On Wine . 
497 
ciently fermented, when the head of yeast at the bunghole begins to 
subside. Add to the quarter cask two gallons of good brandy, or 
half a pint to each gallon of wine. Let it remain bunged up for 
four months ; then fine it with the white of an egg beat up in 
skimmed milk. In a twelvemonth rack it off in a clean cask, 
rincedout with a little brandy and water. This wine, to be goody 
ought to remain in the cask at least four years after racking. 1 
cwt. or 112lbs. of fine ripe currants, will yield near 10 gallons of 
juice. Six pounds of sugar will add half a gallon to the bulk of 
the liquor. A mixture of about one sixth black currants, greatly 
improves the flavour. For smaller quantities proceed thus : 
Take equal parts of currant juice well strained through linen 
or flannel, and water. To 10 gallons of the mixt liquor add 25lb. 
Muscavado sugar, previously dissolved in the water. Add about a 
gill of yeast ; let it ferment in a cool place about 24 hours, or till the 
fermentation is over. Beat up the white of an egg in a quarter of a 
pint of skimmed milk. Stir it about well. Bung it up : in four 
months rack it off, and add a quart or three pints of brandy. 
The wine from Gooseberries. Dr. Clark is right, in his Tra- 
vels to Russia, when he says, this is equal to any Champ ain. But 
gooseberries do not grow so well in America as they do in England. 
Gooseberry wine made sweet, and flavoured with the blossoms of 
elder flowers, is not a bad imitation of Frontiniac. 
Blackberries. I do not know any thing of this wine ; I havo 
tasted the wine made from 
Elder Berries ; but it has no qualities to recommend it. 
All the writers on made wines, strongly exclaim against brandy 
being put into them : this is from a silly and affected regard for 
' health and sobriety : all wines are the better for it. When Foil 
wine, or any of the thin wines are in danger of becoming acid, 
there is no better remedy for the evil than half a gallon or a gal- 
lon of good brandy to the quarter cask. Exfierto crede Roberto, 
W e hear a great deal of exclamation amongst physicians, against 
the deleterious effects of fermented liquors, particularly of ardent 
spirits. They might as well talk of the deleterious effects of 
arsenic or opium. They are all poison in excess ; they are ex- 
cellent and invaluable remedies in mod rate doses. If a man 
drinks to excess, it is a gradual poison, greatly inimical to muscu- 
lar strength, and also to mental vigour ; and so it is if he eat to ex- 
cess ; but in moderation, wine greatly aids both the one and the 
other , independent of the pleasurable zest it gives, even to the 
