218 The Fermentation of Cacao 
factory knowledge of vinegar manufacture, but 
the following points may prove worthy of 
consideration of prospective manufacturers. 
Having secured the most favourable ferment, 
very much depends on the fermenting: tanks 
used; this is:where the,amateur manufacturer 
invariably gets wrecked. Wooden receptacles 
are entirely unsuited; under the influence of 
cacao vinegar the best casks become rotten 
and pierced by worm-holes within a few weeks. 
Quite as unsuitable are glass demijohns or 
earthenware jars with contracted necks. . After 
standing a few weeks a flat fungoid growth 
will be seen floating on the vinegar surface, 
and this gradually increases in size. This 
fungus in narrow-necked receptacles prevents 
the clear liquid being poured off, and in fact 
one ‘cannot produce clear, bright vinegar 
by pouring. The vinegar when’ thoroughly 
mature and clear, and ready for bottling or 
sale, should be siphoned off,'as taps would. 
always prove troublesome. Possibly the more 
cloudy remainders might be efficiently dealt 
with by one of the filters in use in kindred 
trades, such as Macqueen’s ‘Filtre Rapide,” 
and other devices used in bottling wines and 
spirits, such as “finings” of white of egg and 
isinglass. It is probable that a portion of the 
fungoid growth from a superior mature sample 
of vinegar would be the best method of infect- 
ing a new batch of juice with the same fer- 
ment. There is, undoubtedly, much room for 
