Popular Mechanics (South Africa)
Just say Skol
A spirit that dates back to the 16th century
A VIKING BOAT MAY NOT have been able to make it to Montana, but that doesn’t mean the Scandinavians couldn’t. Along with the US Homestead Act of 1862, which gave settlers 160 acres of land for a small fee and a commitment to live there for five years, the extension of the transcontinental railroad across North America helped Scandinavians migrate to the agricultural frontier of Montana. Today their Nordic heritage remains embedded in the folkways of the Northern Great Plains, so much that it demanded a familiar and hard-to-find drink: “We started making aquavit on request from the local fraternal order of the Sons of Norway,” says Ryan Montgomery, co-founder of Montgomery Distillery in Missoula. “And we continue making it not only because we sell out, but because aquavit has significant ties to the culture and climate of the region.” Montana’s nutrient-rich volcanic earth and abundant snow- melt provide the exceptional grain and water quality that aquavit relies on.
Aquavit is a traditional spirit distilled from potato or grain mash that has the predominant flavour of caraway (the taste you think of when you think of rye bread), a botanical related to parsley and coriander. It’s finished with aromatics such as lemon, fennel and cardamom, resulting in a drink that is savoury and yet fresh, almost minty; – a counterbalance to the salty preservation methods (fermentation, smoking, curing) necessitated by Nordic winters. The aquavit process is a straightforward double distillation. Montgomery uses a 100 per cent non-gmo hard red winter wheat strain called War Horse, grown on his grandfather’s farm, which is now tended by his parents. The wheat is mashed with hot water and fermented at a temperature that allows the yeast to digest the sugar. If the temperature gets too hot, cool water is run into the fermenter’s exterior stainless-steel jacket. “When the yeast has eaten all the sugar, what you essentially have is beer,” Montgomery says. “The first distillation is a stripping run, not a flavour-determining run. It is just about getting the alcohol out of the beer as fast as we can.” The result, called low wines, is about 25 per cent alcohol by volume.
The second fractional distillation, done in a 21-plate copper column still, cuts the spirit to a specific proof and creates a clean canvas – basically like vodka – for the addition of the botanicals. “We return the spirit to the pot still and give it a last run to create vapour infusion,” Montgomery says. As the vapour rises, it passes through a cheesecloth bag of aromatics suspended on a metal grate before being recondensed as flavoured aquavit, cut with filtered water, and bottled at 80 proof.
“Making aquavit is our chance to introduce something with great history that is still new to most Americans,” Montgomery says. The traditional way of drinking aquavit is straight and ice cold in small glasses – and never without first toasting your tablemates by saying, “Skol”. Additionally, Montgomery says, “We substitute it for vodka in our Bloody Marys and other craft cocktails.” It tastes good with a little curaçao in a daiquiri, too.