_Cider Without Apples._--To each gallon of cold water, put 1 lb. common
sugar, ½ oz. tartaric acid, 1 tablespoonful of yeast, shake well, make
in the evening, and it will be fit for use next day. I make in a keg a
few gallons at a time, leaving a few quarts to make into next time; not
using yeast again until the keg needs rinsing. If it gets a little sour
make a little more into it, or put as much water with it as there is
cider, and put it with the vinegar. If it is desired to bottle this
cider by manufacturers of small drinks, you will proceed as follows: Put
in a barrel 5 gallons hot water, 30 lbs. brown sugar, ¾ lb. tartaric
acid, 25 gallons cold water, 3 pints of hop or brewers' yeast worked
into paste with ¾ lb. flour, and 1 pint water will be required in making
this paste, put altogether in a barrel, which it will fill, and let it
work 24 hours--the yeast running out at the bung all the time, by
putting in a little occasionally to keep it full. Then bottle, putting
in 2 or 3 broken raisins to each bottle, and it will nearly equal
Champagne.
_Cider Champagne, No. 1._--Good cider, 20 gallons; spirits, 1 gallon;
honey or sugar, 6 lbs. Mix, and let them rest for a fortnight; then fine
with skimmed milk, 1 quart. This, put up in champagne bottles, silvered
and labeled, has often been sold for Champagne. It opens very sparkling.
_Cider--To Keep Sweet._--1st. By putting into the barrel before the
cider has begun to work, about half a pint of whole fresh mustard seed
tied up in a coarse muslin bag. 2d. By burning a little sulphur or
sulphur match in the barrel previous to putting in the cider. 3d. By the
use of ¾ of an ounce of the bi-sulphite of lime to the barrel. This
article is the preserving powder sold at rather a high price by various
firms.
_To Neutralize Whiskey to make various Liquors._--To 40 gallons of
whiskey, add 1½ lbs. unslacked lime; ¾ lb. alum, and ½ pint of spirits
of nitre. Stand 24 hours and draw it off.
_Madeira Wine._--To 40 gallons prepared cider, add, ¼ lb. tartaric acid;
4 gallons spirits; 3 lbs. loaf sugar. Let it stand 10 days, draw it off
carefully; fine it down, and again rack it into another cask.
_Sherry Wine._--To 40 gallons prepared cider, add, 2 gallons spirits; 3
lbs. of raisins; 6 gallons good sherry, and ½ ounce oil bitter almonds,
(dissolved in alcohol). Let it stand 10 days, and draw it off carefully;
fine it down and again rack it into another cask.
_Port Wine._--To 40 gallons prepared cider, add, 6 gallons good port
wine; 10 quarts wild grapes, (clusters); ½ lb. bruised rhatany root; 3
oz. tincture of kino; 3 lbs. loaf sugar; 2 gallons spirits. Let this
stand ten days; color if too light, with tincture of rhatany, then rack
it off and fine it. This should be repeated until the color is perfect
and the liquid clear.
_To correct a bad Taste and sourness in Wine._--Put in a bag the root of
wild horse-radish cut in bits. Let it down in the wine, and leave it
there two days; take this out, and put another, repeating the same till
the wine is perfectly restored. Or fill a bag with wheat; it will have
the same effect.
_To restore Flat Wine._--Add four or five pounds of sugar, honey, or
bruised raisins, to every hundred gallons, and bung close. A little
spirits may also be added.
_To restore Wine that has turned sour or sharp._--Fill a bag with
leek-seed, or of leaves or twisters of vine, and put either of them to
infuse in the cask.
_Ginger Wine._--Take one quart of 95 per cent. alcohol, and put into it
one ounce of best ginger root (bruised and not ground), five grains of
capsicum, and one drachm of tartaric acid. Let stand one week and
filter. Now add one gallon of water, in which one pound of crushed sugar
has been boiled. Mix when cold. To make the color, boil ½ ounce of
cochineal, ¾ ounce of cream tartar, ½ ounce of saleratus, and ½ ounce
alum in a pint of water till you get a bright red color.
_French Brandy._--Pure spirits, 1 gallon; best French brandy, or any
kind you wish to imitate, 1 quart; loaf sugar, 2 ounces; sweet spirits
of nitre, ½ ounce; a few drops of tincture of catechu, or oak bark, to
roughen the taste if desired, and color to suit.
_Gin._--Take 100 gallons of clean, rectified spirits; add, after you
have killed the oils well, 1½ ounces of the oil of English juniper, ½
ounce of angelica essence, ½ ounce of the oil bitter almonds, ½ ounce of
the oil of coriander, and ½ ounce of the oil of caraway; put this into
the rectified spirit and well rummage it up; this is what the rectifiers
call strong gin.
To make this _up_, as it is called by the trade, add 45 pounds of
loaf-sugar, dissolved; then rummage the whole well up together with 4
ounces of roche alum. For finings there may be added two ounces of salts
of tartar.
_Aromatic Schiedam Schnapps, to imitate._--To 25 gallons good common
gin, 5 over proof, add 15 pints strained honey; 2 gallons clear water; 5
pints white-sugar syrup; 5 pints spirit of nutmegs mixed with the nitric
ether; 5 pints orange-flower water; 7 quarts pure water; 1 ounce acetic
ether; 8 drops of oil of wintergreen, dissolved with the acetic ether.
Mix all the ingredients well; if necessary, fine with alum and salt of
tartar.
_St. Croix Rum._--To 40 gallons p. or n. spirits, add 2 gallons St.
Croix Rum; 2 oz. acetic acid; 1½ ounce butyric acid; 3 pounds loaf
sugar.
_Pine-Apple Rum._--To 50 gallons rum, made by the fruit method, add 25
pine-apples sliced, and 8 pounds white sugar. Let it stand two weeks
before drawing off.
_Irish or Scotch Whiskey._--To 40 gallons proof spirits, add 60 drops of
creosote, dissolved in 1 quart of alcohol; 2 oz. acetic acid; 1 pound
loaf sugar. Stand 48 hours.
_Rum Shrub._--Tartaric acid, 5 pounds; pale sugar, 100 pounds; oil
lemon, 4 drs.; oil orange, 4 drs.; put them into a large cask (80
gallons), and add water, 10 gallons. Rummage till the acid and sugar are
dissolved, then add rum (proof), 20 gallons; water to make up 55 gallons
in all; coloring one quart or more. Fine with 12 eggs. The addition of
12 sliced oranges will improve the flavor.
_Bourbon Whiskey._--To 100 gallons pure proof spirit, add 4 ounces pear
oil; 2 ounces pelargonif ether; 13 drs. oil of wintergreen, dissolved in
the ether; 1 gallon wine vinegar. Color with burnt sugar.
_Strong Beer, English Improved._--Malt, 1 peck; coarse brown sugar, 6
pounds; hops, 4 ounces; good yeast, 1 teacup; if you have not malt, take
a little over 1 peck of barley, (twice the amount of oats will do, but
are not as good,) and put it into an oven after the bread is drawn, or
into a stove oven, and steam the moisture from them. Grind coarsely. Now
pour upon the ground malt 3½ gallons of water at 170 or 172° of heat.
The tub in which you scald the malt should have a false bottom, 2 or 3
inches from the real bottom; the false bottom should be bored full of
gimlet holes, so as to act as a strainer, to keep back the malt meal.
When the water is poured on, stir them well, and let it stand 3 hours,
and draw off by a faucet; put in 7 gallons more of water at 180 to 182°;
stir it well, and let it stand 2 hours, and draw it off. Then put on a
gallon or two of cold water, stir it well, and draw it off; you should
have about 5 or 6 gallons. Put the 6 pounds of coarse brown sugar in an
equal amount of water; mix with the wort, and boil 1½ to 2 hours with
the hops; you should have eight gallons when boiled; when cooled to 80°
put in the yeast, and let it work 18 to 20 hours, covered with a sack;
use sound iron hooped kegs or porter bottles, bung or cork tight, and in
two weeks it will be good sound beer, and will keep a long time; and for
persons of a weak habit of body, and especially females, 1 glass of this
with their meals is far better than tea or coffee, or all the ardent
spirits in the universe. If more malt is used, not exceeding ½ a bushel,
the beer, of course, would have more spirit, but this strength is
sufficient for the use of families or invalids.
_Root Beer._--For 10 gallons beer, take 3 pounds common burdock root, or
1 ounce essence of sassafras; ½ pound good hops; 1 pint corn, roasted
brown. Boil the whole in 6 gallons pure water until the strength of the
materials is obtained; strain while hot into a keg, adding enough cold
water to make 10 gallons. When nearly cold, add clean molasses or syrup
until palatable,--not sickishly sweet. Add also as much fresh yeast as
will raise a batch of 8 loaves of bread. Place the keg in a cellar or
other cool place, and in 48 hours you will have a keg of first-rate
sparkling root beer.
_Superior Ginger Beer._--Ten pounds of sugar; 9 ounces of lemon juice; ½
a pound of honey; 11 ounces of bruised ginger root; 9 gallons of water;
3 pints of yeast. Boil the ginger half an hour in a gallon of water;
then add the rest of the water and the other ingredients, and strain it
when cold. Add the white of an egg, beaten, and ½ an ounce of essence of
lemon. Let it stand 4 days, then bottle, and it will keep many months.
_Spruce Beer._--Take of the essence of spruce half a pint; bruised
pimento and ginger, of each four ounces; water, three gallons. Boil five
or ten minutes, then strain and add 11 gallons of warm water, a pint of
yeast, and six pints of molasses. Allow the mixture to ferment for 24
hours.
_To Cure Ropy Beer._--Put a handful or two of flour, and the same
quantity of hops, with a little powdered alum, into the beer and rummage
it well.
_To give Beer the appearance of Age._--Add a few handfuls of pickled
cucumbers and Seville oranges, both chopped up. This is said to make
malt liquor appear six months older than it really is.
_How to make Mead._--The following is a good receipt for Mead:--On
twenty pounds of honey pour five gallons of boiling water; boil, and
remove the scum as it rises; add one ounce of best hops, and boil for
ten minutes; then put the liquor into a tub to cool; when all but cold
add a little yeast, spread upon a slice of toasted bread; let it stand
in a warm room. When fermentation is set up, put the mixture into a
cask, and fill up from time to time as the yeast runs out of the
bunghole; when the fermentation is finished, bung it down, leaving a
peg-hole which can afterwards be closed, and in less than a year it will
be fit to bottle.
_Stomach Bitters, equal to Hostetter's, for one-fourth its
cost._--European Gentian root, 1½ ounce; orange peel, 2½ ounces;
cinnamon, ¼ ounce; aniseseed, ½ ounce; coriander seed, ½ ounce; cardamon
seed, 1/8 ounce; unground Peruvian bark, ½ ounce; gum kino, ¼ ounce;
bruise all these articles, and put them into the best alcohol, 1 pint;
let it stand a week and pour off the clear tincture: then boil the dregs
a few minutes in 1 quart of water, strain, and press out all the
strength; now dissolve loaf sugar, 1 pound, in the hot liquid, adding 3
quarts cold water, and mix with spirit tincture first poured off, or you
can add these, and let it stand on the dregs if preferred.
_Soda Syrup, with or without Fountains._--The common or more watery
syrups are made by using loaf or crushed sugar, 8 pounds; pure water, 1
gallon, gum arabic, 2 ounces, mix in a brass or copper kettle; boil
until the gum is dissolved, then skim and strain through white flannel,
after which add tartaric acid, 5½ oz., dissolved in hot water; to
flavor, use extract of lemon, orange, rose, pine-apple, peach,
sarsaparilla, strawberry, etc., ½ ounce to each bottle, or to your
taste.
_Bead for Liquor._--The best bead is the orange-flower water bead, (oil
of neroli,) 1 drop to each gallon of brandy. _Another method_:--To every
40 drops of sulpuric acid, add 60 drops purest sweet oil in a glass
vessel; use immediately. This quantity is generally sufficient for 10
gallons spirit. _Another_:--take 1 ounce of the purest oil sweet
almonds; 1 ounce of sulphuric acid; put them in a stone mortar, add, by
_degrees_, 2 ounces white lump sugar, rubbing it well with the pestle
till it becomes a paste; then add small quantities of spirits of wine
till it comes into a liquid. This quantity is sufficient for 100
gallons. The first is strongly recommended as the best.
_Coloring for Liquors._--Take 2 pounds crushed or lump sugar, put it
into a kettle that will hold 4 to 6 quarts, with ½ tumbler of water.
Boil it until it is _black_, then take it off and cool with water,
stirring it as you put in the water.
_Wax Putty for Leaky Casks, Bungs, etc._--Spirits turpentine, 2 pounds;
tallow, 4 pounds; solid turpentine, 12 pounds. Melt the wax and solid
turpentine together over a slow fire, then add the tallow. When melted,
remove far from the fire, then stir the spirits turpentine, and let it
cool.
_Cement for the Mouths of Corked Bottles._--Melt together ¼ of a pound
of rosin, a couple of ounces of beeswax. When it froths stir it with a
tallow candle. As soon as it melts, dip the mouths of the corked bottles
into it. This is an excellent thing to exclude the air from such things
as are injured by being exposed to it.