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How to Prepare the Clarifying Cask
Fig. 5 represents the general disposition of the apparatus when arranged for making wine. It will be observed that the fermenting casks are all on the third or top floor. The fermenting room should contain a stove, so as to keep the temperature at the proper degree, and it is also necessary that this room should be so situated as to admit a current of air through it, when required; this is absolutely indispensable, as will be seen hereafter. It is prudent to have three or four fermenting casks or pipes, as wine is very capricious in the operation of fermenting, and, out of ten barrels, no two will act exactly alike; therefore, it is wise to employ a number of casks-for, acccording to the old proverb, "eggs should not be all carried in one basket."
The mixing casks should be on the second floor, and the clarifying cask on the first or ground floor, as will be seen by referring to Fig. 5. The apparatus should be arranged so that the wine can flow through India-rubber tubes from one floor to the other; this will enable the manufacturer to economize time and labor, which is very important.
How to prepare Shavings for the Clarifying Cask.
Take beech-wood without bark. The wood should be cut in pieces 12 or 14 inches long by 1½ inches wide. Shavings cut by hand with a draw knife are best, but they may also be cut with a plane; in which case the plane should be worked nearly level, so as to curl the shavings thoroughly. Before using the shavings boil them in a kettle until they bubble up once or twice, then take them out of the kettle and throw them into cold water. The clarifying cask should be filled with shavings thus prepared, but care should be taken not to press 146 HOW TO MAKE WINE BY THE NEW PROCESS. them down. When the shavings become dirty by use, wash them with boiling water. If the merchant desires to discontinue the manufacture of wine, he should boil the shavings again, and dry them, to prevent them from souring; if this is done carefully the shavings may be used anew when required. In manufacturing wine care should be taken to have the shavings always covered with wine; to accomplish this, have two or three mixing casks for each fining or clarifying cask.
How to make White and Red Wine by the New Process.
Take 60 gals. water, * 20 lbs. raisins, “ 1 linden or tilia flowers, with the leaves, 20 “ sugar, 66 5 tartaric acid, 1 gill yeast, 4 gals. spirit, 95 per cent.
Crush up and thoroughly disintegrate your raisins in a mortar or between two cylinders, remembering that sweet fruit only ferments when well mashed up, as the ferment it contains is quite separate from the liquor, and must, therefore, be thoroughly bruised to combine the two. Put the raisins with 10 gals. water into the fermenting cask. Take the tilia flowers and pour over them 1½ gals. boiling water; let it cool and strain it from the tilia flowers, which latter may be thrown away. Melt the tartaric acid in the tilia flower water, and pour the mixture into the fermenting cask. The tilia flowers should be as fresh as possible, and the tartaric acid in small pieces. Complete the 60 gals. of water by mixing the * To make a superior quality of wine, 40 pounds of raisins may be used, the more raisins the better the wine.
HOW TO MAKE WINE BY THE NEW PROCESS. sugar, which should previously be melted in a large pail. You thus have: 10 gals. water added with the raisins, tilia flower water and tartaric acid, 50 water in which the sugar was dissolved, 1½ 66 “ 66 2 water for waste in manufacture, 63+ “ wine.
For manufacturing wine, distilled or soft water is preferable; but, where it is difficult to obtain this, boiled water may be substituted. The pipes or casks should not be entirely filled, but space for 2 or 3 gals. should be left in each, lest fermentation should make them overflow. When the fire is made in the fermenting room, mix the yeast with a little of the liquor from one of the pipes, and add it to the rest with constant stirring for 10 minutes, then let it stand still. For the first 8 hours bung up the pipes to hasten fermentation; when fermentation is fully established, place the tin siphons in the bungs of the fermenting casks. (See Description of Apparatus, and Fig. 1, letter A.) Be careful that the other ends of the siphons dip in a vessel containing water; by this means you neutralize the electricity of a variable temperature, and, besides this, a good fermentation never takes place without air. During the fermentation maintain the temperature at from 75 to 85 Fah., for 3 or 4 days and nights; at this temperature the contents of the pipes will soon be in violent motion. On the third day, the wine will begin to show its body, and piquancy, the sugar will also become less perceptible, and the vinous quality will easily be noticed by tasting the wine, or applying the nose to the bung-hole. When the fermentation has arrived at this point, extinguish the fire, 漿 148 HOW TO MAKE WINE BY THE NEW PROCESS. but allow the fermentation to continue 3 or 4 days without fire; this is preferable, and more natural, because the process is slower. Finally, when the liquid begins to taste of the wine, stop the fermentation as follows: open the doors and windows to establish a draft, but if it is winter, care should be taken not to expose the wine to too sudden a change of temperature. Fermentation should always be stopped in time, for if carried beyond the vinous fermenting stage, acetous fermentation ensues, and you have vinegar instead of wine. When the effervescence has ceased, and the raisins have partly settled to the bottom, rack off the wine into the mixing casks. Be careful, and allow no dirty or foul matter to come off whilst racking the wine. During the process of racking, add the alcohol, not all at once, but in two or three portions. The spirit will give the wine a disgusting flavor, but this will nearly all be dispelled by the ferment still remaining in the wine at the time of racking; which will also tend to thoroughly combine the spirit with the wine. Two or three days after racking, draw off 75 gallons from each mixing cask and pour it back again immediately, so as to mix it up thoroughly; this should be done every two or three days. After six or eight days more, when the wine has arrived at a greater degree of perfection, draw it off into your fining or clarifying cask containing the shavings. Be careful and let the wine run clear, for any impurity would retard their clarification. The sharing's are used to hasten the fining, and to thoroughly counteract any of the unpleasant taste remaining, caused by mixing in the alcohol. Filtration, fining, or clarification by sudden means, very frequently affects the quality of wine by dissipating the volatile principle or bouquet; by fining with shavings, however, the wine is improved. HOW TO MAKE WINE BY THE NEW PROCESS. 149 We may here remark that any fermented liquor will clarify itself in process of time. As soon as the wine has arrived at the desired degree of clearness, put it into casks in order to make of it whatever kind you wish, such as red, white, Port, etc. If the wine is still not so clear as you wish, it will be of no special importance, as it will have to be fined before bottling; besides, wine for storage will deteriorate when fined too much. By referring to Figs. 1 and 5, it will be observed that the fermenting casks rest horizontally on a small platform; this is necessary, as the ebullition of the liquid produced during the process of fermentation should take a rotary or whirling motion, and this is greatly facilitated by placing the casks in the described position. It is always desirable to manufacture large quantities of wine, as the wine will be superior in quality, and considerably less in cost. Wines made by this method are so excellent that they may be readily sold without adding one drop of imported wine: indeed, as we have already stated, much of the Claret and Rhine wines imported from France and Germany are made by a similar process, and have no merit beyond being imported.
PART IX.
HOW TO IMITATE MADEIRA, SHERRY, MALAGA, MUSCAT, PORT AND CLARET WINES, AND MANUFACTURE CHERRY-BOUNCE, ETC., WITH WHOLESOME AND PERFECTLY HARMLESS INGREDIENTS, GIVING NUMEROUS RECIPES, AND A DESCRIPTION OF ALL THE ARTICLES TO BE USED.
To make Madeira Wine. (BY BOILING.) RECIPE No. 1.
To 30 gals. white wine, or wine made by our process, add: 20 lbs. sugar, 20 66 figs, mashed up, 20 oz. linden or tilia flowers, with the leaves, 3 drachms Turkish rhubarb, 10 grains socotrine aloes.
Boil one minute and filter after three or four days. To make Madeira Wine. (BY INFUSION.) RECIPE No. 2.
To 20 lbs. figs, mashed up, add : 50 lb. raisins 66 20 oz. linden or tilia flowers, with the leaves, 3 drachms Turkish rhubarb, 10 grains aloes, 3 gals. sugar syrup.
Infuse the above ingredients for 10 days in 30 gallons spirit, 20 o. p., then reduce it to the proper strength, and filter. (15))