364 
REMARKS  ON  CATAWBA  BRANDY. 
to  each  other.  But  as  the  juice  possesses  a  high  value  for  wine, 
and  even  in  the  best  years  produces  not  more  than  from  eight 
to  ten  per  cent,  of  alcohol,  brandy  manufactured  in  this  manner 
would  reach  a  price  of  ten  to  fifteen  dollars  per  gallon.  In  or- 
der, however,  to  do  anything  in  this  line  of  business,  so  impor- 
tant to  our  country,  cheapness  of  the  article  in  question  was  to 
be  aimed  at. 
A  trial  was  made  to  distil  the  pumice  and  lees  with  the  most 
inferior  wines  ;  but  this  also  did  not  give  the  desired  result ;  the 
raw  material  not  producing  that  quantity  of  alcohol  which  the 
rich  extractive  matter  required.  Another  difficulty  proved  to 
be  an  obstacle  to  this  way  of  fabrication  :  the  pumice  and  lees 
burning  fast  to  the  inner  brim  of  the  still  and  giving  thus  to 
the  brandy  a  fragrant  taste :  an  observation  made  by  Professor 
Wayne,  of  Cincinnati,  a  member  of  the  American  Pharmaceuti- 
cal Association,  and  communicated  in  the  proceedings  of  that 
society  for  1855. 
Further  trials  were  made  by  mixing  pumice,  lees,  and  inferior 
kinds  of  wine  in  a  certain  manner ;  to  which  was  added  di- 
luted alcohol,  in  order  to  gain  more  alcohol  to  extract  the  pum- 
ice. This  raw  material  was  then  distilled  by  steam  in  a  water- 
bath,  and  the  result  was  more  satisfactory.  However,  the  bran- 
dy was  not  free  of  the  corn-fusel  oil,  which  remained  in  conse- 
quence of  the  fabrication  of  alcohol  from  whiskey.  This  lessens 
the  value  of  the  brandy,  and  is  easily  discovered  by  the  reagent 
of  L.  Molnar,  published  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  American 
Pharmaceutical  Association  for  1858,  page  67. 
In  order  to  produce  a  price-worthy  native  grape  brandy,  and 
entirely  free  of  corn-fusel  oil,  a  great  improvement  was  made  by 
adding  to  pumice,  lees  and  inferior  kind  of  wines,  so  much  su- 
gar and  water,  as  to  produce,  by  fermentation,  alcohol  in  pro- 
portion to  the  extractive  matter ;  by  which  process,  the  pumice 
also  was  extracted.  This  alcohol  is  identical  with  that  contained 
in  the  pumice  and  lees  ;  and  distillation  repeated  four  times 
proved  entirely  successful. 
The  specimen  of  brandy  presented  on  the  occasion  of  the  last 
meeting  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1858,  was  manufactured  in  the  above-mentioned  way, 
and  two  years  old. 
