Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Four gallons of water are then to be poured into the vessel, and the contents are to be carefully stirred and squeezed in the hand until the whole of the juice and pulp are separated from the solid matters. The materials are then to remain at rest from six to twenty-four hours, when they are to be strained through a coarse bag with as much force as can conveniently be applied to them. One gallon of fresh water may afterwards be passed through the mare for the purpose of removing any soluble matter which may have remained behind. Thirty or twenty-five pounds of white sugar are now to be dissolved in the juice thus procured, and the total bulk of the fluid made up with water to the amount of ten gallons and a half. If I name two quantities, it is because the fruit itself varies in quality, and it depends on the operator to distinguish. The old recipes allow forty pounds, of which the consequence is, invariably, a sweet wine, while it fails of being brisk in nine cases out of ten. And the smaller proportion here given will most frequently ensure a brisk wine, if the operator will but attend WIN ( 1134 ) WIN to the progress of the fermentation and the treatment as formerly described. The liquor thus obtained is the artificial must, which is equivalent to the juice of the grape — that is, made to resemble it as nearly as possible. It is now to be introduced into a tub of sufficient capacity, over which a blanket or similar substance, covered by a board, is to be thrown, the vessel being placed in a temperature varying from 50° to 60° of Fahrenheit's thermometer. Here it may remain for twelve or twenty-four hours, according to the symptoms of fermentation which it may show, and from this tub it is to be drawn oft" into the cask in which it is to ferment. "When in the cask it must be filled nearly to the bung-hole, that the scum which arises may be thrown out. As the fermentation proceeds, and the bulk of the liquor in the cask diminishes, the superfluous portion of must, which was made for this express purpose, must be poured in, so as to keep the liquor stiU near the bung-hole. "When the fermentation becomes a little more languid, as may be known by a diminution of the hissing sound, the bung is to be driven in, and a hole bored by its side, into which a wooden peg, called the spile, is to be fitted. After a few days this peg is to be loosened, that, if any material quantity of gas has been generated, it may find vent. The same trial must be made after successive intervals, and when there appears no longer any danger of extensive expansion, the spile may be permanently tightened. The wine thus made must remain over the -winter in a cool cellar, as it is no longer necessary to provoke the fermenting process. If the operator is not inclined to bestow any further labour or expense on it, it may be examined on some clear and cold day towards the end of February or beginning of March, when, if fine, as it will sometimes be, it may be bottled without further precautions. To ensure its fineness, however, it is a better practice to decant it, towards the end of December, into a fresh cask, so as to clear it from the first lees. At this time also the operator will be able to determine whether it is not too sweet for his views.