The major event impacting liquor in the 19th century was the growth of a very powerful temperance movement. It began by calling for moderation in consumption. In general, that meant drinking less.

This is Part of a Series

Liquor in the 20th Century.

Liquor in the 19th Century.

18th Century Liquor Developments.

Liquor in the 17th Century.

16th Century Liquor Developments.

Liquor in the 15th Century.

Earliest History of Liquor.

But the temperance movement was victim to a myth. Its supporters failed to understand that a standard drinks have the same amount of pure alcohol. That is, six-tenths of one ounce of pure alcohol. So liquor (spirits), wine or beer contains the same amount of pure alcohol!

Being naive to this fact, temperance activists called upon people to abstain from spirit beverages. Drinkers were to replace spirits with beer or dinner wine.

With the passage of time, activists came to believe that all forms of alcohol were bad, even evil. Activists began calling upon people to abstain from any and all alcohol. The activists became increasingly frustrated that many people chose to continue drinking.

So instead of encouraging people to abstain, activists began demanding that they do so. This, of course, required the police power of the state. That meant prohibition.

What began as a temperance (moderation) movement had become an immoderate prohibition movement. But the movement continued (and continues) to be called a temperance movement.

But there were other developments associated with liquor during the 19th century.

• • In Australia, “Spirits drinking dominated the colonial period in the absence of a native brewing or distilling industry.” That was because of technical difficulties in importing any alcohol other than spirits. The emergence of a local brewing in the late 1800s encouraged a transition from a spirits-drinking to a beer-drinking culture.¹
  • In the early nineteenth century the consumption of spirits dominated drinking in the U.S.²
  • The continuous still was developed. It made the distilling process cheaper and easier to control.³

Liquor in the 19th Century by Date

1803

By 1803 cocktails appear to have been invented. The first published reference to the cocktail appeared in the Farmer’s Cabinet.⁴

1816

The Sikes hydrometer became the standard instrument in Great Britain for measuring the alcoholic content of spirits. This was needed for taxation purposes. Sikes was a former customs agent.⁵

1823

• Dr. James C. “Jim” Crow is credited with developing the sour mash process. It involves adding some spent mash to a new mash. This greatly increases the consistency between batches. This process revolutionized the production of bourbon. It’s legally required in producing Tennessee whiskey.⁶
• The licensing of distilleries began in Scotland. This was part of an effort to reduce moonshining.

1828

A patent for a continuous still was awarded to Irish inventor Robert Stein.⁷

1831

Aeneas Coffey invented “continuous still” and improved the techniques in distillation. Then  the Irish inventor patented the Coffey still. This enabled distillers to produce whiskey more efficiently and at a lower cost.⁸

1838

• Spirits consumption in England was 0.53 gallons per capita, in Ireland it was 1.32 gallons, in Scotland it was 2.46, and in Australia it was 5.02.⁹
• Maine passed its Fifteen Gallon Law to reduce the availability of spirits. It did so by making that the minimum legal purchase quantity.¹⁰

1850

• The first blended whisky was produced. Andrew Usher mixed traditional pot still whiskey with that of a new batch produced in a  Coffey still.¹¹
• Local regulation of liquor sales and consumption began in Sweden. That was followed by national regulation in 1855.¹²

  

• Dr. Johann Siegert began exporting bitters from Angostura, Venezuela.¹³
• Dry gin was developed in London.¹⁴

1856

Funded by a distiller, Louis Pasteur studied the process of fermentation. He isolated yeast. That was a major event in alcohol production.¹⁵

1860

• Irish distillers began to blend whiskey.¹⁶
• There were 1,138 legal stills operating in the US.  They produced 88 million gallons of spirits per year.¹⁷

1865

• Finland outlawed home production of spirits. It outlawed rural sales and limited urban sales.¹⁸
• The Swedish city of Gothenburg awarded a retail spirits license to a single company. It was run as a trust. Five percent of the profit of the trust went to the shareholders with 95% going to the city government. The System was soon adopted by other cities in Sweden.¹⁹

Post-1865

After the American Civil War (1861-1865) beer replaced whiskey as preferred beverage of working men.²⁰

1870s

• Until the 1870s, schnaps, a distilled spirit, was included as part of wages in Denmark.²¹
• By the 1870s, the temperance movement had great influence in American life. An example shows this fact.
  In the Currier and Ives print of 1848, George Washington bid farewell to his officers. He had a toast in his hand and a supply of liquor on the table.

Reflecting the power of the temperance movement, a re-engraved version in 1876 removed all evidence of alcohol. Gone is the glass from Washington’s hand and the liquor supply is replaced with a hat.

1870

“In 1870, exactly a third of all British national tax revenues derived from the manufacture and sale of alcoholic drinks.”²²

1872

A Licensing Act was passed in the UK. It restricted hours of alcohol beverage sale in England and Wales.²³

1874

Prime Minister Gladstone lost his seat in Parliament when he attempted to restrict gin consumption.²⁴

1875

“In 1875, French absynthe drinkers downed approximately 185,000 gallons of the stuff. By 1910, that figure had increased to an astonishing 9,500,000 gallons.”²⁵

1880s

• Absinthe became very popular in France in the 1880s. Failing grape crops resulted in absinthe becoming cheaper than wine.²⁶
• The worldwide production of wine became severely impacted by the spreading of the disease phylloxera. Production and drinking whisky greatly rose outside Northern Europe.

1894

In New Zealand, beginning in 1894, a series of local-option no-license areas began to be voted in. Restrictions on the sale of liquor were put in place. No barmaids in hotels (1912). No sales after 6 P.M. (a 1917 “temporary war measure” that lasted until 1967). And no liquor at dances (1939).²⁷

More fun here…

• • Liquor Trivia: Fun Trivia about Distilled Spirits.
  • Liquor Quiz about Distilled Spirits.
  • Cooking with Liquor or Spirits.
  • Liquor Terms: Words Associated with Distilled Spirits.

Specific Spirits

• • Tequila: Myths, Terms, Facts, and More.
  • The American Whiskey Trail.
  • Bourbon Country Trail (Popular Destination in Kentucky).
  • Bourbon Words & Terms, Trivia, Facts, and More.
  • Vodka Terms, Trivia, Cocktail Recipes, Facts and More.
  • Rum Terms, Trivia, Facts and More.

Resources on Liquor in the 19th Century.

Popular Readings

• • Austin, G. Alcohol in Western Society from Antiquity to 1800. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC – Clio, 1985
  • Baker, P. The Book of Absinthe. Cambs, U.K.: Dedalus, 2001.
  • Blocker, J., et al. Alcohol and Temperance. Vol. 1. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2003,
  • Forbes, R.  Short History of the Art of Distillation. Leiden: Brill, 1948.
  • Hanson, D. Wayne Bidwell Wheeler. In: Garraty, J., and Cames, M., (eds.) Am Nat Bio. N.Y.: Praeger, 1999, vol. 23, pp. 144-145. Also Wayne Wheeler.
  • Krout, J. The Origins of Prohibition. NY: Knopf, 1925.
  • Murphy, B. The World Book of Whiskey. Chicago: Rand McNall, 1979.
  • Nelson, D. Moonshiners, Bootleggers, and Rumrunners. Osceola, WI: Motorbooks, 1995.
  • Rorabaugh, W. The Alcoholic Republic. NY: Oxford U Press, 1979.
  • Steuart, J. Wayne Wheeler, Dry Boss. NY: Fleming H. Revell, 1928.
  • Trex, E. How the temperance movement almost killed root beer. Mental Floss, 2010.
  • Winskill, P. The Temperance Movement and Its Workers. Vol. 2. London: Blackie, 1891-1892, chapter 32.

Endnotes

1   Hall, W., and Hunter, E.  Australia. In: Heath, D., (ed.) International Handbook on Alcohol and Culture. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1995. Pp. 719. P. 9-19.

2   Rorabaugh, W. The Alcoholic Republic. NY: Oxford U Press, 1979.

3 Walton, S., and Glover, B.  Encyclopedia of Wine, Beer, Spirits, and Liqueurs. London: Lorenz, 1999.

4 Graham, C. What is a Cocktail? About.Com Cocktails website.

5  Jeffs, J. Sherry. London : Faber and Faber, 1982, p. 222.

6 Kleber, J.  The Kentucky Encyclopedia.  Lexington: U Press of KY, 1992, p. 266.

7 History of the column still. Whisky Science, 2013.

8 History of the column still, ibid.

9  Samuelson, J. The History of Drink. London: Truber, 1878, p. 10.

     Temperance

10  Blocker, J., et al. Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History. Vol. 1. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2003.

11 Usher, C.  A History of the Usher family in Scotland. Edinburgh, 1956.

12  Austin, G. History of Psychoactive Substance Use. Rockville: NIDA, 1979.

13  Ford, G. Wines, Brews, & Spirits. Seattle: Ford Pub., 1996, p. 17.

14   Ford, ibid.

15  Williams, G. The Age of Miracles. Chicago: Acad Pub, 1987.

16  Ford, p. 17.

17  Nelson, D. Moonshiners, Bootleggers, and Rumrunners. Osceola, WI: Motorbooks, 1995.

18  Austin, ibid. 

19  Gordon, E. The Breakdown of the Gothenburg System. Westerville, OH: Am Issue, 1911.

20   Rorabaugh, W. The Alcoholic Republic. NY: Oxford U Press, 1979. Great coverage of liquor in the 19th century.

21  Schioler, P.  Denmark. In: Heath. Pp. 51-62. P 54.

     History

22  Gately, I. Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol. NY: Gotham, 2008, p. 326.

23  Blocker, J., et al. Alcohol and Temperance. Vol. 1. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2003, xxxi-xiv.

24   Ford, ibid.

25  Lukacs, P. Inventing Wine. NY: Norton, 2012, p. 190.

26  Baker, P. The Book of Absinthe. Cambs, UK: Dedalus, p. 8.

27   Park, J.  New Zealand. In: Heath. Pp. 2001-212. P. 204-214.