462 On the Process of making Spirits in [Dec. 



the whole apparatus is immersed in a cistern of water, just 

 large enough to hold it. The hot wort is allowed to flow 

 into the pipes hy the open vessel at top, while an equal 

 quantity of water enters the cistern at bottom, and flows 

 off at top to the coppers, carrying with it all the heat ab- 

 stracted from the worts. Supposing the worts to be thus 

 cooled down from 150° to 70°, the water will by this pro- 

 cess acquire 80° of heat, and will reach the coppers at a 

 temperature of 120° or 130°, instead of 40° or 50°. This 

 arrangement of cooling pipes which seems well adapted to 

 its intention, is the invention of Mr. Coffey, a distiller of 

 Dublin, who is also the patentee of a distilling apparatus, 

 of which we shall have occasion to speak hereafter. 



6. Wash-hacks, or fermenting tuns. — After the worts have 

 been cooled down to the proper temperature, which is 

 determined by their strength, the season of the year, or 

 rather by the temperature of the weather, and the bulk of 

 worts to be collected and fermented in one vessel, they are 

 collected into vessels called wash-backs, or fermenting 

 backs. 



These vessels are sometimes made" in the form of a cone, 

 standing on its larger base, and either round or oval, some- 

 times they are square ; some are constructed of wood, and 

 others are made of iron ; each material has its advantages 

 and its disadvantages, iron being a better conductor of 

 heat, has this advantage that either hot or cold water may 

 be applied in an outside case, to regulate the temperature 

 of the wash contained in the back, which is a point much 

 to be attended to by the distiller, for if the temperature 

 get too high, which it is apt to do, fermentation is checked, 

 after which, it can with difficulty be again induced ; and if 

 the temperature get too low, somewhat similar effects are 

 produced, until means are taken to raise the temperature. 

 Fermentation is one of the most important, as well as the 

 most difficult processes to regulate, of all the distiller's 

 operations, and requires much of his skill and attention to 

 conduct it to a proper termination. 



It was formerly the practice to add brewer's yeast only 

 to the worts, for the purpose of inducing fermentation, but 

 the expense of that article, and the difficulty of obtaining 

 it fresh and good, in remote situations, has lately induced 



