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Potatoes were actually introduced by Sir Walter Raleigh onto his plantation in Cork in 1589, and quickly became a staple in the Irish diet. But was it fermented and distilled? In Poland, until the 18th century, vodka was produced chiefly from rye, wheat, barley and oats. Johann Joachim Becher developed a method of producing spirits from potatoes in 1669, but it was not until 1798 that the first instructions for "a practical way of distilling vodka from potatoes" was published. Distillers did not begin to use potatoes on a large scale until 1820. The potato is a relatively expensive source for alcohol. Potatoes contain 15-18% fermentable material while grains contain 50-67%. 10 kg of potatoes produce 1 litre of alcohol while 10 kg of grain produces 4 litres. Because of the 1845-1849 Famine in Ireland, some 1 million people died and some 1 million people emigrated. The immigrants to the U.S.A. brought their distilling knowledge with them but they did not use the potato, preferring the native maize. This suggest that a poitin made from potatoes is a late innovation and it is more than likely this began after 1900.
FM

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