FRUIT PRESER VA TION APPLES CIDER-MAKING. 



343 



the trees to a great extent secure against the winter moth, and with due attention to the 

 prevention and destruction of other insect pests, the trees produce fruit for cider-making 

 with little expense beyond manuring the orchards every few years after they coine into 

 bearing. 



The quality of cider depends on : 1, kind of fruit ; 2, condition of the fruit when ground ; 3, manner of 

 grinding and pressing ; 4, method of conducting the requisite fermentation, and precautions to be taken against 

 its excess. 



1. A good cider apple, as a rule, has a red skin, yellow, tough, fibrous pulp, and is characterised by astriugency. 

 dryness, and ripeness at the cider-making season. Fruits with a green rind and pulp make thin, weak, colourless 

 cider. When the skin and pulp are deeply tinged with yellow, the cider will almost always possess colour, strength 

 or richness. The ripeness of apples for vintage is known by their 



fragrance and spontaneous dropping from the trees. In this state of 

 maturity the limbs might be slightly shaken to secure such fruit 

 only as are ripe, leaving the unripe on the trees till they acquire 

 due maturity. Dry, cool weather is best for gathering cider apples. 

 Avoid bruising more than can be helped, as mouldiness fixes on 

 every wound, and communicates a musty flavour to the juice. The 

 quality of an apple for cider ia determined by the specific gravity 

 of the must, or the weight of the unfermented juice compared with 

 that of water (ascertained by an instrument called a saccharometer). 

 Its weight and consequent value are in ratio to the saccharine matter 

 the higher the specific gravity the stronger and more highly- 

 flavoured the cider. Brandy Apple (Golden Harvey) has a specific 

 gravity of 1085, and represents the highest quality juice. 



2. The fruit should be used when it has attained full maturity, 

 and before it commences decaying. Each variety ought to be used 

 separately, or only those kinds mixed which ripen about the same 

 time. The more perfect the maturity of the fruit the greater the 

 saccharine matter and the less watery the juice. The colder the 

 weather short of actual frost, the more steady and equable will be 

 the fermentation of the juice. 



3. At whatever period grinding takes place it is absolutely essen- 

 tial that cool weather be chosen preferably slightly frosty to 

 counteract the tendency to rapid fermentation. The ordinary mill 

 consists of a heavy cylindrical stone 3 or 4 feet in diameter and 

 about 1 foot thick, which is made to revolve and rub along in a 



circular trough in which the apples are placed. The apples should be reduced by the mill to a uniform mass in 

 which the rind and seeds are scarcely discoverable, and the pomase be exposed to the air for a few hours. This 

 exposure of the reduced pulp increases the specific gravity -014. For fine cider the fruit should be ground and 

 pressed imperfectly, then the pulp exposed for twenty-four hours to the air, being spread and turned once or twice, 

 to facilitate the absorption of oxygen ; it should then be ground again, and the expressed juice added to it before 

 it is again pressed. A more perfect method of grinding is in a mill with cylindrical rollers placed so near each 

 other as to crush the pips, fed from a hopper above them, the apples from which pass between a pair of toothed or 

 fluted cylinders, by which they are torn and partially crushed before reaching the perfectly crushing apparatus. After 

 crushing, the mass is put into hair cloths and powerfully pressed (Fig. 83), and the liquor is run into casks. 



4. Fermentation commences and terminates at periods varying with the condition or quality of the fruit and the 

 state of the weather. The proper time to draw the liquor from the scum and sediment is indicated by its brightness, 

 which takes place after the discharge of fixed air has ceased and a thick crust is formed on the surface, then the clear 

 liquid should be drawn off into another cask. If the fermentation has been complete the liquor will remain bright 

 and quiet, and nothing more will be required until the spring ; but if a scum collects on the surface it must be 

 racked off again, as this would produce bad effects if allowed to sink. Among the precautions employed to prevent 



Fig-. 83. MATFAETH'S JUICE AND TDTCTUM 



