In our current drinks issue, Kara Newman explores the old school distilling practices at Coppersea Distilling in her story Whiskey & History. Coppersea, located in the Hudson Valley, follows 19th century distilling practices, floor-malting and grinding local barley and rye. Well before Coppersea started experimenting with traditional distilling methods, though, grain was being fermented to make liquor all around the world.
In his PechaKucha presentation, Christopher Williams of Coppersea discusses everything you need to know about the history of distilling. Through 20 images that are shown for 20 seconds each, Williams describes the path distilling has taken from western alchemy in ancient Egypt to the modern New York distilling renaissance. His presentation sheds an impressive light on New York’s role in craft liquor.
If you want to learn more about Coppersea’s methods, be sure to watch this behind-the-scenes video of their distillery.
