MEANS OF PREPARING WHOLESOME DRINKS. 281 



as soon as it has formed its deposit in the cask, and bottled 

 after having been preserved in these vessels till it has become 

 cjear. 



Quass prepared in this manner has a vinous and sharp 

 flavor which is not unpleasant. The color of it is not very 

 precise, being of a yellowish white. 



The imperfections of quass might be easily remedied by 

 adding wild apples, or pears, or juniper berries, to the fer- 

 mented substances. The fermented liquor might be racked 

 off several times from its lees, and clarified by the same pro- 

 cess which we use for wine. 



The different deposits which are formed during the manu- 

 facture of quass are entirely of malt, and afford a nourish- 

 ing and fattening food for animals. 



I have found that the operation I have just described for 

 procuring quass, might be simplified with the best results by 

 putting the cask in a place of which the temperature was be- 

 tween 18° and 22°.* 



I mixed the meal and malt with water at the tempera- 

 ture of 25°, ( = 77° or 88^° Fahr. according to the scale 

 used, — Tr.) so as to form a porridge; this I put the next 

 day into a cask, and added water at a temperature of 20° 

 or 22°, ( = 68° or 71° Fahr. ;) the liquor was stirred by 

 moving the cask as the water was turned in, so as to mix 

 its contents thoroughly ; about one sixth of the capacity of 

 the cask was left unoccupied. The cask was shaken once 

 a day for three days, and afler that was left undisturbed ; 

 at the end of five or six days fermentation was ended, and 

 nothing more remained to be done than to clarify the 

 liquor according to some of the processes which I have de- 

 scribed. 



In most of the countries of the north, a drink, which is 

 highly valued by the common people, is prepared by sub- 

 jecting certain roots to fermentation in unheaded casks, 

 into which they are put, either whole or cut into pieces ; the 

 most esteemed is procured from beet roots. These liquors 

 are nutritive, wholesome, and quenching to thirst ; but 

 their whitish color and acid taste will for a long time pre- 

 vent the inhabitants of our fields from making use of them. 

 In countries where wine, piquctte, beer, cider, &lc. are 

 manufactured and sold at a low price, it would not be 



[* No scale is ffiven ; if upon the centigrade, between 64.4° and 

 71.8^ ; if upon Reaumur's, between 72i" and Q\)P. — Tr.] 



24* 



