1919 Home made beverages

— A Icoholic

Beverages

in cold water and thinned with wine. Red wines are gen- erally fined with the whites of eggs in the proportion of 15 to 20 to the pipe. Sometimes, but rarely, hartshorn shavings or pale sweet glue is substituted for isinglass. 2. — Isinglass (gelatine). 1 lb.; stale beer, cider or vine- gar, 3 or 4 pt. Mix and macerate until the former be- comes gelatinous, then reduce it to a proper consistency with weak, mild beer, cider or any other liquid that the finings are intended for. A pint or more is the usual dose for a barrel of beer or porter and a quart for a hogs- head of wine. 3. — Red Wines. — The operation is carried on in the same manner. To lighten up a wine add 6 eggs and a handful of salt, use the whites, yolks and shells. 4. — White Wines. — To fine 30 gal. white wine the whites of 3 eggs will be required with the addition of J£ an egg shell reduced to powder and a tablespoonful of salt. Beat up all together with a little of the wine and then pour gradually into the wine, stirring constantly. Flatness. — This is removed by the addition of a little new brisk wine of the same kind or by sousing in 2 or 3 lb. of honey, or by adding 5 or 6 lb. of bruised sultana raisins and 3 or 4 qt. of good brandy per hogshead. By this treatment the wine will usually be recovered in about a fortnight, except in very cold weather. The process may be expedited if a tablespoonful or two of yeast be added and the cask removed to a warmer situation. To Lay Down Wine. — Having carefully counted the bottles, they are stored away in their respective bins, a layer of sand or sawdust being placed under the first tier and another over it; a second tier is laid over this, pro- tected by a lath, the head of the second being laid to the bottom of the first. Over this another bed of sawdust is laid, not too thick, then another lath, and so on till the bin is filled. Wine so laid in will be ready for use according to its quality and age. Port wine, old in the wood, will be ready to drink in 5 or 6 months, but if it is a fruity wine it will improve every year. Sherry, if of 170