Heritage and Process

American spirits distilling grew from European and colonial traditions and the age-old knowledge that grains could be milled into a fine meal, mixed with malted barley, and fermented and distilled into alcohol spirits. Traditional copper alembics, or pot stills, were augmented by innovative vertical column stills to increase production. Traditional lore often attributes Kentucky’s bourbon production to the presence of pure, iron-free limestone water. More likely, early distillers who wished to produce a superior, higher-quality whiskey than that made in the Corn Belt were responsible for Kentucky’s preeminence in the contemporary distilling industry.

Kentucky’s Distilling Heritage

American spirits distilling was based on European and colonial traditions and the age-old knowledge that by milling grain into a fine meal and mixing it with malted barley, yeast, and water, one could convert starches into sugars, which could be fermented and distilled into alcohol spirits. Migrants from Europe and the coastal colonies established distilleries in Kentucky before statehood in 1792, and an estimated 2,200 distilleries were in operation by 1810. The vocation evolved from subsistence-scale farmers and millers who made corn whiskey into twenty-first-century commercial businesses that produce bourbon on an industrial scale. The change from craft to industrial distilling was accompanied by distinctive changes in the landscape as distillers adopted steam engines and abandoned water-power sites; farmers expanded grain production; timber was harvested to make barrel staves; and manufactures built steam engines, boats, and railroads. Whiskey production increasingly focused on the Bluegrass and Pennyroyal regions and Ohio Valley cities. The changeover was enabled by transportation improvements such as turnpikes, railroads, and steamboats. Production was increasingly controlled by internal revenue personnel, and distillers were harried by temperance advocates. By the eve of Prohibition in 1919, only 182 distilleries remained in operation.

RETENÇÃO DE CAROTENOIDES EM MILHO BIOFORTIFICADO APÓS MOAGEM VIA SECA E DURANTE ARMAZENAMENTO DOS SEUS DERIVADOS

RESUMO - O presente estudo teve por objetivo determinar a retenção de carotenoides em milho biofortificado com carotenoides precursores de vitamina A (ProVA) processado através da moagem a seco e nos derivados canjica, fubá e creme de milho, durante o armazenamento pós-processamento por 24 dias. O perfil de carotenoides foi determinado por cromatografia líquida de alta eficiência (CLAE) e o total de carotenoides precursores de vitamina A foi quantificado a partir das concentrações de α-caroteno, β-caroteno e β-criptoxantina. Os produtos da moagem via seca dos grãos de milho biofortificado (BRS 4104) apresentaram médias percentuais de retenção real de carotenoides totais (CT) de 75,37% (canjica), 73,51% (fubá) e 59,47% (creme) em relação aos grãos, enquanto para carotenoides ProVA os percentuais foram de 74,20% (canjica), 75,21% (fubá) e 60,55% (creme), evidenciando, em média, 30% de perdas como efeito da moagem a seco na retenção de carotenoides presentes nos grãos de milho. Durante o armazenamento ao longo do período de 24 dias ocorreu diminuição linear da retenção de CT e de ProVA nos três derivados estudados. Menores concentrações de carotenoides totais e ProVA nos produtos da moagem via seca de milho (canjica, fubá e creme de milho) e a redução na retenção dessas substâncias observadas durante armazenamento devem ser consideradas, quando da utilização de produtos do milho biofortificado como estratégia complementar em programas nutricionais para redução da deficiência de vitamina A em humanos.Palavras-chave: Zea mays, processamento, degradação, pró-vitamina A, compostos bioativos.CAROTENOIDS RETENTION IN BIOFORTIFIED MAIZE PROCESSED THROUGH DRY MILLING AND DURING STORAGE OF THE RESULTING PRODUCTS ABSTRACT - The objetive of the present study was to determine the retention of carotenoids in maize biofortified with vitamin A precursors (ProVA) processed through dry milling and during storage of the products flaking grits, corn meal and fine meal. Carotenoid profile was determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and the total vitamin A precursor carotenoids quantified considering the concentration of α-carotene, β-carotene and β-cryptoxanthin. Dry-milling products of ProVA maize BRS 4104 showed mean true retention for total carotenoids of 75.37% (flaking grits), 73.51% (corn meal) and 59.47% (fine meal), whereas retention for ProVA carotenoids were 74.20% (flaking grits), 75.21% (corn meal) and 60.55% (fine meal) revealing 30% of losses on average due to dry milling effect on the retention of carotenoids present in the maize grains. During the 24-day storage period there was a linear decrease in the retention of total carotenoids and ProVA in the three maize biofortified products. Reduced total carotenoids and ProVA contents in the maize dry milling products (flaking grits, corn meal and fine meal) compared to the whole kernels as well as the important losses of these substances during storage is recommended to be taking into account when using biofortified maize as a complementary strategy in nutrition programs focused on improvement of vitamin A deficiency in humans.Keywords: Zea mays, processing, degradation, pro-vitamin A, bioactive compounds.

Slow Music

This chapter explores how technologies can be both enabling and crippling. While music technologies—for centuries—have afforded us the means of creating and performing music, sharing our deepest emotions, there are losses associated with the advent of ubiquitous technologies. Technologies can engender a loss of silence, information overload, excessive consumption, and lack of connection to the natural world. Some scholars have suggested that these negative outcomes can be counteracted, by replacing the information overload from screens with the drama presented by nature, by combatting overconsumption by living well with less, by privileging the natural world over the virtual world, by embracing silence and by finding time for music. The chapter explores the slow food metaphor as a way of counteracting the negative aspects of technology. Music educators are challenged to explore what slow music would be like, savored like a fine meal and influenced by local possibilities.

Treatment of Distillery Waste by Anaerobic Digestion

In the production of distilled alcoholic beverages, malted or unmalted grains such as rye, barley, corn and wheat are milled into a fine meal which is mashed, cooked and fermented. The resultant beer or wash, is then distilled in a column still. The product of this first distillation is a distillate of low alcoholic content, called low wines. The process separates the alcohol from the liquid leaving a waste residue of yeast and unfermentable matter, commonly referred to as thin stillage. This residue is the major waste produced in a distillery.

Nutritional Methods for Phytophagous Insects

In biochemical studies of resistance of plants to insects knowledge of the nutritional needs of the insect is required. Some methods that have been developed or were adapted from studies with large animals are displayed.Larvae of the pale western cutworm, Agrotis orthogonia Morr., have been reared on diets prepared from wheat sprouts that have been lyophilized and ground to a fine meal. Diets may be prepared by adding water (two parts) to the meal (one part), packaging in aluminum foil, and storing in the frozen state. By lyophilization, other plant tissues have also been preserved successfully for periods up to one year. The lyophilized tissue provides a uniform dietary medium that can be readily extracted or supplemented in nutritional studies.

Digestion trials with swine: II. Comparative determinations of the digestibility of dry-fed maize, soaked maize, cooked maize and flaked maize

In Table XII is given a summary of the mean digestion coefficients obtained in the foregoing maize feeding experiments.The figures in Table XII bring out very clearly the effect of preliminary treatment on the digestibility of maize. An inspection of the dry matter digestion coefficients reveals the fact that maize meal possesses the lowest digestibility when fed in the dry condition, a higher value when fed after thorough soaking in water and a higher value still when first submitted to cooking.These facts are in accordance with anticipation; the surprising feature of the results, however, lies in the discovery of the inappreciable extent to which the maize digestibility is raised by soaking or cooking. A relatively low degree of digestibility might justifiably have been anticipated for raw unsoaked maize, since the hard flinty nature of the grain, even after crushing, might render it liable to be excreted in appreciable amount into the faeces without having been much affected by digestive enzymes. This proved by no means to be the case. The effect of thoroughly soaking the grain prior to feeding was merely to raise the digestibility of the maize by 1 per cent, (from 85·9 per cent, to 86·9 per cent.), whilst even efficient cooking only brought about a rise in digestibility from 85·9 to 88·1 per cent., although, as will be noted by reference to an earlier part of this communication, the conditions of the trial were weighted in favour of the cooked meal by using fine meal for cooking and crushed maize for dry-feeding.