142 



The Grape Culturist. 



of this fermentation room is, that the 

 wine in the same is exposctl to an 

 oven temperature, and that a con- 

 stant change of air is kept up. The 

 ventihilors are constructed in such a 

 manner that they can be closed in 

 cold or stormy -weather. The walls 

 are constructed of brick, or other j 

 material which is equally non-con- \ 

 ducting, and are besides coated with • 

 wood or plaster. Apartments with 

 low ceilings are best adapted to this . 

 purpose, because in rooms with high | 

 ceilings the casks have to be placed i 

 on high racks, so as to expose them 

 to the warm temperature of the upper 

 stratum of the atmosphere. Experi- j 

 ence has shown that in apartments 

 whore the casks are stored in different 

 bights, the uppermost work best and 

 quickest. 



To make jn-eparations for the intro- 

 duction of the wine, one-third of the 

 mothers is filled with strong, boiling 

 vinegar, and this constitutes the real 

 mother; after this from two to three 

 gallons of wine are added, and the 

 mixture left to work b}' itself. After i 

 the exjtiration of eight days the wine 

 is turned into vinegar, and a further ; 

 quantity of wine is added ; when this j 

 has become sour, the process is re- > 

 peated, until the mothers are more 

 than half filled. At this stage one- 

 third of the contents of the mother is 

 taken out by means of siphons, and 

 the liquid allowed to run into the 

 storage casks, when from two to three 

 gallons of wine are again added, and 

 the same left f<»r acidification, and so 

 on, so that the process is interrupted 

 as little as possible. 



Many manufacturers do not allow ' 

 the quantity of vinegar in the mothers 



to become so large, but draw oflp 

 twelve to sixteen gallons after the 

 sixth or eighth filling up. 



In order to produce a good and uni- 

 form quality of vinegar, no more ^vine 

 than the above mentioned quantities 

 should be put into the mothers at any 

 one time. It happens sometimes that 

 the wine has not turned sour after 

 remaining eight days in the mother. 

 Former!}' this could not be explained, 

 as the casks in which this occurs are 

 treated with the same care and are 

 kept as warm as those in which the 

 process is regular. Sometimes even 

 those casks which lay in the warmest 

 part of the room are the least ad- 

 vanced, or, as it is called, ''inert." 

 In such a case, nothing remains to be 

 done but to empty the casks, and to 

 fill them with strong, boiling vinegar, 

 after which the sour fermentation 

 commences again, and continues as 

 regular as in any other "mother." 

 Sometimes, merely the addition of a 

 quantity of stronger wine, or an in- 

 crease of the heat of the temperature, 

 is I'equired. This is, however, not to 

 be considered as a sure way to remove 

 the difficulty. The cause of this peri- 

 odical inertness may, in most cases, 

 be explained by the activeness of the 

 vinegar eels. As long as the influence 

 of the vinegar fungi was not known, 

 this phenomenon remained unex- 

 plained ; later investigations, how- 

 ever, have shed light on the subject. 



It has been recommended to keep 

 the mothers as much as possible sepa- 

 rated from each other, and especially 

 to use no iron in the construction of 

 the casks, as the pores become filled 

 up with vinegar, which, when coming 

 in contact with the nails and hoops, 



