1857 The Bordeaux wine and liquor dealers' guide

27

llliNUFACTURING AND ADULTERATING LIQUORS.

moisture, is excited by the contact of all bodies, the element.s of which are in a state of active decom– position or fermentation. "In nitrogenized sub– stances of a very complex construction, fermentation is spontaneously established when water is present, and the temperature sufficiently high, and it con– tinues till the original compounds are wholly de– stroyed. Substances destitute of nitrogen, on the contrary, require, in order to their undergoing this metamorphosis, the presence of nitrogenized sub– stance already in a state of fermentation." The sub– stances which promote this change are termed fer– ments ; and among these, the principal are gliadine, gluten, vegetable albumen, and all substances in a state of spontaneous decomposition. Yeast, the fer– ment most commonly employed for inducing the vinous fermentation, is such a substance in an ac– tive state of decomposition, and whose atoms are in continual motion. Chemist.s divide fermentation into five different processes, viz.: lst. The sacclw1ri1nefermen'tation, by which starch and gum are converted into sugar. 2d. The alcoholic or virioUB/ermen'tation, by which sugar is converted into alcohol. 3d. The viscOUB or mucilagin

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