Meanwhile, royalty and high society sipped tamely as more of a fashion statement than an emotional or psychological release. Five years later, the government started to realize that society had a problem on its hands. The people of England began to either go totally insane or just die. Gin distillation was, again, a free-for-all, with things like turpentine, sulphuric acid, and sawdust going into the juice. Only two official licenses were issued in the next seven years.
The business of informing, however, boomed in tandem. Things took a turn for the weirder in , hallmarked by a series of very dark etchings read: propaganda by William Hogarth. These etchings came in response to stories like that of Judith Defour, a silk-thread spinner from Spitalfields. Defour was supposedly driven so utterly mad by her gin addiction that, in , she took her 2-year-old daughter Mary to a field with a friend named Sukey.
The pair then proceeded to sell the clothing for money to purchase a quartern of gin. Poor Mary died and her mother was promptly sentenced to death by hanging. They were right.
Riots broke out and the law was widely and openly broken. About this time, 11 million gallons of gin were distilled in London, which was over 20 times the figure and has been estimated to be the equivalent of 14 gallons for each adult male.
But within six years of the Gin Act being introduced, only two distillers took out licences, yet, over the same period of time, production rose by almost fifty per cent. The prohibitive duty was gradually reduced and finally abolished in The Gin Act was more successful, however.
It forced distillers to sell only to licensed retailers and brought gin shops under the jurisdiction of local magistrates. Gin in the 18th century was produced in pot stills, and was somewhat sweeter than the London gin known today. In London in the early 18th century, much gin was distilled legally in residential houses there were estimated to be 1, residential stills in , and was often flavoured with turpentine — to generate resinous woody notes in addition to the juniper.
Another common variation was to distil in the presence of sulphuric acid. Although the acid itself does not distil, it imparts the additional aroma of diethyl ether to the resulting gin. Sulphuric acid subtracts one water molecule from 2 ethanol molecules to create diethyl ether, which also forms an azeotrope with ethanol, and therefore distils with it.
Dutch or Belgian gin, also known as jenever or genever , evolved from malt wine spirits, and is a distinctly different drink from later styles of gin. Schiedam, a city in the province of South Holland, is famous for its jenever -producing history. It is typically lower in alcohol content and distinctly different from gins distilled strictly from neutral spirits e. London dry gin. The 19th century gave rise to a style of gin referred to as Old Tom Gin , which is a sweeter style of gin, often containing sugar.
Old Tom gin faded in popularity by the early 20th century. London Dry gin is usually distilled in the presence of accenting citrus elements, such as lemon and bitter orange peel, as well as a subtle combination of other spices, including any of anise, angelica root and seed, orris root, liquorice root, cinnamon, almond, cubeb, savory, lime peel, grapefruit peel, dragon eye, saffron, baobab, frankincense, coriander, grains of paradise, nutmeg and cassia bark.
In tropical British colonies gin was used to mask the bitter flavour of quinine, which was the only effective anti-malarial compound. By this time the battle for trade was hotting up between the beer shops and the gin shops. These were designed to be an escape from home.
In the mids the temperance movement started. Whilst it failed to make a big impact, it did encourage much debate on drink which was still a problem. By this led to an Act licensing the sale of beer and wine spirits were still licensed. Two years later a further Act was introduced which would have halved the number of public houses in the country, but public opinion was outraged.
Pushed underground by government regulation, the illegally distilled gin was often much more alcoholic and likely to cause poisoning. The print depicts a street filled with rowdy, drunken gin drinkers who look to have particularly miserable lives.
Also, informers on gin sellers were often the targets of violence. It was replaced in by a new Gin Act. This was to ensure gin was only sold from reputable premises. Death of the gin craze As a result of this new trend law, the gin craze began to wane. In addition, a series of poor harvests increased the price of grain. This made it much more difficult to afford to produce gin. Not only that, but as the population of the UK increased, wages stagnated. Suddenly the British public could no longer afford to drink gin so much and the craze died.
The government attempted to make this arrangement permanent by temporarily banning people from manufacturing spirits using domestic grain. At the same time, they passed laws more firmly regulating the production of gin.
By the turn of the 19th Century, the gin craze had all but ended. There was only one major gin manufacturer at that point: Alexander Gordon. LetTheGamesBeGin pic. Return of gin Some time between and , the gin distillers invented the column still. This device made distilling gin easier, cheaper, and cleaner than ever before.
In response to an increasingly cheap liquor license for pubs, gin sellers began to consider alternative experiences they could offer. The answer was the Victorian gin palace. Gin palaces sold gin exclusively and became known for being brightly lit places, in contrast to pubs.
Gin became the preserve of the sophisticated, while beer was the opposite. The situation had completely flipped from the days of the gin craze. Elsewhere, out in the tropical British colonies gin had found another use. Colonists used gin to mask the bitter taste of quinine which they drank to resist malaria.
Quinine was dissolved in carbonated water to become what we now know as tonic water. And thus, gin and tonic was born.
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