Academic literature on the topic 'Maltmen craft'

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.