Episode 188 - Reviving Ancient Stills with Dr. Eric Stroud

In this stimulating still dialogue with Dr. Eric Stroud of Mohawk Spirits Distillery, some of the topics we discuss include:

• The differences between traditional and vacuum distillation - that is, distillation that takes place in the presence of high heat vs. distillation that takes place at room temperature but under high pressure.
• How Dr. Stroud secured a grant from the American Distilling Institute that allowed him to fabricate and test ancient still designs found in alchemical and medical texts from the Renaissance and Enlightenment.
• What it’s like to test glass stills with zig-zags and coils and chambers that seem to be in all the wrong places.
• The implications of Dr. Stroud’s compelling test results for the craft distilling community, as well as what new experiments are on the horizon.
• The virtues of working with native North American fruits and berries,
• What to drink with a late Renaissance alchemist,
• And much, much more.

This episode is brought to you by Near Country Provisions. If you live in the Mid-Atlantic and want to enjoy ethically raised (and delicious) meat from local farmers delivered to your door every month, then you need Near Country in your life.

Head over to NearCountry.com and enter the code BARCART when you sign up for your subscription to receive 2 free pounds of bacon or ground beef in your first delivery.