c-span, where history unfold daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's public television companies and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. each week, american history tv's "american artifacts" takes you viewers into archives, museums, and historic sites from around the country. next, located about three miles from george washington's mount vernon estate in virginia is a reconstructed 18th-century style whiskey distillery. american history tv visited to learn about washington's distilling business on a day when the staff was making apple brandy.

>> my name is dennis pogue, i am the vice president of preservation here at vernon and we are standing in front of a reconstruction of washington's distillery. most people have no idea that washington was not only first in war, first in peace, but also one of the first in distilling. he operated a major distillery it was a very important part of the plantation economy. historians have known this for a long time, but about 10 years ago, we decided we wanted to explore that. we came out here with archaeologists, excavated the site, found were the distillery had been located, did about five years of excavation and research, and decided we had a wonderful opportunity to bring this back and show what it would have been like. you can't see this anywhere else in the country. >> how do these two relate to

each other? >> the reason the distillery is here is because washington already had a gristmill that was a major part of the plantation. he made lots of money off it over the years. in 1797, at the end of his second term as president, he was getting ready to come back to mount vernon and he hired a scotsman by the name of james anderson to be his plantation manager. anderson knew how to distill. as soon as he was on the job, he lobbied washington and said, if you will pay for this, i can make you a lot of money by distilling whiskey. washington initially said, i don't know much about that. but we have letters he wrote to friends asking their advice. they said as long as he could make a good product, there was no doubt it would be successful. so he agreed. in 1797, they started here in

a small way, using an existing building. by the end of the year, they were convinced it was going to be successful, so washington agreed to build the building behind us. they bought three more stills and set it up. and by the early spring of 1798, it was up and running. >> this is a large building. it looks like it was expensive to build. how did you get the funding, and how did you decide on the architecture of it? >> again, we have great records. the archaeology gave us the footprint of the building. when you go inside, you can see where the stills are located. we have five stills. each one is located where the archaeologist found evidence for it. either in the form of remnants of the brick base of the furnace or heavily burned, reddened soil where the fire had been. we have two still fear, a third in the middle, and two more at

the other end. the fourth, we found evidence of a brick floor, a boiler, water for the mashing,nd a stone floor that comes from archaeological evidence. that gave us a footprint of the building and allowed us to place and position different parts of the process. the documentary evidence gave us all sorts of other information. we know the size of the stills because we had the record of when he bought them. we know the stonemason spent a certain amount of time raising the walls. we knew that there were 10-foot-high walls. we had all sorts of records from the carpenters and other workmen. we were able to put all that together to get a good picture of what washington's distillery would have looked like. inside, i think it is reacting to what washington's building would have looked like. we know that there are two

dormer windows because there are records of that. there is a lot of information about it. the building was gone by 1814. it burned at that time, only about 15 years after it was built. the support we got for this was very important. mount vernon could not have done it on our own. but the distilled spirits council of the united states, the folks that represent the liquor industry in the country, they came. we got together with them very early in the project and told them we have a wonderful educational opportunity to tell a great story about george washington that's also a good story about the heritage of spirits in american history. they supported that and came up with over $2 million to support the research and reconstruction of the distillery. what washington was making was a rye whiskey. we know his recipe was 60% rye

grain, 35% corn, and the rest barley. that was a typical, popular recipe from the time. and rye is different from the whiskey most people drink today, which is made mostly out of corn which yields a sweeter end product. rye is spicier, sharper. it was a popular grain at the time. how they would do this is take all those different grains and mix them in these large barrels called mash times. ubs. they would put them in and add boiling water. behind us is the boiler where the water is heated up. you would have to dip that out, bring it over to one of these bs, and deposit the grain in here, put the boiling water in, put the mash rake in, and stir it. you would continue to do that until this is filled up.

by doing that, essentially, what you are trying to do is cook the grain, to turn the starches in the grain into sugars. once that happens, you introduce the yeast, which works on the sugars to produce the alcohol. that takes 3-5 days, and then you are ready to distill. you take it over to the still, and the idea there is you are separating the alcohol from the liquid, so you end up with a much higher concentration of alcoholic spirit when you are done doing that. >> my name is steve bayshore, i manage the historic trade department at mount vernon, and that involves the gristmill and distillery operation as well as the blacksmith shop and other sites. we take care of the living history elements of mount vernon. we know washington made apple and peach brandy.

the apples would have been grown in orchards on his property. you can see some right here. the type we are using are the newton pippin's and two other varieties we know washington grew. the first step in the process is they would have to be pressed or press whichn apple wouldes a device that crank them into chunks. that would be put into a large press with a wooden jackscrew that was handcranked down to squeeze all the apples. the pulp is basically what you are squishing, and from that, excretes the juice. it would be collected in buckets. from that point on, you're going to ferment that juice. we are fermenting a large barrel called a hog's head. this is about 6% alcohol when you're done.

the fermentation process for apples takes longer than for whiskey, which was also made here, which was the main commodity. you are looking at 14-30 days perhaps of fermentation, depending on the type of yeast used. at this time, we are fermenting with champagne yeast, which is a little faster acting. it really took about 10 to 14 days to completely fermentation. in washington's time, they did not know a lot about the science of the yeast. today, that is very much a trade secret in many places. they will tell you everything, but they will not tell you what type of yeast they are using. they all usually have labs where they work on these. in washington's day, the orchard had naturally occurring yeast. he may well have had the apple juice pressed and let it sit in the orchard and let that naturally occurring yeast get in there and do its job over a time of weeks. 6% is at the end of fermentation.

we are then going to distill it, and that is what will get the proof too much higher alcohol content by volume. by running it through the stills as we are doing now we are going , to get 80, 90, maybe 100 proof. that is doing two distillations. right now, we have all five stills charged with the 6% fermented apple juice. the first run today will bump that up. it might get to 50, maybe 60. we will collect that and then run it through on wednesday, double everything, run everything we make the first two days a second time through. each time you distill, you gain proof, but you lose volume. our goal is to get 50-60 gallons at the end of the process of hopefully 90% proof apple brandy. >> was this something a lot of farmers would have done to make apple brandy or was that unusual?

>> it was a drink of the time. farmers are distilling various things. a still is a piece of farm equipment for the 18th century, even 19th century, so if you are a small farmer, you are probably going to make a little whiskey on the side, applejack, as they called it, which is hard cider or brandy. when you think of the amount of orchards of farms had, it was a natural side business to be in. a lot of alcohol is also legal tender at this time. you could sell that cider for a pretty good price, trade it. it is a good small commodity to be involved in even if you are a small farmer. we have a number of staff here that work for me. a couple of full-time people and some part-time staff. these are interpreters that regularly give tours of the distillery, farm, blacksmith shop, and mill.

several of these guys have made the whiskey run, so they know how to operate all the equipment. we have a master distiller here who is our main consultant for doing whiskey and brandy. dave used to be the master distiller for makers mark. he is now independent. over the past 25 years, many people are familiar with how microbrew beer took off. there is a movement and craft distillery in the country. he is involved in designing distilleries for people. he brought a couple of friends who are distillers. one runs a distillery in the area. and another young man from the hudson river valley of new york, just beginning the process of building a distillery. they are here to learn and get a taste of the history of distilling as well as help us. >> i encourage people to name their stills. this is pam, sarah, maggie, sondra, elizabeth.

please send me spirits, elizabeth. that's the pneumonic. today, we are having a lot of fun doing first run apple brandy distillation. this is one of our five copper stills. they orient themselves from my right to my left in order of size. the smallest one is about 62 gallons. the largest is about 95 gallons. this is just the very top of a rather large, semi spherical top and a conical shaped still. the still itself is probably that big, probably four feet across. then it runs all the way down to about here. to the base.

this is 95 gallons in here. that's the size of a bathtub. i have been coming here now for near 10 years, and one of the things i was fascinated with was the level of detail the archaeologists found in uncovering the site. for me, it is fun because i'm not an archaeologist. i am a chemical engineer and i make whiskey for a living. because evenn uneducated me could stand and look at the archaeological site and say, this is where things went. the site laid itself out very nicely and a tremendous amount of information was easily discoverable. there are things we learned about the operation here that are transferable to the modern craft distilling. things like the use of hops as a natural antibacterial agent. people think hops are only in beer. as a craft distiller, i can tell

you there are times i use hops when i need bacterial control. things like how to make a really high percent rye mash, because rye is a brat of the grain. it gets too thick to quick and if you don't start fast enough, it gets into phone. the first time we made the foam that ate manhattan. it foamed all night long and it was two feet deep and six feet wide when we came in in the morning, and it didn't stop until we distilled it. we finally learned how to control it by studying what they did. they got lard and put it on a paintbrush and hit the foam, and it breaks the foam. eventually, we learned how to not get foam in the first place, and that was much better.

but all of this was discovered from studying their techniques. >> they described how to layout a still house, the most efficient way of doing things. we were able to look at those manuals and it all fit very well with what's going on in the larger distilling industry at the time. it is kind of a delicate balance. .hese are direct fired stills in george washington's time, this was ubiquitous. we would go to different phases during the process. the first thing we would do is take what is called the onion, the top part of the still, and remove it. we charge the still with the liquid to be distilled. then you start on low fire. you basically build a fire with the intent of getting the flames hot enough that the heat goes up the flu properly.

otherwise, you wind up acting smoke into the room. once we have the fire established, then we establish water flow in the condensers. this is the old worm style condenser. the vapor comes down the line arm and minute runs and turns and coils around inside the condenser. and then it comes out the bottom in the back as a liquid. then it's all about balancing the amount of heat we are putting in the still and the amount of water we are running through the condenser. it was off, so it just needs to be balanced. and then also keeping track of the amount of heat so that we can manage the process.

don't try this at home, but the way we manage the heat is we feel the still to see where the heat is in the still. on this particular still, it is slightly uncomfortable to have my hand resting here. and it's starting to move its way up. as the heat wave moves, it will move up the onion and out the line arm. finally, when it gets to this knuckle joint, we have about five minutes until we have product coming out the back of the condenser. >> nice. this one is all the way up in the line arm already. ok. way to go, mr. perky.

we really limit ourselves in how we operate here. we still boil water in the boiler. we still add hops when we are making the rye. we use wooden buckets. we stir with a wooden masher. we don't use thermometers or hydrometers when we are making judgments about adding the grain. we do it with visual and taste clues. when we are done fermenting, we bucket it over one at a time. when we do the full scale aoduction days, we will work few weeks at a time at full-scale production. we can understand why george washington had the staff he did. that's the staff level that it takes us to do it. once we start getting liquid out the back end, we monitor

the quality. the first shot that come off the still we call head. it's inferior quality. that material we collect and get rid of. this is going to turn into a stream pretty quick. it is definitely headsy. >> tasting pretty nice though. >> yep. i will do this. and then once they peak and drop off again, we get to what we call the heart.

we collect the hearts. when they are coming off, we are delicately managing the amount of heat. we do not want to under run it because it will slow it down. you can see the stream volume change if you put too much or too little heat in the still. so we are managing that to keep it nice, flat, and smooth. theire. in >> there you go. >> ok. that will do. that way you cool the line arm a little bit more. all the water would have come from the mill and then gone down and found its way back into the creek. in washington's day, the mill race was fed by a mill pond was two miles from here. a great big mill pond. that is basically a hollow log.

the water flows down. them -- seethat the valves at the end. do you want to point to a valve it a littlejust bit? it's the same kind as there are here on the condenser. it allows you to adjust how much water is coming out of the mill race. >> they did only 60-80 gallons of brandy on a couple of occasions. they did apple brandy and peach brandy. they sold a little of it. the records indicate most of it was used at the mansion. the washington's were entertaining after the presidency. he is supplementing his other stores of alcohol with homemade stuff. the whiskey is a different proportion totally. this whole building was built as a commercial distillery for whiskey. washington's men in 1798, the

first year this opened, made 4500 gallons of whiskey one year. in 1799, almost 11,000 gallons. the brandy component is a very small measure compared to the whiskey business. >> we have lots and lots of plantation records and accounts . we know who was buying washington's whiskey. how much they were paying for it. $.50 per gallon, by the way, up to one dollar per gallon for the good stuff that was distilled a few more times. almost all of it was used locally. the crew that really made this work would have been african-american slaves. there were six young black men assigned to the distillery. james anderson's son and his assistant john would have been directing it, but all the work would have been done by those six men, and it would have been a lot of work. carrying the grain around, doing the mashing, it was a labor intensive occupation.

>> normally in washington's time, they did not age whiskey. it went right to market. people drank it as a clear alcohol. in our case, when we make a whiskey run, we go ahead and bottle half of it on aged -- not aged to keep with the tradition here. usually we only have 400 or 500 bottles available. a usually sell out in a day. now, october 22, for the first time, we are offering aged ye whiskey.ey -- r so, we will bottle half and barrel the other half, let it sit for two years, and then sell it. we bottled it earlier this spring. nice color and taste. it's very nice, what you would expect amber, nice taste. , we are looking forward to people trying that.

>> there was lots of good whiskey being made in kentucky and elsewhere. but people's interest has been so great from the beginning. people were curious what the whiskey washington made would have tasted like. over the years, we have done a number of demonstration projects. in the last couple of years, we have made enough that we can sell it to folks. it is available at a store near here and you can buy it. >> we will be giving tours today as well, so there will be visitors coming through. that is not always the case. we usually do whiskey in the off season. there is a lot involved, a lot of hot copper. we want people to be safe, but today there is a special thing we are doing with the brandy, we have it going on while we are open. >> [indiscernible]

was a commercial enterprise, but did washington himself like whiskey? >> well, whiskey was the most popular distilled spirit in the country in the years following the revolution. before the revolution, it was rum. but because of the revolution, rum became more expensive. a lot of that was coming from britain or british colonies. and americans were growing lots and lots of grain. it became a popular thing. this was a commercial venture though. there were a lot of people distilling, but washington's distillery, as we found out from our research, was one of the largest in the country. now, that doesn't mean it was washington's favorite spirit. whiskey was cheap. it was very popular among the masses, but washington was more of the tradition of madeira and wine. es were his favorite spirit.

although we know from the records that he did drink whiskey, i don't think it would have been his first choice. we are 6% alcohol in all these guys. and i don't think we have gotten 6% on any of our fermentations yet. , but we have 8% never really gotten there yet. ok. >> it's coming out nicely now. >> yep. >> you can watch american artifacts and other american history tv programs anytime by visiting our website, c-span.org/history. ♪ [applause]

the presidential inauguration of donald trump is friday, january 20. c-span will have live coverage of all the day's events and ceremonies. watch live on c-span and c-span.org and listen live on the free c-span radio app. >> join us on tuesday for live coverage of the opening day of the new congress. watch the official swearing in of the new and reelected members of the house and senate and the election of the speaker of the house. our all-day live coverage of the events from capitol hill begins at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span and c-span.org or you can listen to it on the free c-span radio app. in 1955, 15-year-old african american emmett till was kidnapped and murdered while visiting relatives in money,

mississippi. the case went to trial. two white suspects were acquitted by an all-white jury. next, the author sits down with the kansas city public library executive director to talk about his book. this is about 90 minutes. name is alvin sykes and i am to represent the kansas city library system. [applause] you are in for an exciting treat. i'm going toowing, read the introduction so we stay on point.