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On Manufacturing Gin (Place cold water is added)

place, cold water is added to bring the strength to fortyfive pounds per barrel, or specific gravity 1.047, at which strength, after it has cooled to 80° Fah., it is run into the fermenting tun. To the contents of the fermenting back, which is about five hundred gallons, half a gallon of good yeast is added; fermentation speedily sets in, the temperature rises to about 90°, and the attenuation is complete in forty-eight hours. After attenuation of the wash, from twelve to fifteen pounds per barrel of saccharine matter remain undecomposed in the fermented liquor. The wash and grains are then introduced into the still, and the whole of the low-wines distilled over; these are subjected to a second distillation, and the distillate after rectification is the famous Geneva, or Holland gin. A few juniper berries, and sometimes hops, are added in the rectification, to impart to the spirit a peculiar flavor." Some peculiarities are seen in this concise account of the process followed in Holland, namely, the imperfect attenuation of the wort, and the small amount of yeast employed in bringing it about. Double the quantity of spirits are obtained from the worts of the distillers of gin in England that is produced from those in Holland, according to the example just given. It is very probable that the large amount of yeast used by the English distillers, and the last efforts tried to effect an attenuation as low as possible, are the very means which communicate a flavor to the spirit so different from the Dutch. It will also be seen that the superior aroma of Holland gin depends more upon the mode of its manufacture than upon the quantity of juniper berries employed. In France an exceedingly fine gin is produced by fermenting a portion of juniper berries bruised with four parts of barley meal, or ground malt, proceeding through