733. Honey or Mead Wine

733.    Honey or Mead Wine. Honey, 20 pounds; cider, 12 gallons; ferment, then add rum, 1/2 gallon; brandy, 1/2 gallon; red or white tartar (dissolved), 6 ounces; bitter almonds and cloves, of each 1/4 ounce. The process of fermenting, clearing and bottling, is similar to the last receipt.

734. Specimen Process to Make Unripe Grape, Currant, Gooseberry and Rhubarb Wine

734.    Specimen Process to Make Unripe Grape, Currant, Gooseberry and Rhubarb Wine, according to the process of Dr. McCulloch. Gather the fruit when it is nearly full grown, but before it shows the least sign of ripening. Any kind will do, but it is advisable to avoid choosing those which, when ripe, would be highly flavored. All unsound and bruised fruit should be rejected, and the stalks and remains of blossom removed by picking or rubbing. The following receipt is one of the best on the subject: 40 pounds fruit are to be bruised in small quantities, in a tub which will hold 15 or 20 gallons, sufficient pressure only being used to burst the berries, without breaking the seeds or much compressing the skins. 4 gallons water are then to be poured on the fruit, which is to be carefully stirred, and squeezed with the hands until the whole of the juice and pulp are separated, from the solid matter. It is then to rest for a few hours, when it must be pressed and strained through a coarse canvas bag with considerable force. 1 gallon water may afterwards be passed through the residue, to remove any soluble matter that may be left, and then added to the juice. 30 pounds loaf sugar are now to be dissolved in the juice, and the total quantity of liquid made up with water to 101/2 gallons. The liquor is now to be put into a tub, over which spread a blanket, covered by a board, and place in a temperature of from 55° to 00° Fahr. for from 24 to 48 hours, according to the signs which it may show of fermentation, when it is to be put into a cask to ferment. The cask must be of such size that the liquor will nearly reach to the bung-hole, so that the scum may run out as it rises. As the fermen-tation goes on the liquor will decrease, and the cask must be kept filled up nearly to the bung-hole with a portion of the "must" which has been reserved for that purpose. "When the fermentation has become a little weaker, which may be known by the hissing noise decreasing, the bung is to be driven in, and a wooden peg, called a spile, made of tough wood, put into a hole bored in the top of the barrel After a few days this peg is to be loosened to let out any carbonic acid gas which has been generated. This must be done from time to time, and when there is no further sign of gas generating to the danger of the barrel, the spile may be made tight. The wine should be kept during the winter in a cool cellar, and, if fine, may be bottled on a clear cold day at the end of February or the beginning of March, without further trouble. But to ensure its fineness it is preferable to draw it off at the end of December into a fresh cask, so as to clear it from the lees. At this time, also, if it is found to be too sweet for the maker's taste, he should stir up the lees so as to renew the fermentation, at the same time raising the temperature. 'When it is transferred to the fresh cask, it should be fined with is in glass. Sometimes it is desirable to rack it off a second time into a fresh cask, again fining it. All these removals should bo made in clear, dry, and if possible, cold weather. It must be bottled in March. This wine will usually be brisk, but circum-stances will occasionally cause it to be sweet and still, and sometimes dry. If sweet, it may be re-made the following season, by adding'to it juice from fresh fruit, according to the degree of sweetness, and fermenting and treating it as before. But if it be dry, briskness can never bo restored, and it must be treated as a dry wine, by drawing it off into a cask previously fumigated with sulphur (see No. 766 (To Arrest Fermentation)), and fining and bottling it in the usual manner. Such dry wines sometimes taste disagreeably in the' first and second year, but improve much with age. If the whole marc or husks, etc., is allowed to remain in the juice during the first fermentation, the process will be more rapid, and the wine stronger and less sweet; but it will have more flavor. If the wine is desired to be very sweet as well as brisk, 40 pounds of sugar may be used; less sweet and less strong, 25 pounds; it will be brisk, but not so strong, and ought to be used within a year.