CIDER.

been furnished to our hands; and that neither the quantity nor quality of any one kind of fruit renders it an object to manufacture it separately. Is it not time, then, to set about correcting the evil, by selecting only the best kinds for new plantations.

4. Grinding, &c. The apples should be reduced, by the mill, as nearly as possible to a uniform mass, in which the rind and seeds are scarcely discoverable; and the pomace should be exposed to the air from twelve to twenty-four hours, according to the temperature, before it is pressed. The juices of the rind of fruit, as may be instan ced in the orange and lemon, are highly concentrated; and those of the rind of the apple have a material influence, with the aromatic bitter of the seeds, upon the flavor and strength of the liquor.

5. Vinous fermentation. This is commonly called working. It commences at the temperature of 59° Fah., and cannot be conducted in safety when the heat is over 75°, for a high temperature induces a too rapid fermentation, by which much of the spirit passes off with the disengaged carbonic acid gas, and the acetous or vinegar fermentation begins at 77°. This will show the importance of conducting the vinous fermentation under a proper temperature, which is from 50 to 70° of Fah. To show the chemical effect of the vinous fermentation, it will be proper to repeat that the unfermented juice, or must, of the apple, consists of saccharine matter or sugar, vegetable mucilage or extract; astringency or tannin; malic, and a small matter of gallic acid, the principle of flavor, tinging or coloring matter, and water. The sugar becomes the basis, or spirit, of the fermented liquor; the spirit, after vinous fermentation, and the tannin, or astringent matter, preserve it from the acetous fermentation, if the vegetable mucilage, or yeast, is separated when it has performed its office. This vegetable mucilage acts upon the saccharine matter in a manner analogous to yeast upon the wort of the brewer-it causes fermentation, and converts sugar into spirits-by its giving off carbonic acid gas, and imbibing hydrogen; the liquor becomes clear, and part of the mucilage rises to the surface with the disengaged air, in the form of froth, and the residue is precipitated, with the heavier impurities, to the bottom, in the form of sediment or lees. This is the critical period, The liquor may now be drawn off clear. If left longer, the feculent matter, or froth, by parting with the gas which renders it buoyant, soon settles and mixes with the liquor, renders it turbid, and as soon as the temperature attains a proper height, causes a new fermentation. This will explain the reason why ciders become harsh and sour on the approach of warm weather in the spring. The elementary principles of sugar, ardent spirits and vinegar, it has been ascertained by the experiments of Lavoisier, are the same; and these substances only differ in the proportion of their component parts, and in the modes of their chemical union. Sugar consists of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon. An increased proportion of hydrogen enters into the composition of ardent spirits, and of oxygen into vinegar. The same agent, vegetable mucilage, which converts the sugar of the apple into spirits, will convert the spirits into vinegar, under a proper temperature, and aided by the oxygen of the atmosphere. The process of making vinegar is greatly accelerated by exposing cider or wine to the atmosphere, the oxygen of which it imbibes, and which is termed by chemists the great acidify.

CIDER.

ing principle. Here again we see the propriety of professional cider manufacturers, who might be provided with cellars where the temperature could be regulated, and who would carefully rack off the liquor at the completion of the vinous fermentation.

The vinous fermentation commences and terminates at different periods, according to the condition and quality of the fruit, and the state of the weather. The juice of unripe fruit, if the weather be warm, will begin to ferment in a few hours after it passes from the press; and seldom stops at the vinous stage. The juice of ripe fruit, when the temperature is lower, does not begin to ferment under a week or fortnight, or longer, often continues slowly through the winter, and when made from some of the finer cider apples, is not completed under six or nine months. Indeed, in some cases, the liquor does not become clear under a year, and the sugar is not wholly decomposed under two years; for the whole of the sugar is seldom decomposed during the first sensible fermentation. Knight considers cider at two years old as in the best state for bottling. For until the sugar is decomposed, fermentation insensibly goes on, and the strength of the liquor increases. The like insensible process goes on in wines, and when it is completed, the wines are said to be ripe, and are in their highest state of perfection. (See M'Culloch.) Temperature being the same, I think it may be assumed as a rule, that fermentation will be rapid and short, in an inverse ratio to the proportion which the saccharine matter bears to the mucilage and water; and that the vinous liquor will be rich, high flavored and durable, in proportion as the sugar and astringency preponderate in the must.

6. Precautions to prevent acetous fermentation. These are, supposing the previous contingencies to have been favorable, a careful separation of the vinous liquor from the froth and lees,-a cool temperature,―racking and fining, and artificial means to destroy the fermenting quality of the remaining mucilage.

nose.

I have already suggested the importance of drawing off the liquor from the scum and sediment—at the termination of the vinous fermentation. This period may be known by the cracking of the froth in an open cask, or, if in a close one, by the application of the nose or ear to the bung hole. If the fermentation has not ceased, a hissing will be apparent, and the gas given off will give a pungent sensation to the If the liquor is not sufficiently clear, or indications appear of the acetous fermentation having commenced, the cider should be racked into clean strong casks, and fined with isinglas, eggs, or skimmed milk. This operation may be repeated, if found necessary; but it should be performed in clear cold weather. After the first racking, the casks should be kept bunged close, and further rackings be avoided, if possible, as every racking reduces its strength, and much of the spirit escapes with the carbonic acid gas which is evolved in the fermentive process. The oxygen of the atmosphere, besides, increases the vinegar fermentation. But if these methods fail, resort may be had to the means of impeding the natural operation of the mucilage, or vegetable leaven. This may be done by what is called stumming, that is, burning a rag impregnated with sulphur, in the cask in which the liquor is to be decanted, after it has been partly filled, and rolling it so as to incorporate the liquid with the gas; or by putting a drachm or two of

VINEGAR. ALCOHOL.-RUM.

sulphite of potash into each cask, which will precipitate and render insoluble the remaining leaven. If the fruit is good, and properly ground, and the cider racked from the fermenting casks at a proper time, most or all of the subsequent operations will be superseded.

VINEGAR is an agreeable acid liquor, prepared from wine, cider, beer, and other liquors, and it is of considerable use, both as a medicine and a sauce. The word is French, vinaigre; from vin, wine, and aigre,

sour.

There are four kinds of vinegar known in commerce; that from wine, from malt, from sugar, and from wood. This last is called the pyroligneous acid, and is now prepared in large quantities in London, by distilling wood in close vessels. It may be obtained eight times the strength of common vinegar, so that it may be diluted by the purchaser at pleasure. It is colorless, and by many considered superior to common vinegar. It is said to be perfectly. free from all flavor, save that of the pure acid.

The principal requisites to form good vinegar, are, 1. contact with the air; 2. A temperature not exceeding 77° of Fahrenheit; 3. The addition of some extraneous vegetable matter, to promote the acetous fermentation; and, 4. the presence of alcohol.

The vinegar used in the United States is chiefly made from cider. It may be prepared thus: to a quarter cask of good cider, add 4 lbs. of white Havanna sugar, and half a pound of argol, or rough tartar, in fine powder; it will be better for the addition of some lees of wine. Expose it to a heat not less than 75°, nor more than 80°, with the bung out. Twice or thrice a day, draw off a pail full, and after it has stood exposed to the air, a quarter of an hour, return it to the bung-hole by a funnel.

Vinegar is sometimes made from whey. The following directions are given by Mr. Genet, of New-York. "After having clarified the whey, it is poured into casks with some aromatic plants, or elder blossoms, as suits the fancy, and exposed in the open air to the sun, when it soon acquires an uncommon degree of acidity."

ALCOHOL. This is said to be an Arabian word, which signifies antimony; so called from the usage of the Eastern ladies to paint their eyebrows with antimony, reduced to a most subtile powder; whence, it at last came to signify any thing exalted to its highest perfection. Alcohol is highly rectified spirit of wine, freed from all those watery particles, which are not essential to it. When pure, it consists of hydrogen, carbon and oxygen. It is quite colorless, and clear; of a strong and penetrating smell and taste; capable of being set on fire, without wick, and burning with a flame, without leaving a residue, and without smoke and soot. It is not known to freeze, in any degree of coldness. It is used in those preparations, called elixirs, tinctures, essences, &c. It is a powerful stimulant and antisceptic. It is this, which in brandy, rum, wine, &c., exhilarates, and which, at length, destroys the constitution of the drunkard. In England, alcohol is procured by distillation from molasses; in Scotland and Ireland, from whiskey. In the East Iudies, arrack is distilled from rice; in the West Indies, rum from the sugar cane; and in France and Spain, brandy, from wine; in the Uni

RUM. BRANDY.-GIN.-ARRACK.

ted States, cider-brandy, from cider. All these afford alcohol by distillation.

RUM is a spirit obtained by distillation from the fermented juice of the sugar-cane, or from molasses and other coarse saccharine matter in the West Indies. Rum contains a considerable portion of alcohol; but as it contains, in solution, a gross essential oil, which is apt to disagree with some stomachs, it is not so good, considered medicinally, as brandy.

BRANDY is obtained by simple distillation, from real wines, or the fermented juice of grapes. To distil brandy, they fill the still half full of the liquor from which it is to be drawn, and raise it with a little fire, till about one sixth part be distilled, or till they perceive what falls into a receiver is not at all inflammable. Brandy, when first made, is perfectly colourless; the colour it has in this country is given to it by burnt sugar. The peculiar taste of brandy is produced by a small portion of some essential oil; whether arising from the wine from which it is distilled, or added afterwards, is not known in this country. On this account, in moderate doses, it is very grateful to the stomach. The greatest part of the brandies in use is prepared in France. Of the French brandies, those of Languedoc and Anjou, whence the well known Cognac brandy, are the most esteemed. Of brandy, either plain or rectified, are prepared various kinds of strong liquors, with the addition of other ingredients, sugars, spices, flowers, fruits, &c. The strength of brandy may be determined by olive oil or tallow, both of which sink in good brandy.

GENEVA or GIN; the name of a compound water, procured from juniper berries and other ingredients, distilled with malt spirits. The French name of the juniper-berry, is genievre, from which the word is formed. But our common distillers leave out the juniper-berries entirely from the liquor they now make and sell under that name. Our chemists have taught them, that the oil of juniper berries and that of turpentine are very much alike in flavor, though not in price; and the common method of making what is called geneva, in London, is with common malt spirit, and a proper quantity of oil of turpentine distilled together, with sometimes angelica root, and other aromatic vegetables. The Dutch, it is said, still continue the original use of juniper berries, and hence the reason why Hollands is by many preferred to English gin. This hot fiery spirit is too much used by the lower classes of people in its undiluted stato as a dram. It is most injurious to their constitution and morals.

ARRACK; a spirituous liquor imported from the East Indies; used by way of dram and in punch. The word arrack, according to Mr. Lockyer, is an Indian name for strong waters of all kinds, for they call our spirits English arrack. But what we understand by the name arrack, he affirms to be no other than a spirit procured by distillation from a vegetable juice called toddy, which flows by incision out of the cocoa-nut tree, like the birch juice procured among us. Others are of opinion, that the arrack is a vinous spirit obtained by distillation in the East Indies from rice or sugar fermented with the juice of the cocoa. tree. The Goa arrack is said to be made from the toddy; the Batavia arrack from rice and sugar; there is likewise a kind of shrub from

ALE.-MALT.

which arrack is made. By fermenting, distilling, and rectifying, the juice of the American maple, which has much the same taste as that of the cocoa tree, arrack has been made not inferior to any that comes from the East Indies.

ALE is a popular beverage or drink made from malt. The sythum and curmi, mentioned by Tacitus as the beverage of the ancient Germans, are supposed to correspond with our ale and beer.

MALT denotes barley cured, or prepared to fit it for making a potable liquor, under the denomination of beer, ale, &c.

The manner of making malt Sir Robert Murray describes as follows: Steep good barley in a stone trough full of water, till the water be of a bright reddish color, but it may be known when it is steeped enough by other marks, as by the excessive swelling of the grain and the degree of softness. It is afterwards taken out, and laid on heaps, to let the water drain from it, then turned and laid in a new heap, where it may lie forty hours, more or less. In about fifteen or sixteen hours the grains put forth roots, which when they have done, the malt must be turned over, otherwise the grains will begin to put forth the blade or spire, which must be prevented. It must now be spread to a depth not exceeding five or six inches, and then turned over and over for the space of forty-eight hours at least. This cools, dries and deadens the grain, when it becomes mellow, melts easily in brewing, and separates easily from the husk. Then throw up the malt into a high heap, and let it grow as hot as your hand can endure it, which it usually does in about thirty hours. This perfects the sweetness and mellowness of the malt. It is now again cooled and turned over, and then laid on a kiln, with hair cloth or wire spread under it, where. after one fire, it must have a second, and perhaps a third, before the malt be thoroughly dried. The time during which the grain continues on the malt floor varies according to circumstances; fourteen days is, however, the general average. Malt drinks are either pale or brown, as the malt is more or less dried on the kiln, that which is the least dried tinging the liquor least in brewing, and therefore called pale; whereas the higher dried, and as it were roasted, makes it of a higher colour. High dried malt yields less liquor or beer than low dried or pale malt does, and hence the porter-brewers are obliged to use colouring drugs and many pernicious stuffs, as substitutes for malt, which is too dear to afford deep-colored pure malt liquor at the common price of porter.

BREWING is the operation of preparing ale or beer from malt. In brewing, a quantity of water, being boiled, is left to cool till it becomes of the temperature of 175° or 180°; or till the face can be seen pretty distinctly in the water. Mix the malt with the water, stirring it during the process with the mashing stick. Reserve a few handfuls of the dry malt to strew over the surface after it is mixed, to prevent the escape of the heat; the vessel should also be covered besides with cloths, in order to keep the mixture hot; this operation is called mashing. Let the whole stand for three hours, more or less, according to the strength of the wort, which is then to be drawn off into a receiver. The mashing is repeated for the second wort nearly in the same manner as for the first. After these worts are run off, a quantity of hops is added, and the liquor is again boiled. The hops are afterwards