To each Scotch pint of full ripe gooseberries, mashed, add one Scotch
pint of water, milk-warm, in which has been dissolved 1 lb. of single
refined sugar: stir the whole well, and cover up the tub with a
blanket, to preserve the heat generated by the fermentation of the
ingredients: let them remain in this vessel three days, stirring them
twice or three times a day: strain off the liquor through a sieve,
afterwards through a coarse linen cloth; put it into the casks it
will ferment without yeast. Let the cask be kept full with some of
the liquor reserved for the purpose. It will ferment for ten days,
sometimes for three weeks: when ceased, and only a hissing noise
remains, draw off two or three bottles, according to the strength
you wish it to have, from every 20 pint cask, and fill up the cask
with brandy or whiskey; but brandy is preferable. To make it very
good, and that it may keep well, add as much sherry, together with
a ¼ oz. of isinglass dissolved in water to make it quite liquid;
stir the whole well. Bung the cask up, and surround the bung with
clay; the closer it is bunged the better; a fortnight after, if it
be clear at the top, taste it; if not sweet enough, add more sugar;
22 lbs. is the just quantity in all for 20 pints of wine; leave the
wine six months in the cask; but after being quite fine, the sooner
it is bottled, the more it will sparkle and resemble champaigne. The
process should be carried on in a place where the heat is between 48°
and 56° Fahrenheit.—N. B. Currant wine may be made in the same manner.