1868 The complete Practical Distiller

THE COMPLETE PRACTICAL DISTILLER.

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This mode would be precious, and free Irom any objecj- tions, if the lees collected in the press did not retain, after this operation, a considerable quantity of alcohol, which could not be well extracted by distillation. To con- ceive the cause of this fact, it will be sufficient to consider the mode of acting of organical bodies charged with water or alcohol — fruits, for instance, that have been preserved in brandy ; after a certain time these fruits imbibe the alcohol of the brandy and emit the water. The cause of this phenomenon is not well known, but the fact exists, and has no doubt attracted the notice of the reader. In fact, fruits preserved in alcohol have always a greater alcoholic taste than the liquor in which they have been preserved : this has been the cause of its being com- monly said that " fruits drink spirits.'' The same phe- nomenon takes place in all wines which have fermented with solid substances : these contain always more alcohol, in proportion to their weight and volume, than the liquid m which they are formed. When the solid substances of the lees are merely sepa- rated by the press, the production of spirits is consider- ably lessened by not submitting to distillation the Bubstances which retain the alcohol in the greatest proportion : this fact has been verified by comparative experiments on grain and potatoes. On the other side, the spirit thus produced gains much in quality, and the cause of this acquisition is easily ex- plained by the results of numerous inquiries on that subject. The distillation of the skins of the raisins, in which the