronger the spirit, the less heavy it is, and consequently the more the hydrometer or weighing device can be immersed. There are some areometers that are poorly adjusted or out of order because they have lost part of the mercury, this being their principal agent, or because the numbering paper has slipped off; and it is necessary to check them frequently.
Common rum is suitable to sell when it makes cordon (cord), which is a small foam that floats on the surface of the liquid when it is placed in a glass and given a small movement; in this case it has 20 to 22 degrees on the hydrometer.
Refined rum is usually sold from 29 to 36 [degrees]; but for a good rum it is enough from 29 to 30.
[Let us now read the considerations that the Examining Board referred to the governing bodies of the Royal Society, which had to make the final judgment]
Dear Sirs,
The Handbook for masters of sugar and for distillers marked with the letter A which was submitted to our examination does not fully comply with the rewards program published by the Royal Society in February this year. Its main objectives were undoubtedly …
4° and last: To subject to exact and cost-effective rules the distilling process. The specific Handbook for distillers explains quite clearly and simply the best accepted practices for making rum, but in our opinion, it is very little because it does not discuss the principles of all the distillations, the influence that the heat and other agents must have on them, nor does it say anything about the condenser stills that are installed in some mills, saving a great deal of time and fuel. On the whole it appears to us that the work we have been instructed to examine has not filled up the whole purpose of the program; but that it nevertheless contains many useful ideas. It is written in language suited to the purpose, and its publication may yield some benefit. We are therefore of opinion that it should be considered worthy of the second prize offered, and that its publication should be proposed as capable of making widespread many good principles among masters of sugar, and of serving as a basis for other more extensive works in the same genre.
This is our opinion, but V. E. and V. SS. will decide what they think best. La Havana 15 of November 1832 – Rafael O Farrill’ y Arredondo – Antonio María de Escovedo.
The Handbook for Distillers ends here. I believe that the figures in the last answer are calculated using the Cartier scale, which measures the concentration of alcohol mixed with water. The instruments of measurement at that time were calibrated differently from today and did not have the accuracy which we take for granted. Moreover, in order to make an accurate calculation we should know the temperatures of the rums in which the hydrometer was placed (thanks, Luis Ayala). Anyways, with the level of approximation that is sufficient for us, we can assume that the Cartier degrees correspond by and large to the percentage of alcohol by volume – ABV – which we use today. Therefore, the Cuban rum of that time had a rather low alcohol content. Even the expensive refined rum had a lower alcohol content than the minimum necessary to be called RUM according to present-day European and US rum regulations, respectively 37,5 and 40 ABV.
I’d like to conclude with a few reflections. The Handbook for Distillers and the award of the Royal Society were not an isolated fact, the initiative of some planter or enlightened intellectual. On the contrary, in the context of the rapid economic and technological growth of Cuba – see the sixth article of this series, “Sugar, Race and Growth” in the December issue of “Got Rum?” – the innovations and experiments aimed at improving the quality of rum were numerous, and we are going to look at them in the next articles. In the meantime, though, I’d like to mention that in 1831 Ramón de la Sagra published in Havana his great “Historia económico-política y estadística de la isla de Cuba” (“A Statistical, Economic, Political History of Cuba”), a fundamental work for the study of Cuban economy, updated several times. When he deals with sugarcane plantations, de la Sagra takes for granted that in (almost) all of them there is at least a still and a skilled distiller, employed and paid specifically to distil rum. De la Sagra also reflects upon the low economic yield of sugarcane plantations in general and of common rum in particular: “Rum making with the current low prices generates a very low profit, which does not even reach 3% and which, due to the increase in labor costs does not generate any at all, unless you produce Refined rum, as a shrewd entrepreneur does … In any case, the profit generated by sugar plantations in the present circumstances is very low, because even 5% or 7% is not enough for a business which is both agricultural and industrial, which requires the investment of large capital and is exposed to countless misfortunes.”
Probably the strong commitment that in those years many planters and experts put into improving the quality of rum depended on the need to find new, more profitable income sources. And, as I wrote in the previous article, this happened more than 30 years before Don Facundo Bacardí y Massó, in 1862, started to produce his rum in Santiago.
Marco Pierini
