Potato brandy

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As potato liquor , a is by burning alcohol-containing liquid (manufactured spirits ) from the designated potato is recovered.

Potato schnapps was long regarded as "poor man's schnapps" because the production and the raw material were inexpensive, but is now more and more offered as a kind of exclusive alcoholic drink on the drinks menu of more sophisticated restaurants.

The Polish and Ukrainian versions of potato brandy are called vodka . In Russia , Scandinavia and other countries, depending on the country and distillery, vodka and aquavit are made from potatoes or grain .

history

The first potato distillery in Germany was probably started up around 1750 by David Möllinger in Monsheim in Rheinhessen . However, as early as 1647, as evidenced by court files in Franconia , farmers in Pilgramsreuth near Rehau were growing potatoes in fields for food production. From 1716 onwards, the potato was increasingly grown in Saxony and became more widespread after the Prussian King Friedrich II (Frederick the Great) passed the law on the cultivation of potatoes in 1745 , according to which the farmers had to plant ten percent of their arable land with potatoes. After that, the use of the bulbous plant developed quite quickly as a basic food and as a raw material for industrial applications.

Brandy was originally made from wine in small quantities only as a medicinal product. The production of brandy from potatoes, however, was first mentioned in 1682. The production was probably quite difficult and comparatively expensive. At the end of the 18th century, two production variants in particular by the pharmacist Johann Andreas Gabelmann (1754–1832) in Barby , who, with a recipe with dried potatoes, enabled production independent of the seasons and bad harvests, found widespread use and recognition . The potato schnapps distillery only got its breakthrough with the invention of a special distillation device by Johann Heinrich Leberecht Pistorius (1777-1858), with the Pistorius distillery , which Pistorius applied for a patent on March 21, 1817 . With this device it was possible to produce 60 to 80 percent alcohol from potato mash. The growing potato cultivation and the now cheaper production method led to a real boom in schnapps. In addition, the landlords viewed the distilling of potato schnapps as a good additional source of income and the stillage (residues of the distillation ) could be used as first-class fertilizer and as animal feed .

On March 21, 1817, the merchant Johann Heinrich Leberecht Pistorius from Weißensee near Berlin is said to have been granted the patent and the quote: "Express right to use and manufacture a peculiar burning apparatus" . The invention brought about a profound change in agriculture in the Prussian state in a short time and made Berlin the center of the schnapps trade, with the result that in 1831 there were already more than 1,400 potato schnapps distilleries in the province of Brandenburg .

In 1854, 127 representatives of north and east German distilleries founded the Association of Alcohol Manufacturers in Germany in Berlin. By 1887/88 there were already 6,268 distilleries in operation in Germany, which together processed just over two million tons of potatoes. The boom that continued over the years finally led to an overproduction of schnapps in Germany around 1912/13 with an annual production of three million hectoliters of potato schnapps, which led to alcohol being used as a substitute for petroleum in spirit lamps and after the first World War I (1914–1918) mixed fuel for automobiles.

From the 1830s emerged pubs , the beer , wine and above all cheap liquor consumption on. First in agriculture, but then increasingly also in factories, part of the wages was paid in potato schnapps. The consequences for the population were devastating. Alcoholism spread, which with increasing poverty and unemployment ended in misery alcoholism . The development was referred to as a brandy plague or also potato schnapps ( Switzerland ) because, based on cheap potato schnapps, alcoholism spread like an epidemic across the country.

Around 1800 the per capita consumption of brandy in Prussia was two to three liters per year (measured in pure alcohol ). From the 1830s consumption rose to over eight liters, in Brandenburg even to 13 liters. In 1844 there was one bar for every 109 inhabitants in Berlin. With the Reich Spirits Tax Act of 1887, agricultural , social and health policy goals were pursued for the first time and potato schnapps was made considerably more expensive due to the tax collection . With this instrument and the effects of the First World War, the consumption of spirits was considerably reduced. Furthermore, new associations for sobriety ("sobriety movements") were founded, which also achieved political strength, such as the popular movement against alcohol abuse in Sweden , called nykterhetsrörelse in Swedish .

With the end of the brandy plague and the overproduction of schnapps, the alcohol from the potato distilleries was also used as an admixture to automobile fuel, in spirit lamps, and as industrial alcohol .

Manufacturing

The process of making potato schnapps is the same as that of fruit schnapps . After thorough washing, the floury potatoes are placed in cold water, gently heated and ground to a pulp at a temperature of 95 ° C. The pulp is then liquefied at 70–90 ° C with the addition of bacterial enzymes and saccharified at a temperature of approx. 58 ° C for one to two hours. As an alternative to the enzymes, 15 percent barley malt can be added, but this changes the taste noticeably. Alcoholic fermentation begins in the mash produced in this way , at which a fermentation temperature of around 20 ° C is considered optimal, but should not exceed 25 ° C, as otherwise too many aromatic substances are lost. Because a sugared mash would foam a lot, an anti-foaming agent is added before the fermentation process begins. The fermentation process takes place in a so-called fermentation funnel and should be completed after approx. Three days.

The subsequent firing takes place in a cauldron of distiller at about 75 ° C. Since the alcohol boils earlier than water, it can be largely separated from the water when the mash is heated. Depending on the distillation process and the number of passes, up to 80 percent alcohol can be achieved. After a few weeks of cool storage, the fires are then reduced to drinkable levels of 20 to 40 percent by volume by adding water.

literature

  • Nikolaus Müller: Brief instruction to make plenty of good brandy, vinegar and liqueur from potatoes . Rienner, Würzburg 1779.
  • W. Behrend, E. von Kahlden, C. Steinbrück, Emil Struve, W. Wygedzinski: The soil and the agricultural conditions of the Prussian state . Ed .: August Meitzen. Paul Parey publishing house, Berlin 1908.
  • Gustav Ruhland: System of the political economy . General Economics. tape 1 . Published by Wilhelm Issleib, Berlin 1933.
  • Heinrich Tappe: On the way to modern alcohol culture. Alcohol production, drinking behavior and temperance movement in Germany from the early 19th century to the First World War . Steiner, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-515-06142-8 .
  • Food culture - eating and drinking in transition (=  The citizen in the state . 52nd year, volume 4). State Center for Political Education Baden-Württemberg, 2002 ( Online [PDF; 2,4 MB ; accessed on December 5, 2018]).
    • Heinrich Tappe: Alcohol Consumption in Germany . In: Food Culture - Eating and Drinking in Transition (=  The Citizen in the State . 52nd Volume, Issue 4). State Center for Political Education Baden-Württemberg, 2002, p. 213-218 .
    • Peter Lummel: Berlin's insatiable giant belly . In: Food Culture - Eating and Drinking in Transition (=  The Citizen in the State . 52nd Volume, Issue 4). State Center for Political Education Baden-Württemberg, 2002, p. 252-258 .
  • Adelheid Müller-Lissner: Of moderate, abstinent and fermentationless fruit utilization . In: The Parliament . No. 03, January 17, 2005.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hartmut Bossel: Chance, Plan and Delusion . Chronicle of the developments that changed our world. Books on Demand, 2010, ISBN 978-3-8423-3524-0 , pp. 177 .
  2. ↑ The triumphant advance of the devil's bulb. In: BR Knowledge. Bayerischer Rundfunk, October 25, 2018, accessed on December 5, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Potatoes - the great tubers. WDR, archived from the original on September 24, 2008 ; Retrieved on September 19, 2012 (original website no longer available, link to WaybackMachine from September 22, 2008).
  4. ↑ a b Ruhland: System of the political economy . 1933, p. 127 .
  5. ↑ Rach: Potato brandy . In: New Hanoverian Magazine . 65th piece, August 16, 1793, p. 1033 ff . ( Online [accessed on December 4, 2018] Access via the Digital Collections of Bielefeld University ).
  6. ↑ Behrend, Kahlden, Steinbrück, Struve, Wygedzinski: The soil and the agricultural conditions of the Prussian state . 1908, p. 7th f .
  7. ↑ a b Potato boom in Brandenburg. In: Preussenchronik. Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, accessed on December 5, 2018 .
  8. ↑ a b Potato history and stories. In: toffi.net. Hubert Beckmann, accessed February 16, 2008 .
  9. ^ Tappe: Alcohol consumption in Germany . 2002, p. 213 .
  10. ↑ Lummel: Berlin's insatiable giant belly . 2002, p. 255 .
  11. ^ History of the spirits tax and the spirits monopoly. Federal Ministry of Finance - Customs, archived from the original on October 25, 2007 ; Retrieved September 19, 2012 (original website no longer available).
  12. ↑ Jordpåron and Jarðepli, Maaomene and Potet . Federal Ministry of Finance - Customs, archived from the original on January 18, 2012 ; accessed on December 5, 2018 (original website no longer available).
  13. ^ Peter Dürr: Mashing in potatoes and chestnuts for typical brandies . In: Swiss journal for fruit and wine growing . No. 18, 1998, pp. 459–461 ( Online [PDF; 465 kB ; accessed on December 5, 2018]).
  14. ^ Heinrich Kreipe: Grain and potato distillery . Beverage Technology Handbook. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 978-3-8001-5810-2 .