284 



Manufacture of Cider. 



Vol. IV. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Manufacture of Ciders 



(From the papers of the late Joseph Cooper, Esq.) 



Cider is an article of domestic manufac- 

 ture, which is, in my opinion, the worst 

 managed of any in our country, considering 

 its usefulness; and perhaps the best method 

 to correct errors is to point out some of the 

 principal ones, and then recommend better. 



One of the first is the gathering of apples 

 when wet ; the next, to throw them toge- 

 ther, exposed to sun and rain, until a sour- 

 ness pervades the whole mass ; then grind, 

 and for want of a trough or other vessels suf- 

 ficient to hold a cheese at a time, put the 

 pomace on the press as fast as ground, then 

 make so large a cheese as to take so long a 

 time to complete and press off, that fermenta- 

 tion will come on in the cheese before the 

 cider is all out ; and certain it is, that a small 

 quantity of the juice pressed out after the 

 fermentation comes on, will spoil the product 

 of a whole cheese if made therewith. When 

 either of the above circumstances will spoil 

 the cider, which I know to be the case, don't 

 wonder at the effect of a coinbination of the 

 whole, which is frequently the case. 



As I have very often exported cider, and 

 sold it to others for that purpose, to the West 

 Indies and Europe, without ever hearing of 

 any spoiling, and as it is my wish to make 

 the productions of our country as useful as 

 possible, I will give an account of my me- 

 thod. I gather the apples for good cider 

 when dry, put them on a floor, under cover, 

 have a trough sufficient to hold a cheese at 

 once, when the weather is warm ; grind them 

 late in the evening, spreading the pomace 

 over the trough to give it air, as that will 

 greatly enrich the cider, and give it a fine 

 amber colour; then early in the morning 

 press it off, the longer a cheese lays before 

 pressing off, the better, provided it escapes 

 fermentation until the pressing off is com- 

 pleted. The reason is evident from the fol- 

 lowing circumstance, take a tart apple and 

 bruise one side, and let it lay till brown, then 

 taste the juice of each side, and you will find 

 the juice of the bruised part sweet and rich, 

 though a tart apple. So, if sweet and sour 

 apples are ground together, and put imme- 

 diately on "the press, the liquor therefrom 

 will taste both sweet and tart, but if let lie 

 till brown, the cider will be greatly im- 

 proved. I always take great care to put 

 cider in clean sweet casks, and the only way 

 to effect this is to rinse or scald them well 

 as soon as the cider is out, and not let them 

 stand with a remnant or lees to make tjiem 

 sour, must or stink. When my casks arc 

 filled, I place them in the shade, and ox])osed 

 to the northern air. When fermentation 



takes place, fill them up once or more a day, 

 to cause as much of the filth as possible to 

 discharge from, the berry bung ; when it dis- 

 charges a clear white froth, put in the bung 

 stack, or bore a hole and put a spile in it, 

 and thereby check the fermentation gradu- 

 ally ; and when it has subsided, take the first 

 opportunity of clear cool weather, and rack 

 it off into clean casks; to effect which, when 

 I have drawn the cider out of a cask in which 

 it has fermented, I first rinse the cask with 

 cold water, then put into a hogshead two or 

 three quarts of fine gravel, and three or four 

 gallons of water; work it well to scour off 

 the yeast or scum, and sediment which al- 

 ways adheres to the casks in which the cider 

 ferments ; and if not scoured off as above di- 

 rected, will act as yeast when the cider is 

 put in again, and bring on a fretting, and 

 spoil or greatly injure the liquor ; after scour- 

 ing, rinse as before. 



1 find benefit in burning a brimstone match 

 in the cask, suspended by a wire, after put- 

 ting in two or three buckets of cider; the 

 best method for which process is to have a 

 long tapering bung, with a large wire drove 

 in the small end with a hook tor the match, 

 which for a hogshead should be sufficient to 

 kill a hive of bees. If the cider stands a week 

 or more after racking, previous to its being 

 put into the cellar, rack it again and rinse 

 the casks, but not with gravel, and put it im- 

 mediately into the cellar. The late made I 

 put in the cellar immediately after or before 

 the first racking, agreeably to circumstances 

 as to the weather. The cider I wish to keep 

 till warm weather, I rack in clear cool wea- 

 ther the latter part of February or beginning 

 of March ; it is best to keep the cask full and 

 bunged tight as possible. 



To refine cider for exportation or bottling, 

 take of Russia Isinglass about an ounce to a 

 barrel, pound it as soft as possible, pick it in- 

 to fine shreds, put it in a clean earthen pot, 

 pour on about half a pint of boiling water, 

 stir and beat it with a stick split in tour parts 

 at tlie end, and something put in to keep it 

 apart; when it has got thick add a pint of 

 good sound cider, set the pot in a place tlie 

 most safe and handy, but not too warm ; as it 

 grows stiff, add cider as before in small quan- 

 tities, and repeat the stirring, the oflener the 

 better, if fifty times a day ; in two or three 

 days, if it is well dissolved, rack ofi' the cider 

 which is for refining, add of it to the isin- 

 glass prepared as above, stirring it well till 

 fit tor straining, which do through a linen 

 cloth; then mix the fining and cider toge- 

 ther as well as possible, and set it in a pro- 

 per place for drawing oft", giving some vent 

 for some days. If it is not sufficiently fine in 

 ton days, rack it oft' and repeat the fining as 

 before ; but it is best to rack it, fine or not, 



