I'm thirsty

[crockett]

What is cherry bounce? :hmm: What about high wine? :shocked2:

 

[smokehouseman]

CHERRY BOUNCE
1 qt. cherries
1 qt. vodka
2 c. sugar
Combine ingredients and let stand for 3 months, stirring occasionally; crock works well. Drain cherries. Squeeze out excess juice. Bottle. Serve chilled with or without sweet or sour soda.

It's a distiller's term. All spirits start out the same way...as a fermented wash derived from sugar either from cane/beet or converted from grain starches like corn, barley, etc.
The wash is distilled once and produces a distillate of higher alcoholic content. This distillate is referred to as "low wines" One of two things can be done here. The low wines can be redistilled a second time, resulting in "high wines" which can be kept, casked, and aged accordingly. They can also be run through a reflux column (many multiple distillatons in one still) to produce neutral spirit such as everclear or vodka.

Straight from Google......

 

[Rod Lassey]

High wine in the fur trade reference is most any very high proof alcohol. Could be grain alcohol, rum, etc. It would be cut with water for trade. In 1809 Alexander Henry the younger gives these ratios for different tribes:

Blackfoot rum: 4 to 5 quarts High Wine in a 9 gallon keg, then top off with water.

Crees and Assiniboinnes: 6 qts. H.W. to the 9 gal. keg.

Saulteaux (Ojibwe): 8 to 9 qts. H.W. to the 9 gal. keg.

Rod

 

[Blizzard of '93]

?! the Blackfoot tribe was either very gullible or couldn't hold their booze very well!

 

[dsuursoo]

or had really lousy pelts to trade...

 

[Birdman]

Nay good sirs the Feet just got that much meaner when drunk then the rest. They were good traders n needed time to trade off goods to the Europeans. They held their drink well

 

[dsuursoo]

hah! fair. me, i'm a rum man, so i guess if it came up, i could always trade grog for pelts...

why, yes, i do carry a bottle of rum and a few limes into the forest with me when i go roving. just because i'm out in the wilderness doesn't mean i can't be comfortable. put the watchman's chair together, mix up a tot of grog, and watch the woods as the sun sets. a wonderful thing.

i'll admit the cherry bounce sounds tasty too.

now, question... by 'high proof' for trading, how high? 80? 120? higher? i'm leaning towards nearly 200 proof(pure alcohol), it'd stretch farther... and that would put the traded booze in the neighborhood of 12% by volume, so about 24, 30 proof tops. not too shabby.

course, the angel's share when you're dealing in 200 proof is kind of steep(evaporation sucks).

 

[Rod Lassey]

It was up around the 180-190 proof range, as it is straight out of the distillery. Whether made from grain (whiskey) or sugar cane (rum), it was pretty much straight alcohol---no point in shipping water. Transportation weight was everything in the fur trade.

Henry notes that the reason for the difference between tribes was whether or not they'd had much exposure to alcohol. Those with more exposure demanded higher proof alcohol. Those who weren't used to the effects got less--and it also made for more profit for the company.

Rod

 

[dsuursoo]

hm...

step 1) go to indian territory.
setp 2) give them guns and alcohol in exchange for high quality pelts and trade goods.
step 3)???
step 4) profit!