Gin and Pure Water. 't Haantje and the Smal Weesp, Weesp, The Netherlands
Looking back on the past year on New Year's Eve of 1639, master distiller Peter Emilius must have been quite pleased. The canalised river in our photo, the Smal Weesp, had that year been joined with three other waterways as a barge canal connecting the Amstel River in Amsterdam to the Vecht at Weesp just beyond the bridge in the distance. And that was exactly what the distilleries of Weesp needed for the efficient transport of raw materials and their products, beer but especially high quality gin. A manuscript - the Onderricht van eenighe grove distilation - with Emilius' special recipe for good gin of 1630 is preserved in the local archive where it was relatively recently rediscovered.
Gin had been distilled from grain in the city of Amsterdam but its increased production at the beginning of the seventeenth century had much aggravated the stench pollution of the process. Distilleries were banned from the city and set up anew at Weesp - about 10 kms away. There the pure water of the Vecht River was an additional boon to both brewing and distilling.
More or less at the same time the Polish-Swedish Wars (1600-1629) caused international grain prices to skyrocket. The water authorities around Amsterdam decided to drain two lakes, the Bijlmermeer and the Diemermeer, and the new polder lands soon became grain fields. But that far less expensive grain had to be transported efficiently and to that end the new adjoining barge canal was useful. Moreover, it was also a quick way of public transport; there were four barges daily for that purpose with reasonably priced tickets.
Weesp's gin was much called for and the industry greatly expanded especially when the Dutch East Indies Trading Company (VOC) became a major customer to supply its huge fleet of trading ships. Distillation fell back though in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and gin production in Weesp failed. But in 2014 creative miller Christian Pfeiffer discovered Emilius' recipe and after trial and error was able to market Anker Weesp in 2015.
The windmill in the photo is called 't Haantje (=little rooster, cockerel). it's a mere facade and not a working mill, but pretty anyway. For a time in the nineteenth century it served as a grain mill.
Now for my G&T!
Gin and Pure Water. 't Haantje and the Smal Weesp, Weesp, The Netherlands
Looking back on the past year on New Year's Eve of 1639, master distiller Peter Emilius must have been quite pleased. The canalised river in our photo, the Smal Weesp, had that year been joined with three other waterways as a barge canal connecting the Amstel River in Amsterdam to the Vecht at Weesp just beyond the bridge in the distance. And that was exactly what the distilleries of Weesp needed for the efficient transport of raw materials and their products, beer but especially high quality gin. A manuscript - the Onderricht van eenighe grove distilation - with Emilius' special recipe for good gin of 1630 is preserved in the local archive where it was relatively recently rediscovered.
Gin had been distilled from grain in the city of Amsterdam but its increased production at the beginning of the seventeenth century had much aggravated the stench pollution of the process. Distilleries were banned from the city and set up anew at Weesp - about 10 kms away. There the pure water of the Vecht River was an additional boon to both brewing and distilling.
More or less at the same time the Polish-Swedish Wars (1600-1629) caused international grain prices to skyrocket. The water authorities around Amsterdam decided to drain two lakes, the Bijlmermeer and the Diemermeer, and the new polder lands soon became grain fields. But that far less expensive grain had to be transported efficiently and to that end the new adjoining barge canal was useful. Moreover, it was also a quick way of public transport; there were four barges daily for that purpose with reasonably priced tickets.
Weesp's gin was much called for and the industry greatly expanded especially when the Dutch East Indies Trading Company (VOC) became a major customer to supply its huge fleet of trading ships. Distillation fell back though in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and gin production in Weesp failed. But in 2014 creative miller Christian Pfeiffer discovered Emilius' recipe and after trial and error was able to market Anker Weesp in 2015.
The windmill in the photo is called 't Haantje (=little rooster, cockerel). it's a mere facade and not a working mill, but pretty anyway. For a time in the nineteenth century it served as a grain mill.
Now for my G&T!