VINEGAR. 



Tlie wine which is generally converted into vinesrar, and 

 which for its cheapnefs is commonly employed for this pur- 

 pofe, is fuch as has already become four ; although the 

 better and the more fpirituous the \nne, and alfo the more 

 of the vinous fpirit that can be retained in the \nnegar, the 

 better and ftronger it will be. Becher fays, in his " Phyfica 

 Subterranea," tliat Iiaving digefted wine in order to convert 

 it into vinegar, in a bottle hermetically fealed, he found, 

 that although a longer than the ordinary time was required, 

 the vinegar produced was much ftronger than when free 

 air is admitted. Mr. Cartheufer alfo afBrms, that the 

 ftrength of vinegar may be much increafed by adding fome 

 aqua vitas to the wine, before it is expofed to the acetous 

 fermentation. Nothing more feems requifite in the prepa- 

 ration of good vinegar than to employ good wine, and to 

 cOnduft the fermentation in the moft advantageous method ; 

 the principal part of the operation being performed by 

 nature. 



ViXEGAR in France, Method of maiing. The French ufe 

 a method of making vinegar different from that above 

 defcribed. They take two very large oaken veffels, the 

 larger the better, open at the top ; in each of which they 

 place a wooden grate, within a foot of the bottom : upon 

 thefe grates they firft lay twigs, or cuttings of vines, and 

 afterwards the ftalks of the clufters of grapes, without the 

 grapes themfelves, or tlieir ttones, called the rafie, till the 

 whole pile reaches witliin a foot of the brim of the veffels ; 

 then they fill one of thefe veffels with wine to the very top, 

 and half fill the other ; and with liquor drawn out of the 

 full veffel, they fill up that which was only half full before ; 

 daily repeating the fame operation, and pouring the liquor 

 back from one veflel to the other ; fo that each of them is 

 full and half full by turns. 



When this procefs has been continued for two or three 

 days, a degree of heat will arife in the veffel which is then 

 but half full, and will increafe for feveral days fucceffively, 

 without any appearance of the like in the veffel which hap- 

 pens to be full during thofe days ; the liquor of which will 

 ftill remain cool : and as foon as the heat ceafes in the 

 veffel that is half full, the vinegar is prepared ; which, in 

 the fummcr, happens on the fourteenth or fifteenth day from 

 the beginning ; but, in the winter, the fermentation pro- 

 ceeds much (lower ; fo that they are often obliged to for- 

 ward it by artificial warmth, or the ufe of ftoves. 



When the weather is exceedingly hot, the liquor ought 

 to be poured off from the full veffel into the other twice a 

 day ; otherwife the liquor would be over-heated, and the 

 fermentation would prove too ftrong ; whence the fpirituous 

 parts would fly away, and leave a vapid wine, inftead of 

 vinegar, behind. 



The full veffel is always to be left open at top ; but the 

 mouth of the other mull be clofed with a cover of wood, 

 in order the better to keep down and fix the fpirit in the 

 body of the hquor ; for, otherwife, it might eafily fly off in 

 the heat of fermentation. The veffel that is only half full 

 feems to grow hot, rather than the other, becaufe it con- 

 tains a much greater quantity of the vine -twigs and ftalks 

 than that, jn proportion to the liquor ; above which the 

 pile rifing to a confiderable height, conceives heat the more, 

 and fo conveys it to the wine below. Boerhaave's Elem. 

 of Chemiftry, part iii. p. 143, &c. Phil. Tranf. vol. ii. 

 p. 657. 



There is another method, by which a very good vinegar 

 is commonly made at Paris from the lees of wine. A 

 quantity of wine-lees is put into a large tun, and worked 

 Lip with wine fufRcient to render it very fluid. This is 

 then put into cloth facks, which are arranged in a large 



iron-bound wooden vat, the heavy cover of which is laid 

 over them, and ferves as a prefs, that is gradually fcrewed 

 down till all the liquor is preffed out. The wine, thus 

 loaded with the extradlive and tartareous matter of the lees, 

 is diftributed in large caflcs fet upright, tl rough the heading 

 of which a hole is cut, which is conftantly left open. I;i 

 fummer thefe caflcs are fimply fet in the fun ; but in 

 winter they are arranged in a itoved room. The fermentation 

 comes on in a day or two, and when it has got to its height, 

 fo much heat is excited, that fometimes the hand can hardly 

 be borne in it. In this cafe, it muft be checked by a cooler 

 air, and by adding fome frefh wine to the caflcs ; and, indeed, 

 it is in a due regulation of the heat that moft of the prac- 

 tical lliill of the maker confifts. The procefs goes on in 

 this way tiU the whole of the wine is thoroughly acidified, 

 which requires about a fortnight in fummer and a month in 

 winter ; after which the new vinegar is put into barrels, at 

 the bottom of which are laid a good many chips of beech 

 wood. Here it remains for about a fortnight, during 

 which time it clarifies, and the clear part is then drawn off 

 and kept in well-clofed caflcs. Thefe beech chips may be 

 ufed over and over again for feveral years. 



The natural colour of good wine-vinegar is a very pale 

 red, but a higher colour is given, if defired, by the addition 

 of elder-berries. 



There are feveral (light variations in the mode of making 

 wine-vinegar, but which need not be detailed. They all 

 confift in exciting a frefh fermentation in wine, and keeping 

 it np in a moderate degree till acetification is complete. 

 Many refufe parts of the vine are of ufe for this purpofe, 

 fuch as the hufli", the four fucculent twigs, the mare or 

 cake left in the wine-prefs, and the hke ; and after they 

 have once ferved, they are ftill more valuable, as the acid 

 which they naturally contain, or which is evolved by them, 

 is more readily produced. 



Wine may alfo be converted to good vinegar without 

 thefe additions, fimply by adding wine, efpecially when on 

 the fret, to vinegar already made, and expofing it to a 

 proper heat. In this way many manufacturers proceed, 

 keeping their cafks always full, by taking out of them at 

 intervals about a third or fourth part, replenifhing them 

 with wine, and again bringing the contents to the ftate of 

 vinegar. 



In this country vinegar is chiefly made from malt. The 

 following is the ufual procels in London. A nia(h of malt 

 and hot water is made, which, after infufion for an hour and 

 a half, is conveved into a cooler a few inches deep, and 

 thence, when fufficiently cooled, into large and deep fer- 

 menting tuns, where it is mixed with yeaft, and kept in fer- 

 mentation for four or five days. The liquor ( which is now 

 a ftrong ale without hops) is then diftributed into fmaller 

 barrels, fet clofe together in a ftoved chamber, and a mode- 

 rate heat is kept up for about fix weeks, during which the 

 fermentation goes on equally and uniformly till the whole is 

 foured. This is then emptied into common barrels, which 

 are fet in rows (often of many hundreds! in a field in the open 

 air, the bung-hole being juft covered with a tile to keep off the 

 wet, but to allow a free admiffion of air. Here the liquor 

 remains for four or five months, according to the heat of 

 the weather, a gentle fermentation being kept up, till it 

 becomes perfcft vinegar. This is finiflied in the following 

 way. Large tuns are employed, with a faKe bottom, on 

 which is put a quantity of the refufe of raifins or other fiTiit 

 left by the makers of raifin and other home-made wines, 

 called technically rape. Thefe rape-tuns are worked by 

 pairs ; one of them is quite filled with the vinegar from the 

 barrels, and the other only three-quarters full, fo that the 



ferment- 



