To make Damson Wine.—Take five pounds of ripe stoned damsons, crush them and one-tenth of their stones, and boil them in a gallon of water. Then proceed as in making gooseberry wine, but only allow three pounds of sugar.
Mead, or Metheglin—for the distinction between them is difficult to determine—was the chief alcoholic beverage of the earliest inhabitants of Britain, and the maker of the mead was the eleventh person in order of precedence at the ancient courts of the Welsh princes. Mead is usually supposed to have been the fermented wine obtained from the liquor formed by boiling honeycombs with water, whereas metheglin was prepared from honey and water, with or without the addition of hops or spices.
To make Spiced Metheglin.—Boil for an hour a mixture of one gallon of water and three pounds of honey, taking off the scum as it forms. Allow the mixture to stand for twenty-hour hours, add yeast on toast, and proceed as directed in the section on the general principles of wine-making. When the active fermentation is subsiding, a few weeks before racking the mead, hang into the liquid within the barrel an open woven bag of mixed spices, an ounce each of crushed ginger, cloves, allspice, and coriander seeds.
A WINE FILTER-BAG.
To make Metheglin with Hops.—Boil half an ounce of hops in water, and allow it cool. Pour three quarts of warm water on three pounds of honey, stir, and allow the mixture to stand for twelve hours. Then add the hops and the water in which they were boiled, together with a piece of toast spread on both sides with yeast. Allow the mixture to ferment, and proceed as directed in the section on the general principles of wine-making. Add no ingredients beyond those named above.
Hydromel is but another name for metheglin, the word implying a product of the fermentation of a mixture of honey and water.
To make American Mead.—Take a barrel of cider, fresh from the apple-press, and place therein twenty or thirty pounds of drained honeycombs. The next day add sufficient honey to raise the specific gravity to such a point that an egg will float in the mixture. It is then to be treated in the manner suggested in the paragraph on the general principles of wine-making, the only further addition being half a gallon of rectified spirits.
To make Ginger Beer.—Take five gallons of boiling water and pour it on five pounds of lump sugar, five lemons sliced and without their pips, five ounces of bruised ginger, and five ounces of cream of tartar. Strain off when the liquid is cool enough, and add five table-spoonfuls of brewer’s yeast. Let the ginger beer stand all night, and then strain again as carefully as possible. Add the white of one egg before bottling the ginger beer, and put the beer in well-washed champagne bottles. It will be ready in one week. Brewer’s yeast should, if possible, be used, but if none can be had, two ounces of German yeast may be substituted for it.—J. R.