1868 The complete Practical Distiller

THE COMPLETE PRACTICAL DISTILLER.

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It is thus that each time the distiller wishes to give to his spirit as much of the flavour of the fruit and of the wine as possible, he should not distil it at a stronger de- gree than is required for consumption. He should draw the spirit as high as possible in all other cases ; and if such spirit, lowered with water down to proof, has not quality enough, this proof must again be submitted to the still, to be more concentrated. This operation will always be practicable with the continuous apparatus, because every thing in this system will tend to favour it. It has been seen, in fact, in this system of distillation, that the only difl&culty which presented itself sometimes was occasioned by the wine being so rich as to be ui?able to condense its own vapours; for, all things equal, the proportion of water should always be greater, according as the spirit is to be drawn off at a low strength. But as it is important here to draw the spirit at the highest standard possible, whether one or two, or even three, operations are resorted to, it will be conceived that with respect to condensation it will be found here the most favourable in support of the operation. The con- trary would take place if, in operating on too rich a wine by means of the continuous apparatus, the spirits were only to be drawn at 19° or 22°,* to preserve all the good quality. * As the thermometers of Reaumur and Fahrenheit are occasionally referred to in the course of this work and others upon the subject of distillation, therefore, in order to establish a correspondence between them, and to convert the degrees of the former into those of the latter, multiply the degree of Reaumur by 9, divide the product by 4, and to