1903 The still-room by C. Roundell

CIDER

THE processes of cider-making are discussed and explained by the present writer in Thomas's Book of the Apple," one of the volumes in the series of " Handbooks of Practical Gardening." The following short summary must here suffice. The apples, properly selected and properly ripened by being thinly piled on boards or straw in an airy, sunny place, should be torn and crushed in a cider mill, and the juice pressed out by means of a screw-press. This crude juice should then be carefully strained through a fine-meshed filter, in order to remove any cellular tissue or other matter in suspension. The ex- pressed apple juice, having been freed by filtration from undissolved solids, is next to be subjected to the process of fermentation, that is, the conversion of its sugar into alcohol. For this purpose, it should be exposed to the air in large open vats, or in casks with the bung-hole left open. All the apple juice that is to be fermented in one vat or cask should be placed in it within twelve hours from the time of placing any therein. The specific gravity should be taken daily by means of a brewer's hydrometer, about six-sevenths of the total solids consisting of sugar. Approximately, the sugar gives about half its weight of alcohol, and it has been found that each decrease of one-hundredth in the 77