The ‘invention’ of vodka and the beginning of production

Distillation is attributed to the ancient Romans, the alchemists of Alexandria and the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick.
The process of making vodka was first described in the 9th century by Ragez, a doctor at Baghdad City Hospital, who used it for therapeutic purposes.
The ability to burn vodka spread to Europe in the 10th and 11th centuries, when it was practiced by monks in monasteries.
However, modern distillation did not reach Europe until the 14th century through the Arabs.
Al-kuḩūl means ‘light volatile powder’ in Arabic.
The alchemist monks, who distilled wine in an attempt to make the elixir of eternal life, began to call the vapours from distillation the spirit of wine – spiritus vini.

Rye – was the most profitable and most used
Wheat – gave the best taste and strongest vodka
1 bushel of barley malt = 7 pints of vodka
1 bushel of rye malt = 8 pints of vodka
1 bushel of wheat malt = 12 pints of vodka
1 Tallinn bushel = 36 hops = 44.2 l = 28.665 kg

The first written reports of burning vodka in Estonia date back to 1485 when the statutes of the Great Guild Brewery Company of Tallinn prohibited landowners from selling vodka in the city.
This showed that vodka was burned in manors as early as the 15th century.
Only members of the Great Guild – merchants and their widows – were allowed to make vodka for sale.
Burning vodka was not suitable for the city, as the raw materials (grain, clean water and firewood) had to be transported from afar and the production residue – waste – had to be taken out of the city.
Burning vodka was also flammable and had to be approved by the neighbours.
Therefore, burning vodka spread from town to country.

In the 16th century, the right to burn vodka was extended to pharmacists, so in 1550, Wolfgang Holzwirt, a pharmacist at Revel, received permission from the rad to sell vodka in his pharmacy.

In 1669, King Charles XI of Sweden granted the right to burn vodka to Revel’s barbers.
Initially, vodka was considered more of a medicine than an intoxicating drink.

Often herbs were added to the vodka in the third brew and various medication vodkas were obtained.
One of the most famous of these is the Benedictine invented in 1510 by Dom Bernardo Vincelli, a monk of the Benedictine Order.

Vodka burning oven with an incinerator

This small apparatus is used to distil wine, beer and other light alcoholic beverages in order to determine their alcoholic strength.

Production and sale of vodka as a vital source of income.

In the middle of the 18th century, the consumption of vodka became more widespread and largely pushed beer aside.
This was due to the restriction of burning vodka, the increase in the population and the increase in the purchasing power of the peasantry.
In a tavern, a pint of vodka cost 15 kopecks or 18 roubles a barrel, of which around 2 roubles was the cost of sales.
Thus, the manor got 16 roubles from the price of the barrel.
At the end of the 18th century, ca 20-25% of the manor’s vodka production was marketed through taverns.
Taverns usually sold vodka of 50º strength.
The strength of the vodka was measured with a silver dish filled to the brim with vodka and then ignited.
The vodka was the right strength when half of the dish burned down.
There was another way to determine the strength of vodka: vodka was shaken either in a glass or in a bottle – the larger the air bubbles, the stronger the vodka.

1 barrel = 40 pails = 492 litres
1 barrel (small barrel) = 4 anchors = 12 pails = 147,588 litres
1 anchor = 3 pails = 30 pints = 36,897 litres
1 pint = 10 pails = 12.3 litres
1 pint = 4 quarterns = 1.23 litres
1 quartern = 0.3075 litres
1 pail = 1 eimer

Burning vodka had a positive effect on the development of agriculture.
When the grain was burned for vodka, one-third of it remained as animal feed.
The oxen were fed with the waste, grown for the St. Petersburg market.
Manure from oxen increased grain yields as fields were better fertilised.
When 1 barrel of vodka was burned every day during the winter, 50 oxen were fattened.
In this case, the annual net profit from oxen was 450-750 roubles.
As the burning required a lot of fuel, many forest areas were unfortunately destroyed.

Burning vodka became one of the most important parts of the manor economy due to the opening of the Russian market in 1766.
After that, 44-48% of local vodka production was sold to Russia in grain procurement.
The vodka had to be handed over at an agreed location, usually in St. Petersburg, and had to meet certain requirements.
The vodka should not have a bad smell and it should not be muddy or scorched.
The profits from burning vodka were tax-free.
With the money earned from selling vodka, magnificent stone manor ensembles were built all over Estonia and it has also been called ‘the silver rain all over Estonia’.

Model of an 18th-century distillery

The new standard, the creation of factories and the introduction of excise duties.

As the construction of the distillery was expensive and the technology was rudimentary, scholars, including Georg Friedrich Parrot, the first rector of the University of Tartu, tried to improve the technology for burning vodka.
In 1850, land surveyor Andreas Lambert developed a steam-powered distillation unit and a new type of cooler, which for the first time in Estonia produced pure alcohol.
The introduction of excise tax on alcohol in 1863 led to the transition to industrial alcohol production.
As the law favoured factories working with modern technology, the number of companies decreased, while productivity and total output increased.
If in 1860 there were 527 distilleries in Estonia, then in 1900 there were only 248.
The volume of production in the same period had increased fivefold.
The establishment of distilleries laid the foundation for the emergence of the mechanical industry in Estonia.

In 1895, Russian Tsar Alexander III convened a commission to develop a new Russian vodka standard.
The head of the commission was Dmitri Mendeleev, who said that a litre of vodka should weigh 953 grams at room temperature and be exactly 40 degrees strong.

In 1840, potatoes became the main raw material for spirits.

The use of potatoes was encouraged because you received significantly more per field area than grain and it had a higher starch content.
This made it possible to expand alcohol production and lower the cost of alcohol.

Since there were better conditions for cultivating potatoes in northern Estonia, the production of spirits also concentrated there.

As the manors also bought potatoes grown on farms, potato growing became an important source of income for peasants.
At the same time, potatoes became an everyday phenomenon on peasants’ tables.

The basis for collecting excise duty was the number of raw materials consumed in the distillery.

The law determined how much alcohol should be obtained from one pound of potatoes, malt or grain and set the tax amount according to the number of raw materials consumed in the factory.

If the factory received more alcohol from the raw material than required by the norm, the alcohol produced in excess of the norm remained tax-free.
Thus, factory owners were interested in improving the technology to increase the volume of alcohol obtained from raw materials.

From 1863-1900, excise tax accounted for 73-92% of the wholesale price of alcohol.
Excise duty on the degree of alcohol in 1863-1900:
1863 – 4 kopeks
1864 – 5 kopeks
1869 – 6 kopeks
1873 – 7 kopeks
1880 – 8 kopeks
1886 – 9 kopeks
1888 – 9.25 kopeks
1892 – 10 kopeks
1900 – 11 kopeks

Apparatus for measuring alcohol content

Distillation apparatus model

Vodka bottling machine

In 1938, a distillery belonging to the Union of Potato Cooperatives, the most modern in the Baltic States, was launched in Rakvere.
This factory produced the world’s strongest – 98° – alcohol.
The result is also recorded in the Guinness Book of Records.