Geo. Pray how is it made, then?
Tut. I will tell you; for it is a matter worth knowing. The juice pressed from the grapes, called must, is at first a sweet watery liquor, with a little tartness, but with no strength or spirit. After it has stood awhile, it begins to grow thick and muddy, it moves up and down, and throws scum and bubbles of air to the surface. This is called working or fermenting. It continues in this state for some time, more or less, according to the quantity of the juice and the temperature of the weather, and then gradually settles again, becoming clearer than at first. It has now lost its sweet flat taste, and acquired a briskness and pungency, with a heating and intoxicating property; that is, it has become wine. This natural process is called the vinous fermentation, and many liquors besides grape-juice are capable of undergoing it.
Geo. I have heard of the working of beer and ale. Is that of the same kind?
Tut. It is: and beer and ale may properly be called barley-wine; for you know they are clear, brisk, and intoxicating. In the same manner, cider is apple-wine, and mead is honey-wine; and you have heard of raisin-wine and currant-wine, and a great many others.
Har. Yes, there is elder-wine, and cowslip-wine and orange-wine.
Geo. Will everything of that sort make wine?
Tut. All vegetable juices that are sweet are capable of fermenting, and of producing a liquor of a vinous nature; but if they have little sweetness, the liquor is proportionally weak and poor, and is apt to become sour or vapid.
Har. But barley is not sweet.
Tut. Barley as it comes from the ear is not; but before it is used for brewing, it is made into malt, and then it is sensibly sweet. You know what malt is?
Har. I have seen heaps of it in the malt-house, but I do not know how it is made.