254 



growth of all manner of moulds and bacteria, it is now attempted to 

 displace by an addition of pure cultivated yeast to the " Must" (grape 

 juice) and to bring about in its place a purer fermentation of a pre- 

 viously known character. Further it is desired by this means to do 

 away with the products of decomposition of the organisms originally pre- 

 sent in the Must, which frequently exert a disagreeable influence on the 

 taste and aroma, and by this means obtain a purer tasting more even- 

 charactered wine. After experiments in this direction, in the Labora- 

 tory of the Research Station at Geisenheim had led to favourable re- 

 sults, attempts were made on a practical scale with selected races of 

 yeast, cultivated pure. Since as already mentioned the yeast which 

 was added to the " Must" had to enter into competition with the or- 

 ganisms already present there, the pure yeast must be addedC 1 ) in suffi- 

 eient quantity ( 2 ) in active fermentation/ 3 ) and when possible should 

 be added to the Must before it has begun to ferment. These conditions 

 however, especially point 3. were in the latter end of the warm and 

 dry Autumn of 1893, very difficult to attain. Because in consequence 

 of the warm weather the yeasts attached to the grapes were very 

 strongly developed, and thus swarmed in the expressed juice in large 

 numbers, and at the same time the temperature being high, fermen- 

 tation began quickly so that in by far the greater number of cases, the 

 pure cultivated yeasts could only be added to the Must when it 

 was already in a state of fermentation. In order to insure that 

 the pure cultivated y easts were not added to the " must" in a 

 too weak fermentating or even partially inert state, the Research 

 Station did not give the same to the wine-makers in accurately 

 measured quantities sufficient to ferment a fixed quantity of must, 

 but every ferm enter received the freshy cultivated yeast in a few 

 litres (1 litre=1.37 pints) of previously sterilised must when this must 

 had nearly finished fermenting. According to instructions given with 

 this, he (the fermenter), had then to cause this yeast to multiply by 

 gradually adding to it larger and larger quantities of must, until he had 

 by this means obtained a quantity of yeast sufficient for the whole quan- 

 tity of must to be fermented. This method wass omewhat detailed for the 

 fermenter. but he obtained by this means a sufficient quantity of yeast 

 in active fermentation. In those cases in which it was possible by this 

 method to bring the yeast into the must so that it obtained the upper 

 hard from the com men cement, favourable results were not wanting. 

 Almost without exception the musts fermented by the pure cultivated 

 yeasts weie distinguished from the musts fermented in the ordinary 

 manner, by a quicker and more intensive fermentation and a more 



pronounced bouquet " 



The italics here are my own. In regard to what TTortrnann writes 

 concerning the state of activity of the yeasts naturally present in the 

 grape juice, we may I think logically conclude that the same will be the 

 case in a greater degree in cane juice, owing to the high temparatures 

 prevalent in the Tropics : in fact my own experiments in this direction 

 confirm his views. Indeed it is very much a question in my mind, 

 whether, taking these difficulties into account, the "game would be worth 

 the candle." This point however can only be decided by a course 

 of experiments on a large scale. But the real fact of the matter is, that 

 the total amount of fresh cane juice fermented in this country represents 



