PREFACE
The following Receipts and Directions are not collected from books, nor interspersed with old women's nostrums; but they are, in very truth, the result of my own LONG EXPERIENCE in trade, founded on chemical principles, which are principles of never-erring nature.
Perhaps I had never thought of this Method of communicating my little knowledge, had it not been for many gentlemen in the counties of Gloucester, Hereford, Worcester, &c. for whom I have done a great deal of business, in the cyder-way particularly; and who have often express'd their desire of seeing my directions for the management of cyders, &c. made public.
And no doubt such a thing was wanting; for it's hardly credible how much liquors of almost every kind is spoiled by mismanagement. Few people know the nature of fermentation, without which no vinous spirit can be produced; nor any liquor be rendered fine and potible.
Fermentation separates the particles of bodies, and from liquids throws off the gross parts from the finer, which, without it, could not be effected. There is what is called a fret, which is only a partial fermentation, that nature is strong enough in some liquors to bring on, without the assistance of art; but this fret, or partial fermentation, is never strong enough to discharge the liquor of its foul parts; and if they should ever happen to subside, the least alteration in weather, as well as a hundred other accidents, will occasion their commixing, and render the liquor almost, or altogether as foul as ever; to prevent which we call in the assistance of art, and which our method will effectually prevent.
In brewing beer, yest is apply'd to it, in order to ferment it, without which it would never be beer. This opens the body of the liquor, and renders it spirity and fine.
The reason that cyder is not often fine, is owing to its not being fermented. After it is got into the hogshead, the generality of people think they have acquitted themselves very well, and done all the necessary business, except racking it. But I can assure them, the more any liquor is rack'd, the more it is weaken'd. By often racking, it loseth its body, and so becomes acid for want of strength to support it.
Another gross error many people are guilty of, in keeping the bungs out of the casks. Nothing is more pernicious to fermented liquors, than their being exposed to the open air, whereby they lose their strength and flavour. Take a bottle of wine, draw the cork, and let it stand exposed to the open air for twenty-four hours only, and you will then find it dead, flat, and insipid; for the spirit is volatile, and has been carried off by the air, and what remains is the gross, elementary part chiefly. A cyder-cask should never be kept open more than fourteen or fifteen days, that is, 'till the ferment is stopt; but so contrary is the practice, that I have known them very commonly kept open three or four months. It hath been objected to me by cyder and sweet-makers, that stopping up the cask so soon will endanger the head being blown out or bursted; but their fears are groundless, provided the ferment is stopt. The bottoms are quite confined, and it is impossible they should rise, unless a forcing be added to raise them.
The best time for bottling your cyder, is in the winter, or cool weather, when it is down, otherwise you will hazard breaking most of the bottles. The best method of keeping it, is to put it up in dry saw-dust, which will keep it in a due temperature of heat, without the colour's subsiding, unless you have laid a high colour on it, which, by long keeping, will subside in the same manner port-wine doth in bottles. For 'tis impossible to set a colour on cyder so strong, as to have it stand the bottle more than twelve or eighteen months, at farthest. The natural colour will change but little in a much longer time.
What I have said of the sweet-making-business, (which I have been constantly concerned in for more than twenty years) is principally relating to fermentation; for it is in all kinds of made-wines the chief thing to be observed. I shall just take notice here of one or two things, by way of caution.
If your fruit be candied, the best way to clean them is by bagging, and then you may easily take the stems from them.
It is very seldom that the fruit is all of the same goodness, I would therefore recommend, that the best fruit be made separate from the ordinary, it being easy, and much more prudent, to mix the liquors to your palate, than to run the hazard of making the good fruit with the bad, a small quantity of which will sometimes spoil the flavour of the liquor, and turn it acid.
As to the method of brewing malt-liquors, I shall only here observe, that the practice of boiling the wort so long as is often done, is very injudicious. Five minutes is long enough: a longer time serves only to evaporate the spirit, without having any good effect.
Under the head of malt-liquor, I have confined myself to giving proper instructions for curing their disorders, such as fining 'em, &c. which must be of great use to victuallers as well as private families, who, by reason of the badness of malt, mismanagement, bad weather, or other accidents, have frequently quantities by them, which for want of knowing how to cure, lie useless, and are sometimes thrown away.
In the course of these receipts, I have endeavoured to lay down every thing as plain as possible, preferring, in these cases, plainness to elegance, even tho' I were capable of it, which indeed I have no pretensions to.
Before I take leave of my reader, I must admonish him, that if my directions are not observed punctually, I will not be answerable for his success; for he may be assured, in matters of this kind, a great deal depends upon what many people think trifling, and of no consequence whether done or not. But on the other hand, if he will take care to observe them exactly, I am sure they will fully answer his expectations. So shall he not repent laying out his money on this little, but not the least valuable, book; nor will my reputation suffer in having penn'd it for his use; which is the earnest wish of
His humble Servant,
T.C.
The Cyder-Maker's Instructor.
Let your fruit be as near the same ripeness as possible, otherwise the juice will not agree in fermenting. When they are properly sweated, grind and press them; and as soon as you have filled a cask, if a hogshead, which is one hundred and ten gallons, ferment it as follows; and if less, proportion the ingredients to your quantity.
A FERMENT for CYDER.
To one hogshead of cyder, take three pints of solid yest, the mildest you can get; if rough, wash it in warm water, and let it stand 'till it is cold. Pour the water from it, and put it in a pail or can; put to it as much jalap as will lay on a six-pence, beat them well together with a whisk, then apply some of the cyder to it by degrees 'till your can is full. Put it all to the cyder, and stir it well together. When the ferment comes on, you must clean the bung-holes every morning with your finger, and keep filling the vessel up. The ferment for the first five or six days will be black and stiff; let it stand till it ferments white and kind, which it will do in fourteen or fifteen days; at that time stop the ferment, otherwise it will impair its strength.
To stop the FERMENT.
In stopping this ferment, which is a very strong one, you must first rack it into a clean cask, and when pretty near full, put to it three pounds of course, red, scowering sand, and stir it well together with a strong stick, and fill it within a gallon of being full; let it stand five or six hours, then pour on it as softly as you can a gallon of English spirit, and bung it up close; but leave out the vent-peg a day or two. At that time just put it in the hole and close it by degrees till you have got it close. Let it lay in that state at least a year, and if very strong cyder, such as stire, the longer you keep it the better it will be in the body; and when you pierce it, if not bright, force it in the following manner.
A FORCING for CYDER.
Take a gallon of perry or stale beer, put to it one ounce of isinglass, beat well and cut or pull'd to small pieces; put it to the perry or beer, and let it steep three or four days. Keep whisking it together, or else the glass will stick to the bottom, and have no effect on the liquor. When it comes to a stiff jelly, beat it well in your can with a whisk, and mix some of the cyder with it, 'till you have made the gallon four; then put two pounds of brick rubbings to it, and stir it together with two gallons of cyder more added to it, and apply to the hogshead; stir it well with your paddle, and shive it up close. The next day give it vent, and you will find it fine and bright. If you force perry, cut your isinglass with cyder or stale beer, for no liquor will force its own body.
To cure ACID CYDER.
It is always to be observ'd, that even weak alkali's cure the strongest acid, such, for instance, as calcin'd chalk, calcin'd oyster or scallop-shells, calcin'd egg-shells, alabaster, &c. But if a hogshead can soon be drank, use a stronger alkali, such as salt of tartar, salt of wormwood; but in using them, you must always preserve their colour with lac, or else the alkali will turn the liquor black, and keep it foul.
To one hogshead, take two gallons of lac, and put to it one ounce and a half of isinglass beat well and pulled small; boil them together for five or six minutes; drain it, and when a stiff jelly, break it with a whisk, and mix about a gallon of the cyder with it; then put three pounds of calcin'd chalk, and two pounds of calcined oyster-shells to it, whisk it well together with four gallons more of the cyder, and apply it to the hogshead. Stir it well, and it will immediately discharge the acid part out at the bung. Let it stand one hour, then bung it close for five or six days; rack it from the bottom into a clean hogshead, and apply one quart of forcing to it. If you use a strong alkali, put to the lac four ounces of salt of tartar, or salt of wormwood; but the former is best, as it hath not the bitter taste in it which the wormwood has.
Note, Lac is milk, but the cream must be skimm'd off it for use.
To cure OILY CYDER.
The reason that cyder is sometimes oily, is owing to the fruit not being sorted alike; for the juice of fruit that is not ripe will seldom mix with ripe juice in fermentation. The acid part of one will predominate over the other, and throw the oily particles from it, which separation gives the liquor a disagreeable, foul taste; to remedy which you must treat it in the following manner, which will cause the oily parts to swim at top, and then you may rack the liquor from its bottom and oil.
To a hogshead, take an ounce of salt of tartar, and two ounces of half sweet spirit of nitre, mix them in a gallon of lac, and whisk them well together; apply it to the hogshead, bung it up, and let it stand ten or fifteen days; then put a cock within two inches of the bottom of the hogshead, and rack it.
Observe when it runs low, to look to the cock, lest any of the oily part should come, which will be all on the top, and will not run out till after the good liquor is drawn off.
Put to the clean a quart of forcing, to raise it, and bung it close.
Note, When you take out the oil and bottom, your cask must be well fired, otherwise it will spoil all the liquor that shall be afterwards put into it.
For ROPY CYDER.
The following remedy for ropy cyder must be proportion'd with judgment to the degree of the disorder in the liquor. If the rope be stiff and stringy, you must use a larger quantity of the ingredients.
If a hogshead be quite stiff and stringy, work it at least an hour with your paddle, then put to it six pounds of common allum, ground to a fine powder; work it for half an hour after, and bung it up close. This in a week will cut the rope and bring it to a fine, thin, fluid state. Then rack it into a clean hogshead, and put to it one quart of forcing; stir them well in the hogshead and bung it close up. If but a thin rope, use a less quantity of the allum, and work it the same way.
CYDERS bad flavour'd.
Some cyders in keeping are apt to get reasty, thro' the ill quality of the fruit; and sometimes thro' the badness of the cask will get musty, or fusty.
To remedy these evils, you must throw it in ferment, if its body is strong, with yest and jalap, and let it ferment three or four days; which will throw off the greatest part of the taste; then stop the ferment. If a hogshead, put to it one pound of sweet spirit of nitre, and bung it up close. This will cure the bad flavour if any left, and likewise keep it from growing flat.
To colour CYDER.
In many places, particularly where the soil is light, and the orchard lays rising, the juice of the fruit is nearly white, and tho' the cyder may be strong, it doth not appear to be so, by reason of its colour, which always prejudices the buyer against it.
Many people spoil a great deal of good cyder by boiling and mixing melasses with it, to give it a colour; which not only gives it a bad red colour, but makes it muddy, as well as bad tasted. Others, again, will boil a large quantity of brown sugar and mix with it, which gives it a colour indeed, tho' a light one; when two pounds of good sugar, properly used, is sufficient to colour ten hogsheads, as follows:
Take two pounds of powder sugar, the whiter the sugar the farther it will go, and the better the colour will be. Put it in an iron pot or ladle; set it over the fire, and let it burn 'till it is black and bitter; then put two quarts of boiling hot water to it; keep stirring it about, and boil it a quarter of an hour after you have put the water to it. Take it off the fire, and let it stand 'till it is cold; then bottle it for use.
Half a pint of this will colour a hogshead. Put to each half pint, when you use it, a quarter of an ounce of allum ground, to set the colour.