author

A. (Ambrose) Cooper

An eighteenth-century distiller whose surviving reputation rests on a single, practical book, this author offers a vivid look at how spirits, cordials, and flavored waters were made in Georgian Britain. The work still feels like a hands-on manual from the early days of modern distilling.

1 Audiobook

The Complete Distiller

The Complete Distiller

by A. (Ambrose) Cooper

About the author

Very little biographical information about this writer could be confirmed from the sources available during this search. What can be said with confidence is that Ambrose Cooper was identified in the 1757 title page of The Complete Distiller as a distiller, and that this book is the work for which he is remembered today.

The Complete Distiller was published in London in 1757 and presented as a practical guide for both working distillers and private households. Its contents cover distillation processes, fermentation, the making of spirits from materials such as malt, raisins, molasses, and sugar, and the preparation of simple waters, compound waters, and cordials.

Because reliable modern biographical records for Cooper appear to be scarce, it is safest to view him primarily through this book: a specialist writer sharing trade knowledge in clear, useful form during the eighteenth century.