1919 Home made beverages

Wines and Wine Making

The length of time necessary for the completion of the fermentation varies with the locality, the temperature of the apartment and with the quality of the wine required. In France, for the ordinary descriptions of wine, it gen- erally takes from 3 days to 1 week, and in Germany from 1 to 2 weeks. With the finer kinds of wine it occupies; 4, 5 or 6 weeks. The progress of the fermentation may be estimated from the specific gravity of the liquid, since as the fermentation proceeds and the sugar is undergoing conversion into alcohol, the wine of course becomes more attenuated and its specific gravity diminishes. It has been calculated that }4% of the alcohol pres- ent in the wine escapes during fermentation, as well as a considerable quantity of carbonic acid. An apparatus has [been invented for collecting these products by caus- ing them to pass into water by means of a hydraulic bung. When the fermentation is over the wine is run into casks, any sediment, such as lees or yeast, being left be- hind in the fermenting vessel. It is most important that the casks used for this purpose should be absolutely clean. Before a cask is used a second time it should be thoroughly sulphured. Those wines which contain a large amount of alcohol axe sometimes allowed to remain in the fermenting vat until they have cleared, but weak wines are immediately drawn off into the cask to prevent the setting in of the acetous fermentation. The casks must be filled to the bungholes. A second or minor fermentation takes place in the wine when in the cask, during which tartar or bi- tartrate of potash is deposited on the sides of the cask and yeast at the bottom. This second fermentation should be allowed to go on at a low temperature, 5 to 10° C. (41 to 50° F.), and at a slow rate. In some cases it is made to extend to 3 or 6 months. When the second fermentation is over the casks are filled to the bunghole and securely closed, or the wine is at once drawn into fresh casks to be stored. In these 149