From Medicine to Farmhouse Spirits
Monastery, Apothecary, Farm: Who Distilled Spirits in the Past?
In earlier times, it was mainly apothecaries, physicians, and monasteries that distilled, using the results as medicine. Over time, innkeepers, merchants, and farmers joined in, putting wine, pomace, and fruit to use. Evidence of this often only survives from a later period, tied to individual establishments and documents.
Distilled Waters from the Apothecary
An early printed manual on distilling appeared in Strasbourg on May 8, 1500. The surgeon Hieronymus Brunschwig had his “Liber de arte distillandi de simplicibus,” known as the “Small Book of Distillation,” published by the printer Johann Grüninger. It explains distillation, lists plants that can be distilled, and names illnesses that the resulting waters were supposed to cure. The first edition contained 298 woodcuts, many of them showing stills.
The book was a success: between 1500 and 1568, it appeared in sixteen editions, and in 1512 the “Great Book of Distillation” followed. Distilled waters thus had their place in the apothecary, alongside ointments, powders, and herbal extracts. At that time, distilling was the domain of specialists equipped with books, apparatus, and a clientele seeking a cure. What we call a spirit today was, to them, a medicine.
Did Monks Invent Schnaps?
Monasteries had much of what distilling required: books, herb gardens, vineyards, and people who could read and write. The fact that distilling took place there fits the picture that the sources paint of the Middle Ages. However, the precise origins of individual monastery distilleries are rarely documented. Many stories about monks supposedly inventing a particular drink stem from later marketing and should be read as legend.
What's sold today under monastery names is, moreover, often not a spirit distillate at all. Herbal liqueurs are sweetened and contain plant extracts. A fruit brandy, on the other hand, may under EU law contain no more than 18 g of sugar per liter to round out the flavor, and added flavorings are prohibited. Between the two sits the geist: here, unfermented fruit, herbs, or nuts are macerated in alcohol and then distilled. Of the three, this technique bears the closest resemblance to the old medicinal waters.
Innkeepers and Merchants: The First Named Distilleries
The more recent the sources, the more names appear. In Vizovice, Moravia, a distillery on an estate is documented as early as 1585; today's Rudolf Jelínek company was founded there in 1894. In Bassano del Grappa in Veneto, Bortolo Nardini founded a distillery in 1779 that is considered the oldest grappa distillery. Such dates document individual businesses. They do not mark the beginning of distilling itself.
Distilling was often tied to inns. In 1844, Sixtus Balthasar Schladerer took over the “Kreuz” inn in Staufen im Breisgau and distilled Kirschwasser there. In Zug, Switzerland, Johann Baptist Etter began distilling his own cherries in 1823, and the Etter company was founded in 1870. Innkeepers had customers, cellars, and connections to fruit growers. For them, it made sense to produce the spirit themselves rather than buy it in.
The Farm: Turning Surplus into Supply
On farms, distilling had a practical motive. Fruit spoils quickly, and in good years trees bear more than can be eaten, dried, or sold. Fermented and distilled, the surplus becomes a durable commodity. A privilege from 1726 shows how important this was: the Bishop of Strasbourg allowed farmers in the Renchtal around Oberkirch to distill surplus fruit. Documents also reveal just how old fruit growing is in some distilling regions; in Fraxern, in Vorarlberg, cherries are mentioned as early as 1574 under the name “Khriespern.”
Winemakers, too, had leftovers to use. After pressing, pomace remains—the skins, seeds, and stems of the pressed grapes. Fermented and distilled, this became grappa in Italy, marc in France, and orujo in Spain. Pomace brandy is thus closely linked to winemaking, but it is not a wine brandy, since it's made from the pressing residue rather than from wine. EU law today requires that the first distillation take place in the presence of the pomace itself.
Today, this farmhouse distilling is strictly regulated. In Germany, small operations distill under a flat-rate license as so-called Abfindungsbrennereien, with permission from the main customs office; distilling without a license is prohibited, even for personal use. The reduced tax rate for such operations is justified as a way of preserving traditional orchard meadows. The line from the old farm to today's small-scale producer is thus a matter of deliberate policy. What the old privileges actually looked like is covered two stops further on.