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To Charge Champagne with Gas
wine to be fined, take 1 wine-glassful of dissolved isinglass, add a little wine and a pinch of salt, and beat to a froth with a whisk, adding by degrees sufficient wine to make the mixture up to gallon. When foaming, pour it slowly into the wine, stirring till all the fining is incorporated with the wine. Isinglass thus prepared and used will precipitate completely; and, after a few days, the wine will be bright. Too much care cannot be taken in the preparation of fining, as even the finest isinglass contains fibrous matter which dissolves with difficulty; this is very apt to remain suspended in the wine, and is not visible until developed, after bottling, by the gas with which the wine is afterwards charged.
To Prepare Champagne Wine for Charging.
Put the wine used to make the champagne into a cask, add the brandy spirit, the aroma or flavoring, and the syrup, and stir for 10 minutes. Every day for 4 days draw off 15 or 20 gallons of the mixture and pour it in again; let it rest 4 days more, then add the fining, stir for 10 minutes, and bung up the cask. In 3 or 4 days, if bright, draw off slowly, so as not to disturb the lees. Filter (see champagne filter, already described), and it is ready for the fountain of the gassing apparatus. To Charge Champagne with Gas.
Matthews' apparatus is the one usually adopted in the United States for generating the gas and charging champagne wine. The fountains, tubes, and valves are silver-lined, and the machines are adapted for pint and quart bottles. The following is a proper charge for a No. 2 apparatus with 2 fountains: Charge the generator with 9 gallons water, 6 gallons ground mar-