Books on the history of distillation

March 19, 2018 11:17 AM

Can you recommend any good books, written for the lay person, on the history of the distillation of alcoholic spirits? Thank you so much!
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell to Food & Drink (5 answers total)

Tom Standage's "A History of the World in 6 Glasses" is good for the lay person and has some decent background on fermentation and distillation. It's more of a broad recounting than a detailed discussion of, say, the finer points of column distillation vs pot distillation, but I learned many things from it (like how wine was originally drunk through straws because it was unfiltered and might contain foreign matter like rocks and sticks).
posted by fedward at 11:29 AM on March 19, 2018

Maybe the people at Stockholm’s museum of spirits could give recommendations if you contacted them.
posted by meijusa at 11:38 AM on March 19, 2018

Here are a couple I've liked:
Proof: The Science of Booze by Adam Rogers
Rum: A Social and Sociable History of the Real Spirit of 1776 by Ian Williams
And a Bottle of Rum, Revised and Updated: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails by Wayne Curtis
Beachbum Berry's Potions of the Caribbean by Jeff Berry
posted by Lexica at 12:30 PM on March 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

I really enjoyed Chasing the White Dog, by Max Watman. It's specific to the American history of distillation (white dog = moonshine). Fascinating.
posted by sapere aude at 10:10 AM on March 20, 2018

Response by poster: A friend recommended Water of Life by C. Anne Wilson, as well as the aforementioned Proof.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 5:17 PM on March 20, 2018