212 



G JLE AiN I .N U>S I JN HK K V V L,T U UK . 



Mak. 



sold. Weighiug up every section sold, and 

 giving full 16 oz. to the pound, is surely the 

 fairest wa> ; but it is a laborious operation, 

 and where" only a penny, or even a couple of 

 pennies, cover the amount at stake, it seems 

 as if there might be some speedier way, by 

 lumping o& the goods, as it were, instead of 

 going through with the slow process of iig- 

 uring by ounces. 1 am sure there is such a 

 thing as wasting more time over pennies 

 than they are worth — in some kinds of busi- 

 ness. 



THE SCIENCE OF MAKING HONEY 

 VINEGAR. 



HOW TO MAKE IT ON A LAKGE SCALE. 



aN page 64 of Gleanings, Jan. 15, E. France 

 Tells how to make vinegar Irom honey. This 

 way will do very well on a small scale; but to 

 make a larger quantity of vinegar, or for the 

 manufacture of it, we need a quicker pro- 

 cess. I'wo years is too long a time for the manu- 

 facturer to get his money back for the honey he 

 bought. 



To get vinegar, the honey-water has to undei-go 

 two different changes: First, the sugar is changed 

 to alcohol and then the alcohol is changed to vine- 

 gar—an acid. The latter i)rocess is done by grow- 

 ing small vegetables on the surface of the alcohol 

 holding water. By this process there is needed a 

 sufficient amount of air. It is a good jilan to sepa- 

 rate these two different processes by manulacturing 

 the vinegar. 



About the sweetness of the honey- water, it is 

 different for more or less strong vinegar. Th\is, 

 if you wish 5 per cent acid in the vinegar you can 

 make the honey-water holding lU per cent of su- 

 gar; or you take 2U per cent of sugar and mi.x later 

 with one-half of water. So the honey-water can be 

 made holding 8 to ;iO per cent of sugar, correspond- 

 ing with 4 to 10 per cent of acid in the vinegar, 

 nearlj-. More than 20 per cent of sugar will take 

 too long a time for fermentation, and for changing 

 alcohol to vinegar, or this" process would be im- 

 possible. For this we want to know how large a 

 per cent of sugar is in the honey-water. It is best 

 to use, Cor this purpose, an areometer— the same as 

 is used in making wine or beer. This is far more 

 exact than the floating egg, which corresponds to 

 15 or 18 per cent of sugar, and this gives a strong 

 vinegar. 



The honey-water is now put in a standing barrel, 

 with one head out, and here It commences to fer- 

 ment pretty soon. The higher the temperature, 

 the quicker the fermentation. After about 9 or 10 

 days, the areometer will show you only 2 or 4 per 

 cent of sugar, and now we will call the honey- 

 water honey-wine. This honey-wine is filtered in 

 barrels till it is clear. The oftener it is filtered 

 from one barrel into iiiiothcr. the quicker it will be 

 done. It will help very miich if some fruits of any 

 kind are given with the honey-water in the stand- 

 tng barrel. This will give sonie tannin to the hon- 

 ey-wine. This fruit can be used a second or third 

 titno; so will a small quantity of comtnon cream 

 tartar quicken the process. In about two or three 

 months the wine will be clear enough. 



To change this wine to vinegar we know several 

 different ways. I will explain only two. 

 1. To make vinegar in small quantities, take 



some tight barrels, and pour into every one 15 

 gallons of good old vinegar and 15 gallons of the 

 houeywiue, above described. Iri about 4 weeks 

 (With high temperature in summer) you can take 

 out of every barrel 15 gallons of vinegar. Now 

 fill up again with 15 gallons of honey-wine. The 

 barrels are about two-thirds full this way, and have 

 to be open all the time. So every barrel gives 15 

 gallons every month. 



2. For a larger quantity of vinegar I approve 

 the following method: 



Take any flat vessel, put in some ferment of 

 your honey-wine, and some water and vinegar. 

 In 14 days or 3 weeks you will have on the sur- 

 face of this water a large quantity of vinegar vege- 

 tables, and you will need this for the following 

 process : 



The honey-wine, mixed with one-fourth or one- 

 third of old vinegar, is put in another standing 

 barrel, and the above-described vegetable is plant- 

 ed on the surface by a thin well-wetted board. The 

 vegetable will grow, by high temperature, very 

 quickly. In 18 hours the whole surface will be 

 covci-ed by it. In nine or ten days the alcohol is 

 changed to vinegar acid, and the vinegar vegeta- 

 ble falls down to the bottom. The vinegar is now 

 filled up in barrels, and sold. The standing bar- 

 rel is cleaned, and filled again with the so-called 

 honey-wine. By pouring the vinegar into barrels 

 it is a good plan to mi.x it with a small quantity 

 of honey-wine; the vinegar will keep betler and 

 stronger. The barrels should be well closed. By 

 this method the honey is changed in 80 or lOO days 

 to the best vinegar. 



If the honey cost about 5 cents per lb., this vine- 

 gar will be cheaper than good wine vinegar can be 

 made; but vinegar iiuide of corn and grain can be 

 sold at a lower price, for the starch and sugar 

 which ax-e to be converted into vinegar will cost not 

 more than :J cts. per lb. But the honey-vinegar is 

 far the better, and nearl.\- as good as the best wine 

 vinegar. Spirituous vinegar can not be made in the 

 United States, on account of the governmental dues. 



Let me give some more rules for its manufac- 

 ture. On an average, the honey will contain about 

 75 per cent of sugar. By making the honey-wine, 

 about 15 percent of the fluid is lost, and in vinegar- 

 making, not (juite 10 per cent. The higher the 

 temperature, the quicker the process, but the 

 greater the loss. 



AH this 1 have verified by many experiments, and 

 it seems to me not impossible to manufacture the 

 honey-vinegar on a large scale. 



Selma, Tex., Jan. 27, 1887. L. Stachelhausen. 



I will explain to our readers, that friend 

 S. would prol)ably prefer to write the above 

 letter in his native German than in English ; 

 yet the facts he furnishes are so important 

 we give the article, as nearly as we can, as it 

 came from his pen. There is something 

 wonderfully interesting to me about this vin- 

 egar-plant^i plant that will cover the sur- 

 face of a barrel in only 18 hours. And this 

 reminds me of a vinegar-plant which was 

 propagated and sold, perhaps 20 years ago. 

 It looked like a piece of loose cotton, or, 

 perlinps, like white vinegar-mother. "Well, 

 if., a little bunch of plant was placed in a 

 glass or ,i;tr of sweetened water, and the 

 whole placed in the sun, in a warm temper- 

 ature, that plant commenced growing by 



