State Agricultural Society. 495 



THE MANUFACTURE OF BRANDY. 



Mr. President and members of the Association: 



Your committee, to whom was referred the manufacture of brandy, 

 have the honor to submit the following report: 



For the year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and seventy- 

 one, there was manufactured in this State three million eight hundred 

 thousand gallons of wine; the pomace and lees from which, without 

 working any wine, should have yielded three hundred thousand gallons 

 of brandy; but owing to oppressive revenue laws, imperfect distilling 

 apparatus, and total waste of material, only one hundred and fifty- 

 seven thousand gallons were made. The crop of eighteen hundred and 

 seventy-one amounts to about six million gallons of wine, the pomace 

 and lees from which should yield four hundred thousand gallons of 

 brandy, while the amount actually made will not exceed two hundred 

 thousand gallons. 



It is impossible for small vintagers to work their pomace to advantage 

 in stills heated by the direct action of fire; they cannot make a good 

 brandy. But with steam and a proper rectifying column a good brandy, 

 or perfectly clean spirit, can be made. The smaller the still the greater 

 the waste, the greater the cost of manufacture, and, as a rule, the poorer 

 the quality. 



We would therefore suggest the formation of factories similarly con- 

 ducted to the cheese factories in the East, where all the vinegrowers 

 would be stockholders to the amount of their stock of grapes. Their 

 wine and brand}' would be manufactured by the most economical and 

 effective machinery, and their product would go on the market of im- 

 proved quality, and at reduced cost, enhancing the profit. 



The most of the French brandy is grain, beet, or potato, spirit 

 flavored. California may not furnish a brandy with the peculiar flavor 

 of French; but it can furnish a perfectly pure grape spirit, with the 

 particular flavor and bouquet of any of the high flavored grapes grown 

 here. 



In the manufacture of brandy from grapes, without making wine, it 

 is necessary to add to each ton of grapes from one hundred to one 

 hundred and fifty gallons of warm water, the temperature of which 

 should vary with the size of the fermenting tubs, the temperature of 

 the weather, and the grapes when crushed. The temperature of the tub, 

 when full, should be from sixty eight to seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit. 

 The water should be first put in the tub and the crushed grapes added. 

 After a few days, if the wine in the bottom of the tub is not attenuating 

 as rapidly as it is at the top (and it seldom is), it should be drawn off and 

 pumped on top, as the fermentation goes on more rapidly on top than on 

 the bottom, and unless this is done there will be unfermented sugar in 

 the bottom of the tub, while there is none on top. 



Care should be taken to keep the skins, by means of a cover, under 

 the wine. If allowed to float on top, the acetic and putrescent fermen- 

 tation will soon set in, to the loss of quantity, and ruin of qualitjr, of 

 brandy. 



The still of the Johnston Brandy and Wine Manufacturing Company, 

 Sacramento, is probably the most convenient and economical now in use. 

 In charging the still with pomace, it is conveyed by means of a car on 

 a track, and emptied into the still through a manhole with movable 

 hopper; when charged, the hopper is moved, main plate screwed down, 

 and steam admitted through a coil of perforated pipe. The vapors from 



