There is some mention made in what went afore concerning this amending; but ’tis not done so clearly and manifestly. I will therefore open it more clearly and more perspicuously in this place.
Mix one part of your Brandy made of Corn, with two parts of common water poured thereunto, that the stench and ungratefull savour may diffuse it self into the added water. Having so done, you must again free this Brandy thus tempered with water by putting your Magnet thereinto, and so will you draw therefrom all the stinkingness, and ’tis just as if you had washed that Wine, and rinsed off all its filth.
XCIV. The benefit purchased by separating the Water from Vinegar.
If you would have benefit by this liquor, the same may be done by the same reason; in those places out of which it is transported into other Countries; if, viz. the unprofitable water be removed after the same manner as we taught to be separated from the Wine.
XCV. By what means good Wine and Vinegar may be every year prepared by the help of this same Magnet, in those Countries in which the Grapes do not ripen.
Although that in all the Coasts scituated upon the Rhine, as in Rhingovia, Moguntia, Wormatia, Algentorati; in Alsatia, the Palatinate, Franconia, Austria, and the Dukedom of Wurtenberg, (in which places, the Wines do for the most part arrive to their perfection every year) this Art be not so very necessary; yet nevertheless Saxonia, Misnia, Thuringia, Suevia, and Bavaria do stand in need thereof; in which Countries the Wine doth for the most part remain acid, unless the Summer hath by a singular chance hapned to be very hot. For in these places it is no less profitable than pleasant to drink a sweeter and nobler Wine instead of the more acid Wine, if so be one could get it by the help of the said Art. Besides, this same Art yields no small profit and benefit in those Countries, in which though the Wine is (as we said but now) wont to be noble. For it may happen that some unseasonable Weather may hinder the ripening of the Grapes, and that the Vineyards wanting the due heat of the Sun cannot arrive unto maturity. For oftentimes in one and the same Countrey, there are divers Wines produced, so that one sort exceeds another in nobility and goodness. Those therefore that are good and generous need not the help of this Art, but contrarily the smaller and less noble Wines want it. Hence I conclude that in all the Countries of the World, wheresoever Wines are made, this Art may be serviceable and profitable to any one.
XCVI. How in those cold Countries; as in Poland, Denmark, Suedeland, Norway, &c. Which by reason of the Coldness of the Air admit not of making Wine, there may nevertheless good Wine and Vinegar conducive to the health of Man be made.
Though the Cold may so hinder as that Vines will not grow, nor Vineyards be, yet notwithstanding those places so obnoxious to the Cold, have plenty of Apples, Pears, and such like Tree-fruits; whose Juice being pressed out, and fermented, and after the Fermentation, freed of the greatest part of the unprofitable water, will give a better and more durable Drink, than that which is made the usual way of Apples and Pears. For this drink cannot last long because of the muchness of the humidity, but becomes ropy, acid and muddy, and so corrupts.
So likewise may those Countries that abound with Corn be rendered partakers of most excellent and wine-like Drink, which may be used and drunk instead of Wine, to the great benefit and advancement of the health of the Body; and it is to be thus done.
First of all, let very good Wheat be made to germinate [or sprout] by stewing in some gentle heat; [as in making of Mault] then after the sprouting let it be put in some warm Furnace, or in great Coppers, and stirred about with some wooden thing without ceasing till it be dryed. In this Operation you must have an especial care, that the Corn smatch not of the Fire, which is then brought by drying to a sufficient hardness, when it is not soft in biting it with your Teeth, but leaps as ’twere in pieces; this is a sign that you have done your work well. Having prepared it thus, let it be broken [or ground] and boiled after the manner of other Ale, without Hops; and then after it has fermented let it be freed from its superfluous moisture by our Magnet. So will you have remaining a sweet Drink not much unlike to Wine; which Liquor if you would yet have more near in its likeness to Wine, you must put in for every Tun or every Butt about a pound of Tartar in the Fermentation, that so it may ferment together with the Corn, and may give unto this Drink a winy Tast.