The Dawn of Commercial Distilling in North America

Imagine the raw shores of colonial North America in the early 17th century—ships heavy with molasses, the musk of fermenting mash rising from wooden vats, and still fires glowing in the dusk. The tale of commercial distilling here blends ingenuity, chemistry, and shifting tides, starting in 1620 and taking hold by 1632. From Virginia’s corn spirits to New Netherland’s brandy stills, this era birthed an industry that drove trade, defied bans, and forged a spirited legacy.

1620: George Thorpe and the First Corn Spirit in Virginia

Our journey begins in Virginia’s Berkeley Hundred, where George Thorpe, a colonist with a curious spirit, wrote to John Smyth on December 19, 1620: “Wee haue found a waie to make soe good drinke of Indian corne, as I ptest I haue diuerse times refused to drinke good stronge Englishe beare and chosen to drinke that.” Using a copper still—later listed as “old” in a 1634 Virginia Company inventory after his death in a 1622 Native raid—Thorpe fermented corn with water and wild yeast, distilling a rough spirit akin to unaged whiskey. This wasn’t the invention of grain distilling, a craft already known in Europe, but an adaptation of existing knowledge to local maize, likely for personal and medicinal use rather than commerce.

1632-34: Fort Orange and Jacob Albertsz Planck’s Dutch Venture

By August 1, 1632, the Dutch West India Company had planted its flag at Fort Orange (now Albany, New York), not New Amsterdam as some misreport. Under Kiliaen van Rensselaer’s vision, the colony aimed for profit, and Jacob Albertsz Planck, a brandy distiller from Edam, arrived in 1634 aboard the Eendracht with a large brandy kettle. Historical records confirm this as North America’s first commercial distillery. Van Rensselaer granted Planck exclusive rights, stipulating: “…Planck, at his own expense and risk and full charge, may distill brandy, anisette or other spirits, or brew beer to be sold to the Company or to the savages, or do otherwise therewith as he shall think fit.” Contrary to later assumptions, Planck distilled brandy from imported wine or local fruit—not rum, which emerged later with molasses abundance.

The Science of Spirits: Aqua Vitae, Korn, and Grain Bans

Europe’s aqua vitae, distilled from wine, bore a medicinal legacy, its methods published by Brunschwig in 1500. Across the Atlantic, settlers reshaped these traditions with local bounty. Thorpe’s corn spirit echoed “korn” distilling from Germany, but in Europe, grain’s food value sparked bans—like Nordhausen’s 1545 edict—during shortages. The distilling of grain in the 16th century was shaped by forbidden times parallel to food shortages, preserving harvests over spirits. In New Netherland, maize and wheat abounded, yet early stills favored brandy. Connecticut’s later March 9, 1659, decree—“there shall not be any corne nor malt stiled into liquors”—highlighted grain’s food priority, but New Netherland’s pre-1650 days dodged such limits.

1640: Willem Kieft’s Manhattan Distillery

In July 1640, Willem Kieft, Director of New Netherland, set up a distillery at his Manhattan residence. Cornelis Toun testified in 1649 before the Court of Holland that he worked there, turning imported wine or local apples into brandy. No grain touched Kieft’s stills; despite tales of a 1642 Staten Island venture, his operation stayed on Manhattan, free from New Netherland’s lack of grain bans, though corn and rye fed settlers instead of fires.

1641: Cornelis Melyn’s Staten Island Brandy

In 1641, Cornelis Melyn secured a land grant for Staten Island, documented in the New Netherland Council Minutes: “We have conceded and granted… to Cornelis Melyn… the land on Staten Island… to establish a plantation and distil brandy.” Melyn turned local fruit into brandy, a venture noted in Dutch records by 1642.

Emergence of Rum: Thomas Ruck’s Boston Distillery

By the late 1640s, rum production intensified in the colonies, utilizing molasses as a primary fermentable substrate. Thomas Ruck, a London merchant settled in Boston, initiated rum distillation near Essex and Chardon Streets by 1648, leveraging molasses from Barbados. The island’s first sugar plantation, established in 1640 by James Drax, increased molasses availability by the late 1640s, supporting 1648 as a feasible start date over earlier claims. Annie Haven Thwing’s 1920 The Crooked and Narrow Streets of Boston identifies Ruck among early distillers, though evidence for a 1641 operation remains unsubstantiated. No data quantifies Boston’s 1648 rum distilleries, but Ruck’s effort catalyzed the region’s molasses-based spirit trade.

1648: Emmanuel Downing’s Salem Rum

Emmanuel Downing pioneered North America’s first known rum distillery in Salem, Massachusetts, by 1648. In 1647, he sent his sons, George and Samuel, to Barbados to study the sugar trade, where James Drax’s plantation had begun distilling molasses into rum in 1646. Returning in 1648, they brought the idea to Salem. Downing bragged in a December 17, 1648, letter to his brother-in-law, John Winthrop: “Our stillings might be pritty strong… I assure you, my rumme doth surpass any upon the East coast, a taste of Barbados in every drop.” His plant shifted from rye to molasses, cementing rum’s rise.

Rum’s Rise and a Lasting Echo

By the 1650s, rum roared into prominence—Boston’s distilleries hummed by 1650, Newport’s followed by 1660, transforming molasses into a trade titan untouched by Connecticut’s 1659 grain ban. New Netherland’s early brandy ventures laid a foundation, but rum seized the spotlight, powering the Triangle Trade’s grim machinery.

Commercial Distilling and the AMBRU Campaign

Commercial distilling in North America began with efforts like Jacob Albertsz Planck’s 1632 Fort Orange brandy still, Willem Kieft’s 1640 Manhattan operation, and Cornelis Melyn’s 1641 Staten Island venture, all using fruit before rum’s molasses rise. The AMBRU Campaign safeguards this legacy—early spirits that shaped a colonial trade. Connecticut’s 1659 grain ban highlights American Brandy and Rum as key products, thriving on fruit and molasses when grain was restricted. AMBRU protects these roots, honoring the stills that launched a deep, diverse industry.

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