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Wine, Blackberry

To make an excellent strong blackberry wine, proceed as follows. Take forty-five quarts of ripe blackberries well picked and pressed, and mix them with ten pounds of good honey and twenty-six pounds of strong, bright moist sugar. Boil with twelve gallons of soft water and the whites of twelve eggs well beaten, till the liquor is reduced to ten gallons, skimming it till it is perfectly clear. Strain the liquor into a tub, and let it stand till the following day; then pour it clear of the lees and boil it again for three-quarters of an hour, adding the lees, filtered twice, and two ounces of isinglass dissolved in a quart of water. Skim well, and put in two ounces of Jamaica pepper, two ounces of cloves, and two ounces of best ginger, all bruised, and tied loosely in a piece of muslin. Put into your cooler the thin rinds of six Seville oranges, and a pint of lemon-juice; strain the liquor upon them, stir well, and when cool enough work it with a pint of fresh yeast stirred well into a gallon of the liquor. Cover close, and let it work for four or five days, removing the top scum and stirring twice daily; then strain, and filter it into the cask, put in the bung tightly, keep the cask well filled up, and when it has ceased fermenting, let a day elapse, and add two quarts of French brandy and an ounce and a half of isinglass dissolved in a little water and mixed with a gallon of the wine, an ounce of bitter almonds blanched and slit, and six ounces of sugar-candy broken small. Secure the bung, paste strong white paper or coarse linen over it, and place plenty of sand (wetted a little) over all. Keep the wine in a cool cellar for two years, then bottle it. Seal the corks, and keep it in the bottles for another two years before using. If allowed to lie for a longer time it will still improve, and will be found a beautiful wine.