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Water Syrups

Simple Syrup.

To eight pounds of finest white sugar, add two quarts of water and the whites of two eggs; stir until all the sugar is dissolved; simmer for two or three minutes; skim well, and strain through a fine flannel bag.

Lemon Syrup.

Add to Simple Syrup, when cold, twenty drops of fresh oil of lemon and half an ounce of citric acid (previously dissolved in three ounces of water) to each gallon. Mix by shaking well in a bottle, then add four ounces of a gum solution, made by dissolving two ounces of fine white gum arabic in two ounces of warm water.

Sarsaparilla Syrup.

To Simple Syrup add ten drops of oil of anise, twenty drops oil of wintergreen, twenty drops of oil of sassafras, and six ounces of caramel, or coloring, to the gallon. Before the oils are added to the syrup, they should be cut by grinding them in a mortar, with as much sugar as they will moisten; or mix with a small quantity of alcohol.

Ginger Syrup.

Bruised Jamaica ginger, two ounces; boiling water, one pint; macerate for four hours; add fine white sugar, two pounds, and strain through a fine flannel bag.

Ginger syrup may also be made by adding two ounces of the extract of ginger to one gallon of Simple Syrup. Gum Syrup.

Dissolve pale and picked gum arabic in an equal weight of water, by a gentle heat, and add the solution to twice its weight of Simple Syrup; simmer for two or three minutes; remove the scum; strain and cool. The addition of one or two ounces of orange flower water to each pint, renders it very agreeable.

Vanilla Syrup.

To Simple Syrup add half an ounce of extract of vanilla to the gallon.

Wild Cherry Syrup.

Steep four ounces of wild cherry bark, well bruised, in one pint of cold water, for thirty-six hours; press out the infusion; let it stand till clear; decant, and add one pound and a half of fine white sugar; mix and strain. Strawberry Syrup.

Take fresh strawberries and inclose them in a coarse bag; press out the juice, and to each quart add one pint of water and six pounds of white sugar; dissolve by raising it to the boiling point, and strain; bottle and cork hot, and keep in a cool place.

To Make Strawberry Syrup Without the Fruit.

Add to one gallon Simple Syrup two tea-spoonfuls of essence of strawberry, and a quarter of an ounce of tartaric acid. Color with coloring made as follows :-Boil one ounce of cochineal with half a tea-spoonful of cream of tartar.

Strain.

Raspberry Syrup.

Make as above, either with the fruit or the essence The flavor of this syrup is improved by using one pint of currants to five of raspberries.

Blackberry Syrup.

Make as directed for strawberry, and add to each quart one ounce of the best French brandy.

Pine Apple Syrup.

Take of the fruit a convenient number, pare them, and mash them in a marble or porcelain mortar, with a small quantity of sugar; express the juice, and for each quart take one and a half pints of water and six pounds of fine sugar; boil the sugar and water, then add the juice; remove from the fire, and skim and strain. Or make it with the essence, as directed for strawberry.

Orange Syrup.

Take of fresh and ripe oranges a convenient number; grate off the outside yellow peel; cut the oranges and express the juice; and to each quart add one pint of water and six pounds of sugar, previously well mixed with the grated peel. Dissolve by gentle heat, then strain.

Pear Syrup.

Make as directed for pine apple syrup, or use the essence of pear, by adding to each gallon of Simple Syrup two tea-spoonfuls of essence of pear and a quarter of an ounce of tartaric acid.

Apple Syrup.

Make as directed for pine apple syrup, or with the appropriate fruit essence and acid, as above. Banana Syrup.

Make as directed for pine apple syrup, or with the appropriate fruit essence, as before directed. Orgeat Syrup.

Take three ounces of sweet almonds and half an ounce of bitter almonds gum arabic, in powder, half an ounce; sugar, in powder, three ounces. Rub together in a mortar, adding water from time to time, until the mixture measures one quart. Strain through a cloth, and mix with one gallon of Simple Syrup.

Orange Flower Syrup.

Add to one gallon of Simple Syrup half an ounce of extract of orange flowers.

Nectar Syrup.

Add to Orgeat Syrup one pint of best Port wines and half an ounce of extract of vanilla to the gallon; or, flavor one gallon of Simple Syrup with two tea-spoonfuls of extract of nectar.

Cream Syrup.

Take of fresh cream one pint, fresh milk one pint, fine powdered sugar three pounds; beat the sugar with the milk and the whites of two eggs, then mix with the cream. Flavor with vanilla, lemon, or strawberry. Keep in a cool place, well bottled.

Artificial Fruit Essences.

Several of the compound ethers have been found to possess the odor and flavor of certain fruits, a property which has led to their employment as flavoring materials. BUTYRIC ETHER is much used to impart a pineapple flavor to rum. Dissolved in eight or ten parts of alcohol it forms the pineapple essence. From twenty to twentyfive drops of this essence, added to a pound of sugar containing a little citric acid, imparts to the mixture a strong taste of pineapple.

AMYLO-ACETIC ETHER is a preparation of fusil oil and other ingredients, and when diluted with alcohol it is sold as essence of Jargonelle pear, and is used for flavoring different liquors. Fifteen parts amylo-acetic ether, with half a part of acetic ether, dissolved in 100 parts of alcohol, form what may be called the Bergamot pear essence, which, when employed to flavor sugar, acidulated with a little citric acid, imparts the odor of the Bergamot pear, and a fruity, refreshing taste. ACETATE OF AMYLIC ETHER (same as amylo-ether), mixed with BUTYRIC ETHER, forms another fruity compound which recalls the odor of the banana, and forms in alcoholic solution, the banana essence.

PELARGONATE OF ETHYLIC ETHER (pelargonic ether) has the agreeable odor of the quince, and when dissolved in alcohol in due proportion, forms the quince essence. VALERIANATE OF AMYLIC ETHER, an alcoholic solution of this ether, in the proportion of one part to six or eight of alcohol, forms a flavoring liquid under the name of apple essence.

It is thus perceived that the bases of the fruit essences are certain etherial compounds of organic acids with the oxides of ethyl and amyl. Besides the essences here described, there are found in commerce the strawberry, raspberry, mulberry, green gage, apricot, and black currant essences, all of which may be viewed as various mixtures of the ethers of the amyl and ethyl series, modified by the addition of pure nitrous ether, vanilla, volatile oils, etc., to bring about a resemblance of the fruit, the odor and taste of which it is the object to imitate. (See Butyric Ether, Pear Oil, Apple Oil, Pelargonic Ether.) PART XVII.

ON THE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION OF ALE AND PORTER, WITH RE CIPES FOR FINING AND IMPROVING MALT LIQUORS.

ALL malt liquors require good management to preserve them from bad cellaring, and a variety of other causes, as the heat of the weather, thunder and lightning, etc. Beers ferment in the cask, and consequently turn thick, sour, etc. In order therefore to obviate these results, you should, at different periods, carefully watch their progress, by drawing a little into a glass from the peghole, to ascertain their state of brightness or transparency, for that quality cannot be produced without the liquor going through the several stages which it has to pass after fermentation. The density of the atmosphere tends greatly to impede the vivacity of beer for a time, but good vivid beer will of itself resume its original brilliancy, when the atmospheric air becomes rarefied. And though fermentation may be occasioned in malt liquor by a change of weather, bad cellaring, or other causes. the beer will often fall fine of itself, and grow mellow: but its progress requires constant watching.

The same care that it is required to stop the fermentation of malt liquor in hot weather, is required in cold weather to promote it; or it will be quickly spoiled and become thick from any inattention in this respect. You should therefore be very careful, especially when the weather is frosty and intensely cold, to keep the cellar warm, and in that degree of heat (viz., 60 deg.) which (237) is necessary to promote fermentation. When the weather is frosty, shut up all the lights or windows of your cellar, and cover them close with horse-dung, by which precaution your wine, beer, etc., will be kept in a proper and temperate heat. A good thermometer is also a very necessary appendage to every cellar, in order to ascertain the requisite temperature.

The defects of ale and beer, which liquor dealers are particularly interested in redressing, are when those liquors become hard, stale, flat, dead, tart, or ropy; the remedies to remove these defects, and to fine, preserve, or recover these liquors, are as follows: When beer drinks hard and stale, to correct the acidity, put 1 lb. of clarified sugar, 2 oz. of salt of tartar, and 1 lb. of chalk, into a hogshead of such beer, and then agitate the mixture with the fining-stick for the space of ten minutes, for the purpose of promoting the incorporation of the materials. By this method, hard and stale beer may, after having stood undisturbed before it is tapped, be considerably improved both in taste and ⚫ quality.

When your beer or ale is becoming stale, stir well into a hogshead of the commodity lb. of fresh-slacked lime, and leave out the bung a few hours.

When your ale or beer is on draught, should they become stale, put into the vessel or glass from which it is to be drunk, a small portion of salt of tartar, or carbonate of soda, in powder (in the proportion of a teaspoonful to a quart of liquor), and draw the liquor upon it; by doing so you will produce a fine creaming head to your liquor, and completely remove the staleness.

To restore or recover flat or dead beer or ale, take 4 or 5 gals. out of the hogshead, and boil them with about 4 4 lbs. of honey for the space of half an hour; take off the scum, and when cold pour the mixture into the hogshead, stirring the whole well for about ten minutes; then bung down, and in the space of a few days the beer will be fit for use, and drink brisk and pleasant, by reason of the slight fermentation that has been occasioned. Or withdraw 1 gal. of the beer, and having steeped 1/2 lb. of hops in it for the space of 10 or 12 hours, and boiled the mixture with the addition of 3 lbs. of honey for half an hour, put the preparation into the cask, and having agitated the whole with the fining-stick for the space of 10 or 12 minutes, bung down as soon as you observe the frothing to subside.

When malt liquor has become heady, thick, or tart, a circumstance which frequently happens during the heat of summer, throw in a handful of pulverized calcined oyster-shells, and briskly stir the whole with the finingstick; or when you find malt liquor becoming stale, draw off 4 or 5 gals. of the liquor, and put about 1 lb. of freshslacked lime into the butt, stirring as before; when you bung down, return the liquor you withdraw; but recollect to leave the spile-peg out as long as any air escapes. Malt liquor becoming stale, may also be preserved in a mellow state for a long time, by mixing 2 lbs. of molasses with 2 lbs. of calcined pulverized oyster-shells into a stiff paste, and putting the same in narrow strips, or long pieces, into the butt.

When beer becomes ropy, the defect may be removed in the course of a few hours, by hanging a small bunch of hyssop in the cask, attached by means of a string, to the bung-hole.

When beer has become foul or turbid, and deficient in color, from insufficient fermentation, you may cure the defect by either of the following methods: 1. Dissolve shredded isinglass, by boiling it in stale and perfectlyclear beer. When cold, put the mixture into the butt, and stir well with the cleft-stick. Of this preparation, 1 pint is the usual proportion for 1 barrel, but sometimes 2 or even 3 pints are found necessary. 2. Dissolve isinglass in some stale beer, and to a quart of the mixture add a handful of salt, the same quantity of well-dried chalk, scraped fine, and 2 quarts of molasses; mix the whole with 1 gal. of the beer to be fined; pour the composition into the butt, and stir it well, to incorporate the ingredients. When the frothing has subsided, bung up, and in the course of a few days the liquor will be fit for use. 3. Dissolve 2 oz. of isinglass and 2 lbs. of loaf sugar in a sufficient quantity of the beer, and with the addition of 2 qts. of water, whisk the composition together; then stir the beer well with the fining-stick, at the same time throwing in the composition; bung up, and in the course of two or three months the beer will appear of a fine color.

Half an ounce of isinglass boiled in a little water, and when the fermentation has subsided, poured into the cask, with a few waste hops, will fine or clear a thirtygallon cask of ale in the course of a week. As beer may be deficient in color and heading, defects which may probably affect your interests in the estimation of your customers, it seems necessary to state those remedies which are harmless in themselves for removing these defects. They are as follows:

Having boiled 14 lbs. of sugar and 1 pint of water until it becomes apparently black, add to the composition as much lime-water as will make it into a syrup. A very small quantity of this composition will produce a rich brandy color when added either to spirits or pale beer. And when you find your beer deficient in heading, make use of salt of tartar or carbonate of soda, as before directed.

The method of bringing new beer forward is, having well-mixed oil of vitriol and water together, in the proportion of eight parts of water to one of acid, add the mixture gradually to the new beer until the requisite hardness is produced. You will thus impart the flavor and quality of twelve months' age to the beer.

As small portions of beer and ale are often left in different casks, on account of some imperfections in regard to taste or color, it may be useful to merchants to apprize them, that by mixing the whole together in a vat, and, after having well rummaged the same with the finingstick, to proceed as follows: take an adequate portion of malt and hops, and having mashed the malt, draw off the wort on the hops; then boil the hops, wort, and stale or refuse beer for about the space of an hour; dip the liquor, cool, tun, and ferment as usual. You must proportion your materials according to the quantity of stale beer; if you have about 30 gals. of it, add 3½ bhls. of malt, and 5 lbs. of hops, with a sufficient quantity of water to form a hogshead of beer when tunned.

Finings for ale or beer are made by dissolving isinglass, cut small, and dissolved in stale ale or beer, until it becomes of a glossy consistence, like size. One ounce of isinglass is sufficient for a cask. Beer fined with isinglass should be soon tapped, the isinglass being liable to turn it flat as well as to fine it. In very hot weather, a few handfuls of river or silver sand is the best fining for ale, and will carry down ale bright, when all other finings will not succeed.

The flavor of malt spirits may be greatly improved, and made almost equal in flavor to brandy, by putting 3½ oz. of finely powdered charcoal, and 4½ oz. of ground rice into a quart of spirits; and when it has stood for fifteen days, frequently stirring it during the period, strain it.