Take calcined gypsum, in powder, 1 oz.
cream of tartar, in powder, 2 oz.

Mix them in a pint or more of brandy; pour it into the cask; put in, also, a few sticks of cinnamon, and then stir the wine without disturbing the lees. Bung up the cask the next day.

Boil a gallon of wine, with some beaten oyster-shells and crabs’ claws burnt into powder, an ounce of each to every ten gallons of wine; then strain out the liquor through a sieve, and when cold, put it into wine of the same sort, and it will give it a pleasant lively taste. A lump of unslacked lime put into the cask will also keep wine from turning sour.

Boil a pint of skimmed milk; when cold mix with it an ounce of chalk, in fine powder, pour it into the cask, and roll it ten minutes. The following day bung up the wine, and rack it off as soon as fine.

Or, take 1½ oz. of gum-arabic, in fine powder, and
1 oz. of chalk, in powder.

Mix those up with a pint more of wine, pour the mixture into the cask, roll it ten minutes, and then fill it up. Bung it up the next day, and rack off the wine as soon as fine.

Or, take the yolk and white of an egg,
½ oz. of chalk, in powder, and
½ oz. of burnt alum, in powder.

Beat those up in a mortar with a pint of spring water, and pour the mixture into the wine, roll the cask; then fill it up, and bung it up the next day.—Rack off the wine as soon as fine.

In 30 gallons of wine infuse a handful of the flowers of clary; then add a pound of mustard seed, dry ground, put it into a bag, and sink it to the bottom of the cask.

It is in the first place necessary to consider whether the existing state of fermentation be the original or secondary stage of that process which comes on after the former has ceased for several days, and is indeed the commencement of acetous fermentation. That of the former kind rarely proceeds beyond what is necessary for the perfect decomposition of the saccharine and other parts of the vegetable substances necessary for the production of spirit, unless the liquor be kept too warm, or is too weak, and left exposed to the air after the vinous fermentation is completed. The means to correct these circumstances are sufficiently obvious. The heat for spirituous fermentation should not be above 60 degrees Fahrenheit; when it is much above that point, the liquor passes rapidly through the stage of vinous fermentation, and the acetous immediately commences. When too long-continued fermentation arises from the liquor having been kept in a warm situation, it will be soon checked by bunging, after being removed into a cold place; the addition of a small proportion of spirits of wine or brandy, previously to closing it up, is also proper. A degree of cold, approaching to the freezing point, will check fermentation of whatever kind. Fermentation of this kind cannot be stopped by any chemical agent, except such as would destroy the qualities of the liquor intended to be produced.

The secondary stage of fermentation, or the commencement of the acetous, may be stopped by removing the liquor to a cool situation; correcting the acid already formed; and if the liquor contain but little spirit, the addition of a proper proportion of brandy is requisite.

The operation of racking is also necessary to preserve liquor in a vinous state, and to render it clear. This process should be performed in a cool place.

Rack the wines down to the lees into another cask, where the lees of good wines are fresh, then put a pint of strong aqua vitæ, and scrape half a pound of yellow bees-wax into it, which by heating the spirit over a gentle fire, will melt: after which dip a piece of cloth into it, and when a little dry, set on fire with a brimstone match, put it into the bung-hole, and stop it up close.

First prepare a fresh empty cask, that has had the same kind of wine in it which is about to be racked, then match it, and rack off the wine, putting to every ten gallons two ounces of oyster powder, and half an ounce of bay-salt, then get the staff and stir it well about, letting it stand till it is fine, which will be in a few days; after which rack it off into another cask, (previously matched) and if the lees of some wine of the same kind can be got, it will improve it much.—Put likewise a quart of brandy to every ten gallons, and if the cask has been emptied a long time, it will match better on that account; but if even a new cask, the matching must not be omitted. A fresh empty cask is to be preferred.

N. B. This method will answer for all made wines.

Boiling the fruit is a practice of decided advantage. From this treatment many tasteless fruits acquire a flavour, as is well known, and many bad flavours are converted into agreeable ones. In no case perhaps is this more remarkable than in the black currant, which, harsh and comparatively insipid in its natural state, acquires by boiling a powerful, and, to most persons, a highly agreeable flavour. In making wine from this variety of currant, the effects of this process are very remarkable; the produce of the raw fruit being scarcely distinguished by any particular property from the herd of made wines, while that of the boiled fruit may with careful management be brought to resemble some of the best of the sweet Cape wines. In the white and red currant the same precaution has been attended with results equally successful, though not marked by a contrast so decided. If sweet wine is intended, the quantity of fruit for 10 gallons should not exceed 40 pounds; if dry wine is desired, it may extend to 60. The proportion of sugar will be 30 pounds as before. If a much stronger wine of either quality is desired, it must extend to 40 pounds. Unsound or bruised fruit should be rejected; and the remains of the blossom and fruit stalk carefully removed.