Follow along: IG @birectifier
Back in 2022, I listed the first book bounties I was chasing and most of them came through. This year, there is a new list. I have been guided by the principles of Sugar technologist Hubert Von Olbrich who taught us the importance of collecting texts at the 1975 Rum Symposium:
It is an irrefutable fact that a library is cheaper than a laboratory and that inquiries are far less costly than investments in development work which is already being carried out elsewhere. By means of thorough information regarding the basic position of science and technique, irrational brain-work is avoided, fruitless researching and inventing activities are prevented and the squandering of economic power and capital is hindered.
There is immense value in collecting texts to support the industry. It probably should be celebrated (no trade publication has ever taken notice), there should be grants, and people holding rare texts should get them in the hands of people that can unlock their value!
One big problem (not for me!) with the major remaining industry texts is that they reinforce the notion that fine spirits are born in the lab. The distilling industry has an analysis phobia. Few distillers have labs that match the capability of a hobby winery or a basic brewery, even though much of this equipment is the cheapest it has ever been. Home distillers are starting to have more sophistication than commercial distillers!
Bounties these days are paid in discounts on birectifiers!
For the first few documents, I know where they are:
Distillery Production, The Calvert Distilling Company Education Department, Relay Maryland 1948 [This plant converted to industrial ethanol in 1942 from starting as a rye producer in 1936. It is not known if there is any rye wisdom in the text.]
Methods of Analysis for Schenley Distillers Corporation Issued at new York Laboratory April 11, 1940. [I have the index and its all classic analysis.]
Warehousing Blending and Bottling Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, Inc. [This exists in a few locations, but I have not been able to access either. Sometimes these documents have mini bibliographies that lead to new citations.]
Pennco Distillers Inc. Mash Bills [Pennco would be Michter’s. My understanding is that this info is already available (IRS data) and what we’d really learn is what format it was presented to staff members and any extra details.
Next are the Edwin Foote papers located in Louisville, KY. Foote was the head distillers at Stitzel–Weller.
Experiencing Tequila Manual. [This may be a cross training document from a tequila distillery.]
Cameronbridge Distillery Manual. [Scotch!]
Port Dundas Distillery Manual. [Scotch!]
Grain Distilling Manual. [An internal education document from the Scotch industry?]
Distillery Log Book 1982-1984.
Distillery Log Book 1985-1990.
Distillery Log Book 1990-1991.
Distillery Log Book March – December 1991.
Distillery Log Book January 1992 to Final Distillation.
Calvert Distilling Co. Training Manual. [Is this different than the one above? Any Rye wisdom?]
Equipment & Procedures, Wine Room, Rotary Dryers, Evaporators, Glossary.
Louisville, Ky. Production Operation Manual – Distillery Maintenance Supervisory Training Program.
Next up is the Lasche’s Magazine for the Practical Distiller. Only a few of these have ever been digitized (1904/5) and they had exciting content. There were written by Alfred Julius Moritz Lasche who was at some point associated with yeast production and ultimately Schenley.
The years 1907,08 & 09 are listed on ebay as a set for $1,200. (The seller would take $600). Rumor has it they are also held in the American Institute of Baking library hosted by Kansas State University. [If you get to that library, a colleague is desperate to find out if they have Professor Child’s legendary lost monograph on Mincemeat Pie in their card catalog.
Another undigitized bound year may be held at the State Library of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg.
This publication was known for commenting on rye whiskey production and early American yeasting processes.
Enduring from 2022:
There are quite a few lost works from the Rum Pilot Plant. I have seen these first two appear with English language citation titles as well but they may be in Spanish. They were last cited here:
Technical Staff. Rum Pilot Plant, Manual de Métodos Analíticos de la Planta Piloto de Ron, (MPPR-1), Agr. Exp. Sta., Mayagüez Campus, Univ. P.R., Río Piedras, P.R., January 1969.
Technical Staff. Rum Pilot Plant, Manual de Métodos y Procedimientos Bacteriológicos de la Planta Piloto de Ron, (MPPR-2), Agr. Exp. Sta., Mayagüez Campus, Univ. P.R., Río Piedras, P.R., June 1969.
Rodríguez Benítez, Victor. Estudios sobre tecnología de ron. University of Puerto Rico. Recinto de Mayagüez. Estación Experimental Agrícola. Planta Piloto de Ron. 1960. (71 pages)
Rodríguez Benítez, Victor. Proyecciones futuras de la Planta Piloto de Ron. Universidad de Puerto Rico. Recinto de Mayagüez. Estación Experimental Agrícola. Planta Piloto de Ron. 1959. (12 pages. “Paper prepared to be read at the technical meeting with representatives of the rum industry held at the Rum Pilot Plant, December 4, 1959.”)
These papers from the very early version of the Rum Pilot Plant (the first generation after Arroyo) appear to be held by the Agricultural Experiment Station library that is an extension of UPR. UPR hosts many works from its journals online, but none of these early works. The first two citations do not appear to be indexed by any library and we can only safely assume they are held by the library.
The Experiment Station published a document in 2004 that was an introduction to their library resources, but the email address bounces back.
http://www.ellenjaye.com/hist_mono4ryewhiskey.htm