this post was submitted on 26 May 2025
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[–] PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@lemmy.sdf.org 27 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Remember, kids! ~~Unregulated~~ capitalism is not your friend!

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 25 points 5 days ago (2 children)

This lead me down a rabbit hole an introduced me to "Mother's Ruin" of the cheap gin sold at the time:

source

It gets even more wild the more you read of that article. One guy pawning his wife for a quart of gin...then the government crackdown when things started getting even worse!

[–] TranslateErr0rs@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago

That was a nice read. Thanks for sharing!

[–] IndiBrony@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

14 gallons per year? Rookie numbers! I drank more than that on a single 7-day binge!

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago (2 children)

That 14 gallons number raised all kinds of questions for me:

  • What potency was this gin that could be consumed in this quantity but without killing so many more of its consumers?
  • How can they possibly produce gin this cheap? Slave labor from the Caribbean?
  • What would the logistics look like to move this much gin to a population consuming this much? This is the days before motor vehicles so everything would have had to be moved by human or horse/donkey/mule/cow pulled cart. Steam engines wouldn't arrive for another 100 years. So it was likely animal cart the number of barrels of gin must have been a river of full carts moving into the city and a river of empty ones headed out all the time.
  • Public sanitation didn't really exist. Public sewer systems wouldn't arrive for another 100 years or so so the entire city must have smelled like urine all the time.
  • With the sheer number of gin containers needed for this volume, did they have a "deposit" on bottles like we have sometimes today? Did they have an underground economy of people collecting empties to trade back in?
[–] The_v@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Well your going to wish you weren't so curious with this one. Source of this information: several museum visits around 30 years ago after a pint or three, so the info might be warped.

Gin is a double-distilled 40% or higher spirit flavored with juniper + other flavors.

The source of the alcohol was any carbohydrate or starch source. Whatever was cheapest. It was mostly wheat and barley at the time but just about anything else cheap could be used like rye, turnips, etc. For the cheapest rotgut the ingredients was stuff considered unfit for animal feed (rodent feces, insect damage, molds, water damage, etc).

Since their ingredients were highly questionable, their input cost was minimal. Heating was from coal. They also started making larger batches which further reduced down the cost.

Logistics - Canals at this time period was the most important logistic. One donkey pulling a barge could move as much as 50 wagons. Tons of goods were transported cheaply and efficiently on the barges. The gin was shipped in casks/barrels like beer/ale. Bottles were very expensive and reserved for the elite.

Public sanitation consisted of a gutter on the side of the road. The entire city smelled like the open sewer it was.

The gin was not served in bottles. It was served like beer or ale into cups/mugs/communal tankards etc .. mostly earthenware, leather or wood.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Great info on the process of manufacturing. I know that some spirits have to come from some specific carb sources, but it makes sense that if its just goal of mass production of ethanol, then I suppose they weren't picky about their carb source.

Canals makes a lot of sense for higher volume cargo, thank you.

The gin was not served in bottles. It was served like beer or ale into cups/mugs/communal tankards etc … mostly earthenware, leather or wood.

Would the gin be consumed exclusively in bars/taverns where it could be dispensed into mugs? Even then, the gin had to be in a larger container to be delivered to the tavern, a barrel I presume? Were coopers in crazy high demand always making new barrels or were the empty barrels turned around and refilled?

[–] The_v@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Barrels were reused until they could no longer be repaired or salvaged. Cooper's had steady guaranteed work for their skills.

Consumption was mostly at the public houses/taverns for the lower/middle classes.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Slave labor from the Caribbean?

You're thinking of rum on that one.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I am, you're right. Where did England's gin come from?

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Never looked into making gin, but juniper berries are plenty plentiful!

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Not that I'm going to follow through with this, but this has got me thinking about all the waste streams from food production with excess carbs that could be used to make alcohol.

  • stale bread
  • skins/peels of various fruits and vegetables from processing to other products like apple juice, baby carrots, potato chips/crisps.
  • excess dairy milk production/near expiry dairy milk
  • stale popcorn that gets thrown away from movie theaters/sporting events
  • everyone uses nearly black bananas for banana bread. Why not use those carbs for fermenting into alcohol?