[262.] Spring Beer.
Take a small bunch each of sarsaparilla, sweet fern, wintergreen, sassafras, and spice wood, boil them with three ounces of hops, to six gallons of water, pare two or three raw potatoes, and throw them into the beer while it is boiling. When it has boiled five or six hours, strain it, and put to it three pints of molasses, when cool stir in a pint of fresh yeast, if the beer is too thick, dilute it with a little cold water. When fermented, bottle and keep it in a cool place.
[263.] Ginger Beer.
Take three table spoonsful of ginger, one of cream of tartar, and boil them gently in a gallon of water, with a lemon cut in slices; sweeten it to your taste, with loaf or Havana sugar, boil it three quarters of an hour. Strain it, and when cool, put in a tea cup of yeast; as soon as it has ceased fermenting, bottle it.
[264.] A good Family Wine.
Take equal parts of red and white currants, grapes, raspberries and English cherries, bruise and mix them with soft water, in the proportion of four pounds of fruit, to one gallon of water, let the liquid remain for two or three hours, then strain it, and to each gallon of wine add three pounds of sugar. Let it stand open three days, stirring it frequently, skim, and put it in a cask, place it in a temperate situation, where it will ferment slowly, when fermented add to it a ninth part of brandy, and stop it up tight. In two or three years it will be very rich.
[265.] Currant Wine.
Strain the currants, which should be perfectly ripe, to each quart of juice, put two of water, and three pounds of sugar. Stir the whole well together, and let it stand twenty four hours, then skim it, and set it in a cool place, where it will ferment slowly, let it remain three or four days, if at the end of that time, it has fermented, add one quart of French brandy, to every fifteen gallons, stop it tight, when it is clear, it is fit to bottle. This wine is better for being kept several years.