410 



BRANDY. 



Brandy, to its mouth, where the liquor runs out, which is 

 "" v ' about one inch wide. 



The liquor, from the time it begins to run off, gra- 

 dually decreases in strength till the wine is entirely 

 exhausted of spirit, and then it becomes almpst taste- 

 less, and is little better than water. From this inequa- 

 lity) a distinction is always made between the good 

 spirit and the petite cau, as the French call it, or what 

 is termedfeinls by the British distillers, which last is 

 kept in separate casks, and redistilled in the next 

 process. The precise time, however, of collecting 

 thejcints, is altogether arbitrary. In some places it 

 is determined by the specific gravity of the spirit al- 

 ready run off. In Spain and Portugal, the sinking of 

 olive oil in the liquor is the established proof* and 

 others determine it by the proportion of brandy ob- 

 tained to the quantity of wine put into the alembic. 

 But this last proof, though frequently used, must be far 

 from being correct, as the quantity of good spirit de- 

 pends entirely upon the quality of the wines, and the 

 produce varies from a third to a fifteenth of their 

 weight. Strong heavy wines give the most spirit, 

 and'light thin wines, though well fermented, yield the 

 least ; and if the quantity of brandy be less than a 

 sixth, it is supposed not to be worth the expense of 

 distillation. In the extensive brandy distilleries of 

 Catalonia in Spain, the wines generally used yield 

 about a fifth of spirit of olive-oil proof, and as much 

 of feints for redistillation, and the general average of 

 product from the wines of the south of France is 

 ;sbout a fourth. 



The burnt taste which is common to most exported 

 brandies, and considered by many as an excellence, 

 is much disliked by the most delicate judges in the 

 wine countries, and is supposed to be produced by 

 boiling the wine with too much vehemence, or, 

 according to Chaptal, by the decomposition of the 

 malic acid contained in almost all wines, and which 

 partly rises with the distilled spirit. 



Brandies, distilled from the richest and fullest 

 bodied wines, have in general a very unpleasant fla- 

 vour, which is supposed to arise from an essential oil 

 found most abundantly in such wines; and the most 

 effectual method of destroying it is by adding a quan- 

 tity of water, which separates the oil from the spirit, 

 and a cautious redistillation. 



Brandy of _an inferior kind is also made from the 

 marc, or refuse of the grapes after the wine has been 

 extracted. This refuse still retains enough of grape 

 juice to be brought into a state of fermentation, and 

 it is estimated, that 32 cubic feet of it will yield 

 about ten gallons of spirit. Considerable difficulties, 

 however, have been experienced in the distillation 

 from marc ; and great precautions are necessary in 

 the regulation of the heat, to prevent the marc from 

 adhering to the bottom of the alembic, which not 

 only hurts the flavour of the spirit, but greatly in- 



jures the alembic itself. As a remedy for these dif- 

 ficulties, M. Bcaume, in his experiments on distillation, 

 recommends the immersion of the alembic in a water 

 bath, which prevents every possibility of the marc 

 being scorched ; or, which is more convenient, the 

 interposition of a wicker cradle between the marc 

 and the alembic, about two inches from the bottom. 



Though the juice of the grape has always been 

 considered as the only fermented liquor from which 

 this spirit could be properly distilled ; yet it was dis- 

 covered a few years ago b,y Professor Proust, that 

 brandy of an excellent quality might also be extract- 

 ed from the fruit of the carobe tree, (caroubier.) 

 This tree is very common in the eastern provinces of 

 Spain, and has been lutherto cultivated along all the 

 coast of the Mediterranean merely as food for cattle. 

 The spirit retains a slight odour of the fruit, but is 

 in no way disagreeable to the taete ; and the Pro- 

 fessor found, that five pounds of dried fruit produced 

 a quartillo (about the bulk of a pound of water,) of 

 very good brandy. 



Brandy, when it comes from the worm pipe, is pure 

 and colourless as water ; and the colour, which is 

 given it by the merchants, is produced partly by the 

 oaken casks in which it is kept, but chiefly by the 

 addition of saunders wood, burnt sugar, and other 

 colouring matters. These, however, do not in th& 

 least affect the quality of the spirit. 



Various methods have been invented for proving the 

 strength of brandy ; but as all of them are of a gene- 

 ral nature, and apply to other spirits as well as to 

 brandy, they will be more properly introduced under 

 the article DISTILLATION. One test, however, we 

 may mention, which is confined entirely to this spirit, 

 and was long considered by the brandy merchants, 

 both in England and on the Continent, as the most 

 infallible proof of the genuineness of brandy. By 

 this they could not only distinguish French brandy 

 from malt bpints, but likewise what was genuine 

 from what was adulterated. The experiment is made 

 by introducing two or three drops of a certain liquor 

 into a glass of brandy ; if the brandy be genuine, a 

 beautiful blue colour immediately appears at the bot- 

 tom of the glass, and when stirred tinges the whole 

 of an azure ; but if it be malt spirits, no such tinc- 

 ture is to be seen. By this means they also pretend 

 to judge, by the various hues which it assumes, of 

 the different degrees of adulteration. This liquor, 

 which was considered as a grand secret, was disco- 

 vered by M. Neuman, to be merely a solution of iron 

 in a vitriolic acid ; and he has shewn, by numerous 

 experiments, that, as a test, it is both false and falla- 

 cious ; as the effect ;is produced entirely upon the 

 colouring of the spirit, not upon the spirit itself. 

 See Alkin'e Dictionary of Chemistry and Mineralogy ; 

 Philosophical Transact ions, vol. xxxiii. p. 398; and 

 Nicholson's Journal, vol. ix. p. 302. (p) 



Bran 



