“Mary the Jewess” was a name given to an enigmatic, mystical female alchemist. She is referred to as the first female alchemist, and her dates of practice range from 0-200 CE. We know a little about her through the surviving… Read more ›
In December 2022, Jesse from StillIt gave me a heads up that another distiller out there was building the LeFevre (zigzag) apparatus, and had it working. I was very happy to hear about that, but elated to be contacted by… Read more ›
I was very fortunate to visit the beautiful island nation of Curacao recently. Curacao is part of the “ABC Islands” of the Dutch Lesser Antilles, very close to Venezuela. Some of you may have come across the famed Blue Curacao liqueur. I was able to visit the only distillery that produces this, and wanted to share some findings with you all! There is a “genuine” liqueur and competing “original” and “classic” ones. Look for the word “genuine” on the label, and embossing marks on the base of the glass bottle. Only the genuine one is made at the Senior & Co. Distillery, and the others appear in… Read more ›
We ended up with a very stubborn fermentation of 40 gallons of strawberry pressings. The first two fermentations got “stuck”, despite good yeast, sufficient yeast nutrient and temperature control. A third attempt with a special White Labs yeast got it… Read more ›
Our distillery, Mohawk Spirits Distillery, was both an attendee and a presenter at the 2021 ADI Annual Convention in Louisville, KY. We were very grateful to the ADI for allowing us to present our research six of the ancient stills… Read more ›
Hello craft distillers! We are very thankful to have an interview on ancient stills with the congenial distillation scholar, Jesse Willson of the Still It channel! Jesse and Eric discuss our ancient still designs as part of a previous ADI… Read more ›
We begin this article with the “penultimate” description, because we had thought we had seen it all and have now been corrected, AGAIN! Now, we really think we have seen them all. Read on! There is an incredible amount of… Read more ›
Please tune in and check out the amazing Modern Barcart podcast with the erudite host Eric Kozlik and his interview with me on ancient stills with some fun discussions on history, vacuum distillation, and cocktails! Many thanks to Eric for… Read more ›
Athanasius Kircher (1602-1683) has been described as “strange and rather fantastical” (Forbes, R. J. E). He is a 17th century Jesuit and professor of mathematics and philosophy. He published the Mundus Subterraneous, his most important work, towards the end of his life. The… Read more ›
Nicasius le Febure, also known as Nicolas le Fèvre, was born in the Ardenns in the early 17th century. He was a Calvinist and held appointments as a scientist in the French court as the “demonstratur for Vallot” and later… Read more ›