The usual careless way of making cider, in which is used all kinds of
apples, even frozen and decayed ones, and without any reference to their
ripeness; without straining, and neglecting all means of regulating the
fermentation, is too well known. This is the more general practice
throughout the country; but it makes cider only fit for vinegar,
although it is used for general purposes. We give the most approved
method of making and keeping cider, that is better for invalids than any
of our adulterated wines (and this is the character of nearly all our
imported wines). Our domestic wines, and bottled cider, should take the
place of all others.
Select apples best suited for cider, and gather them at the commencement
of hard frosts. Let them lie a few days, until they become ripe and
soft. Then throw out all decayed and immature fruit. Grind fine and
uniform. Let the pulp remain in the vat two days. It will increase the
saccharine principle and improve the color. Put into the press in dry
straw, and strain the juice into clean casks. Place the casks in an open
shed or cellar, if it be cold weather, give plenty of air and leave the
bung out. As the froth works out of the bung, fill up every day or two,
with some of the same pressing kept for the purpose. In three weeks or
less this rising will cease, and the bung should be put in loose, and
after three days driven in tight. Leave a small vent-hole near the bung.
In a cool cellar the fermentation will cease in two days. This is known
by the clearness of the liquor, the thick scum that rises, and the
cessation of the escape of air.
Draw off the clear cider into a clean cask. If it remains quiet it may
stand till spring. A gill of fine charcoal added to a barrel will secure
this end, and prevent fermentation from going too far. But if a scum
collects on the surface, and the fermentation continues, rack it off
again at once. Then drive the vent-spile tight. Rack it off again in
early spring. If not perfectly clear, dissolve three quarters of an
ounce of isinglass in cider, and put it in the barrel, and it will soon
be perfectly fine. Bottle between this and the last of May. Fill the
bottles within an inch of the bottom of the cork, and allow them to
stand an hour, then drive the cork. Lay them in dry sand, in boxes in a
cool cellar, and the cider will improve by age, and is better for the
sick than imported wines.