1868 The complete Practical Distiller

THE COMPLETE PRACTICAL DISTILLEIi

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thing that has been said on the special distillation of lees, and on the apparatus suitable to it, is also applicable to the wines or worts of potatoes and of grain. To this case are again attached all the inconveniences attending its application to the distillation of lees. In fact, the dangers of torrefaction depend, in this case, on the workmen, which is not a sufficient guarantee for their disappearance, and ihej may often be reproduced. The taste of empyreuma exists thus always more or less intensely in spirituous products, and these retain^ besides, the bad taste and flavour of the fruits. It would appear, in fact, as if these peculiar and dis- tinctive variations did belong to an essential oil, which must principally reside in the husks of the grain and of the potatoes, and which is still incorporated in the spi- rituous produce more or less intensely, according as these substances have been introduced in smaller or larger quantities in the fermentation and distillation. It may thus be conceived that the most efficacious cor- recting mode is that which has already been recommended, and which consists in fermenting nothing but very fluid extracts. It has not been the object, in discussing this matter, to introduce innovations prejudicial to the esta- blished mode of working distilleries which could not adopt them without injuring their interests : the point aimed at has been to signalize the causes of the difierent qualities of spirits, and the means of conquering them. The condensing apparatus already mentioned is that which is most generally made use of in the distillation of corn and potatoes. To a manufacturer who wished to establish a corn or