68 THE DIFFICULTIES OF FERMENTATION. 



(previously dissolved in some of the liquor) to every loo gallons, 

 which they believe not only assists in fining and preserving it, but 

 also in making it more wholesome ; and lastly, they supply the 

 deficiency of Alcoholic Fermentation by the addition of Alcohol 

 in the shape of Brandy to fortify and preserve it. 



If the persistent or "fretting" fermentation is allowed to go 

 on, it will exhaust the saccharine principle, and while the liquor 

 loses sweetness and strength, it becomes at the same time more 

 acid. The practical cider maker judges by the smell and taste of 

 the liquor when this period has arrived. The fermentation must 

 now be stopped at once, or the quality of the cider will be still 

 more injured. For this purpose the use of one or other of the 

 anti-ferments — or Yeast Plant destroying agents — must be resorted 

 to, such as Sulphur, Sulphurous Acid Water, Bisulphate of Lime, 

 or Soda, Salicylic Acid, &c. The two first named are the most 

 safe and the most effectual, and indeed they form the base of 

 most of the others used. They are easy of application, economical, 

 and if properly used, ought not eventually to produce any percep- 

 tible signs of their presence in the liquor, either to smell or taste. 

 The use of Sulphur, or Salicylic Acid, are the only ones that need 

 be specially alluded to. 



Sulphur. — This agent has been used to arrest fermentation from 

 time immemorial in all the great Wine districts of the Continent, and 

 in all the Cider and Perry districts of England ; and indeed it may 

 be said that its use of late years has prevailed universally, wherever 

 the process of Fermentation is carried on. The ordinary mode of 

 its application is very simple. When the liquor is ready for racking, 

 the fresh clean cask is "stummed" or "stunned" as it is termed, 

 (a contraction doubtless of " brimstoned ") that is, it is filled with 

 the fumes of burning Sulphur, or Brimstone. A strip of clean 

 canvas cloth, or linen, some ten or twelve inches long by two or 

 three wide, is dipped into melted Sulphur, and then allowed to 

 harden. This cloth match is fixed to a long piece of wire, lighted 

 and passed quickly into the barrel, the wire being fixed by the 

 bung. This soon fills the barrel with the fumes of Sulphuric Acid 

 Gas. The match is removed when it has gone out, from the 



