Researching Prohibition-era "Bathtub Gin"

[Grayson_Stewart]

Brought over from old forum

VikingLoki
09/22/04 06:37 AM

Researching Prohibition-era "Bathtub Gin"

I hope somebody here can help me out with some research. I just purchased a house that has an authentic Speakeasy in the basement. Original 1920 bar fixtures, coat check & projection room.. it's really cool. It also has a full bathroom with original 1920 sink, tub & pull-chain toilet. Since it won't ever be used for bathing/grooming, I want to keep it as an authentic 1920's time capsule. Antique 20's toiletries and, of course, set it up as if a batch of Prohibition-era "bathtub gin" is about to be produced.

I'm only finding very general descriptions of the infamous "bathtub gin" process and almost no detail on exactly what sort of equipment used at the time. Can anyone here help?

Also note, this is for authentic decor only. I'm not actually going to make and drink the stuff. If it was common to produce truly unhealthy rot-gut gin during the Prohibition era, then that's what I want to have set up.


Anonymous
09/22/04 02:54 PM

Re: Researching Prohibition-era "Bathtub Gin" new [re: VikingLoki]

i got an idea! dont do it


Knuklehead
09/22/04 03:47 PM

Re: Researching Prohibition-era "Bathtub Gin" new [re: VikingLoki]

Like unicorns, bathtub gin appears to be mythological. there are no living witnesses, nor are there chronicles to support its existence, yet the legend persists that during prohibition a wicked, illicit form of gin was commonly mad in bathtubs. There are wicked, illicit things you can do in a bathtub, but making gin is not one of them. You can ferment a thin mash, or sugar wine in a tub, distill it and make gin out of the alcohol and this appears to be what give birth to the legend. A bathtub is actually a pretty good fermentation vessel and since gin is only alcohol and water flavored with juniper berries, it's the easiest of the commercial boozes to imitate. The evil reputation of this stuff was not caused by the bathtub, but by the shortcuts taken by the bootleggers.
Good whiskey is distilled several times, charcoal filtered or aged in charred barrels to remove impurities, including the headache, nausea and diarrhea producing fusel oils. Single run whiskey from a sugar water mash will be crystal clear, 80-120 proof and just loaded with fusel oils. Drop a couple of juniper berries in it or boiled extract and you could have it bottled and in a speakeasy while it was sit was still warm. "23 skidoo" and be sick tomorrow too. The old time rustic American moonshines called this first run whiskey pop skull for a good reason.

BathTub Gin #1

1 pint 180 proof ethyl or grain alcohol
1 pint distilled water
5 to 10 each Juniper berries

Steep, soak or simmer the juniper berries to extract the flavor. Mix the above ingredients and age for thirty minutes. Put on your fedora, "soot suit" or flapper dress, blow the dust off your Tommy gun, rouge your kneecaps and roll your stockings.


Quoted form "The Akaskain Bootlegger's Bible"

I am Canadian

Edited by Knuklehead (09/22/04 04:09 PM)


puggy
09/22/04 04:01 PM

Re: Researching Prohibition-era "Bathtub Gin" new [re: Knuklehead]

I just spit my coffee onto the desk when I got to the part "age for thirty minutes"!!
-puggy


Anonymous
09/22/04 05:45 PM

Re: Researching Prohibition-era "Bathtub Gin" new [re: puggy]

whats wrong with that. just trying to help some people out


Knuklehead
09/22/04 07:29 PM

Re: Researching Prohibition-era "Bathtub Gin" new [re: Anonymous]

what?

I am Canadian

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Anonymous
(Unregistered)
09/22/04 07:53 PM

Re: Researching Prohibition-era "Bathtub Gin" new [re: Knuklehead]

talking to puggy not you nucklehead

puggy
09/23/04 12:17 PM

Re: Researching Prohibition-era "Bathtub Gin" new [re: Anonymous]

I am not sure what anon is talking about "helping someone out"?? It was funny to say age something for 30 minutes. You will probably get it when your older. And don't forget to register a user. I can imagine a time in the near future when the admins get fed up with this anon guy and only allow registered users to post (of course the information would still be available to everyone, anyone can read the posts, but only registered users could post). Wouldn't that just be great. Maybe I should start a thread in the off-topic forums to see if we could get something like this feature turned on!
-puggy


cartouche
09/23/04 03:27 PM

Re: Researching Prohibition-era "Bathtub Gin" new [re: puggy]

I think the subject has already been approched.
You must have missed when it came up and now you can't read it because it has been deleted. (if I recall correctly)
Any-way the idea has been rejected by the administration.

C.

Anonymous
09/23/04 04:35 PM

Re: Researching Prohibition-era "Bathtub Gin" [re: puggy]

i think youre mistaking me for someone else, im 29 next week.

grayson_stewart
09/23/04 06:09 PM

Re: Researching Prohibition-era "Bathtub Gin" new [re: Anonymous]

LMAO...the bot from the old chat area has signed on as anonymous!


Good things may come to those who wait. But only the things left by those who hustle.


Anonymous
09/23/04 08:48 PM

Re: Researching Prohibition-era "Bathtub Gin" new [re: Knuklehead]

From what I find, apparently the biggest use of "the tub" involved de-denaturing alcohol, which was legal to buy at the time. This seems to be quite the lost art, especially since nobody in their right mind would do such a thing today. All that I can find is the statement "they would remove the chemicals from denatured alcohol". Can anyone elaborate on that statement? How would one do this? Isn't the point of the denaturing agents that it has the same evaporation temp so it can't be distilled?

And before the purists chime in, I'm sure you can't get all the denaturing agents out and it was surely unhealthy and foul tasting. No need to go there.

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FourwayModerator
(old hand)
09/23/04 09:52 PM

Re: Researching Prohibition-era "Bathtub Gin" new [re: Anonymous]

they denature now with some very evil very hard to remove stuff.
it is possible that back then they just used methanol.

Gin was mother's milk to her. - George Bernard Shaw

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Knuklehead
(enthusiast)
09/25/04 11:03 PM

Re: Researching Prohibition-era "Bathtub Gin" new [re: Anonymous]

Sorry I can't really be of any help. I just copied down what was in my book that's all. It said nothing about de-denaturing of the alcohol. I would think that if back in the day they use methanol they could have just stilled it out since methanol has a lower boiling point. What they would have done in a bathtub is beyond me. Maybe there line of thinking was that the large open surface area of a bath tub would allow for a higher rate of evaporation in hopes that the more volatile contaminates in the booze would be removed.

I am Canadian

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theholymackerel
(addict)
09/26/04 06:19 AM

Re: Researching Prohibition-era "Bathtub Gin" new [re: Knuklehead]

Or maybe a bathtub is simply a large vessel thats common to most any house.

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cartouche
(member)
09/26/04 08:16 AM

Re: Researching Prohibition-era "Bathtub Gin" new [re: theholymackerel]

Good one !

C.

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bees
(newbie)
09/27/04 01:34 AM

Re: Researching Prohibition-era "Bathtub Gin" new [re: cartouche]

I allways thought that bathtub gin was when the cut good product with what ever they had that would give it a kick...pour it all into a tub and add water then maybe some gas or some anti feeze whatever to get a back to that concentration one thinks of when they drink rot gut....but this is what I found about the subject "During prohibition, the Americans used a different recipe to produce Gin: by taking the poisons out of denatured alcohol to recover the ethyl alcohol. This was then flavored with juniper, diluted, and bottled. The name for this was "bathtub gin" and it probably tasted like the name. There were seventy-five different formulas to denature the alcohol, so if the purification process was not done by a skilled chemist, vile, and even deadly results occurred. In those days the meaning of the line "to die for" was totally different from today's meaning. A little more literal."