Rum a perfect fit for isolated, 18th-century Albany
Archaeologist's work preserves history of Colonial-era distillery buried in the city's downtown
The rum made in Albany in the 18th century was rotgut, infused with the off-putting taste of sap leaching from pine fermentation vats.
But the molasses-based booze was cheap and plentiful. It did the trick when it came to bored British soldiers garrisoned in Albany wishing to get drunk.The local rum worked quickly, too, to intoxicate Native Americans prior to trading sessions with Dutch colonists, who extracted better terms from beaver pelt-laden Indians when rum flowed freely compared to the dry days.
"Albany's rum distillers were more interested in quantity than quality," said archaeologist Justin DiVirgilio, who oversaw a 2001 dig that uncovered a rum distillery in downtown Albany built in the late 1750s.
The distillery, which operated until 1820, is sandwiched between Broadway, the Hudson River and Interstate 787 at the Clinton Avenue exit. The distillery is now buried beneath a city parking garage behind the 677 Prime restaurant and office building in the Quackenbush Square area.
DiVirgilio has written scholarly articles on the excavation and he presented his research during a recent talk at the State Library for the Friends of the State Library.
With a $40,000 donation from two local businessmen, two of the large rum fermentation vats from the site have been conserved and are in storage at the State Museum. They will eventually be re-assembled and displayed with other artifacts -- including logs hollowed out for the distillery's piping system -- in a future exhibit on Colonial-era commerce.
DiVirgilio, who spoke at the library on Feb. 2, conceded archaeologists were surprised when they came upon the distillery as they began their dig in advance of the parking garage construction.
Initially they thought it might have been a tannery, which written accounts of the period had located in that area. No 18th-century map showed a distillery on the site.
In fact, they discovered two in that area. They were located just 100 yards outside the north gate of a fence that surrounded the tightly plotted city of Albany to protect against Indian attack.
The distilleries outside the gate were vulnerable, but they weren't allowed to operate inside the stockade following a 1756 decree by British commanders. It seems the soldiers in the garrison were getting drunk too often on the cheap local rum, so they issued the prohibition.
Hence, the distilleries were banished to the hinterlands. In this case, a resourceful distiller built two plants a stone's throw beyond the gate.
The larger of the two measured 60 feet by 36 feet. It contained six large wooden fermentation vats, each 8 feet wide and 6 feet tall with a 3,000-gallon capacity.
Rum was made from sugar cane harvested with slave labor in the West Indies, from which cane juice was extracted, boiled and refined into molasses -- the main ingredient in rum.
When Dutch colonists first came to Albany in the mid-17th century, beer was their drink of choice. After the British took over later in that century, they brought their taste for rum with them. Rum didn't require cultivation of grain crops and was cheaper to produce, so it proved a good match for the isolated trading post that Albany was at the time.
Rum was so plentiful in the mid-18th century, it was said, that it was as good as cash in the city. Distillers found it a lucrative commodity to sell to British soldiers garrisoned along the Hudson and Mohawk river corridors across New York.
Rum prices peaked at 100 shillings per gallon in 1779, but a glut of distillers caused the cost to crash to just 8 shillings a gallon by 1783.
The days of rum's ascendancy in Albany were numbered.
The old Dutch families that started rum distilling here -- Dow, Quackenbush and Bogardus -- sold out and new owners couldn't continue to turn a profit with such paltry prices.
From a peak of production of more than 50,000 gallons annually, one rum distillery shut down in 1810 and the other a decade later.
By then, new immigrant groups were arriving with a hankering for whiskey.
As a backdrop to DiVirgilio's illustrated lecture, State Library staff put together a display of printed archival materials related to the Albany rum trade of the mid- to late-18th century.
For instance, a 1758 account in a journal belonging to general trader Robert Sanders, a son-in-law of Peter Schuyler, in the library's collection described a transaction with Mr. Klock.
Sanders purchased from Klock pelts of fox, otter, eight raccoons and 21 "fleshy" beavers. In return, Klock bought an iron pot and six gallons of rum.
The Albany rum may have had a piney, turpentine-laced aftertaste. But it was cheap. And, by God, it was potent.
The rum made in Albany in the 18th century was rotgut, infused with the off-putting taste of sap leaching from pine fermentation vats.
But the molasses-based booze was cheap and plentiful. It did the trick when it came to bored British soldiers garrisoned in Albany wishing to get drunk.The local rum worked quickly, too, to intoxicate Native Americans prior to trading sessions with Dutch colonists, who extracted better terms from beaver pelt-laden Indians when rum flowed freely compared to the dry days.
"Albany's rum distillers were more interested in quantity than quality," said archaeologist Justin DiVirgilio, who oversaw a 2001 dig that uncovered a rum distillery in downtown Albany built in the late 1750s.
The distillery, which operated until 1820, is sandwiched between Broadway, the Hudson River and Interstate 787 at the Clinton Avenue exit. The distillery is now buried beneath a city parking garage behind the 677 Prime restaurant and office building in the Quackenbush Square area.
DiVirgilio has written scholarly articles on the excavation and he presented his research during a recent talk at the State Library for the Friends of the State Library.
With a $40,000 donation from two local businessmen, two of the large rum fermentation vats from the site have been conserved and are in storage at the State Museum. They will eventually be re-assembled and displayed with other artifacts -- including logs hollowed out for the distillery's piping system -- in a future exhibit on Colonial-era commerce.
DiVirgilio, who spoke at the library on Feb. 2, conceded archaeologists were surprised when they came upon the distillery as they began their dig in advance of the parking garage construction.
Initially they thought it might have been a tannery, which written accounts of the period had located in that area. No 18th-century map showed a distillery on the site.
In fact, they discovered two in that area. They were located just 100 yards outside the north gate of a fence that surrounded the tightly plotted city of Albany to protect against Indian attack.
The distilleries outside the gate were vulnerable, but they weren't allowed to operate inside the stockade following a 1756 decree by British commanders. It seems the soldiers in the garrison were getting drunk too often on the cheap local rum, so they issued the prohibition.
Hence, the distilleries were banished to the hinterlands. In this case, a resourceful distiller built two plants a stone's throw beyond the gate.
The larger of the two measured 60 feet by 36 feet. It contained six large wooden fermentation vats, each 8 feet wide and 6 feet tall with a 3,000-gallon capacity.
Rum was made from sugar cane harvested with slave labor in the West Indies, from which cane juice was extracted, boiled and refined into molasses -- the main ingredient in rum.
When Dutch colonists first came to Albany in the mid-17th century, beer was their drink of choice. After the British took over later in that century, they brought their taste for rum with them. Rum didn't require cultivation of grain crops and was cheaper to produce, so it proved a good match for the isolated trading post that Albany was at the time.
Rum was so plentiful in the mid-18th century, it was said, that it was as good as cash in the city. Distillers found it a lucrative commodity to sell to British soldiers garrisoned along the Hudson and Mohawk river corridors across New York.
Rum prices peaked at 100 shillings per gallon in 1779, but a glut of distillers caused the cost to crash to just 8 shillings a gallon by 1783.
The days of rum's ascendancy in Albany were numbered.
The old Dutch families that started rum distilling here -- Dow, Quackenbush and Bogardus -- sold out and new owners couldn't continue to turn a profit with such paltry prices.
From a peak of production of more than 50,000 gallons annually, one rum distillery shut down in 1810 and the other a decade later.
By then, new immigrant groups were arriving with a hankering for whiskey.
As a backdrop to DiVirgilio's illustrated lecture, State Library staff put together a display of printed archival materials related to the Albany rum trade of the mid- to late-18th century.
For instance, a 1758 account in a journal belonging to general trader Robert Sanders, a son-in-law of Peter Schuyler, in the library's collection described a transaction with Mr. Klock.
Sanders purchased from Klock pelts of fox, otter, eight raccoons and 21 "fleshy" beavers. In return, Klock bought an iron pot and six gallons of rum.
The Albany rum may have had a piney, turpentine-laced aftertaste. But it was cheap. And, by God, it was potent.
Comments