Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/645

 MALT-HOUSES, LIMEKILNS, CIDER-HOUSES, ETC. 621 tries who drink it at all), a portion of water is poured into the chace with the fruit when even it is first ground. It is a singular fact, that, notwithstanding the immoderate quan- tities of this their sole beverage, which the labourers are in the habit of drinking at harvest time, when it is almost always extremely harsli, and very often quite acid, yet not an individual case of cholera has occurred in the county of Hereford, though few towns of the adjoining counties have wholly escaped. The jiuce is commonly received in a stone cistern sunk in the ground immediately under the lip of the press, and is thence conveyed to the cellar, which should be near. When practicable, an open spout may be used to convey it at once to a receiver placed therein. What is sold to the merchants, who buy the greater part of the prime and unwatered cider, is at once tunned from the press into hogsheads, and sent off by loads of three or four casks in a waggon, to the purchaser, who superintends its after-management himself. Although this immediate removal is liable to be prejudicial to the liquor, should rapid fermentation commence before it is stowed under the cider-merchant's care ; yet, from his greater knowledge of its due treatment, and his paying it more attention, it is in most cases far superior in richness and flavour to what can be procured from the cultivators themselves. Cider di-inkers, in the counties in which it grows, generally prefer that which is stout and rough (in fact, what others would term harsh), to the more refined and luscious beverage exported to distant places, where vinegar would be deemed a more appropriate name for what the cider-makers themselves prefer and retain. In the cellar it is usually tunned into hogsheads of a hundi-ed gallons each, leaving a few gallons ullage. Larger hogsheads, of two, three, or four hundi-ed gallons, are frequently made use of; and they are to be pre- ferred, more especially after the liquor has become quite bright, and all active ferment- ation has ceased. Long ranges of casks are, however, in abmidant seasons, placed on trams, and allowed to remain for a considerable period in the open air ; where, unless the weather be very severe, the working (as it is called) proceeds equally well with that removed to the vaults or cellars. In forty-eight hours, or thereabouts, according to the temperature of the weather, &c., after the cider has been tunned, the feculent parts of the fruit, which have passed through the haircloths with the juice, are separated from the liquor, and thrown to the surface. When this is the case, no time should be lost in racking the liquor ; for, if taken at this juncture, it runs oIF perfectly bright; but should it be neglected, the extraneous matter is again mixed with the liquid by the internal motion occasioned by the fermentation. After a few days it subsides to the bottom, though, when the weather is (as often happens in the season for cider-making) mild and warm, this period is protracted, and the cider is in proportion deteriorated. With this single racking the fiirmer is generally content ; for he prefers a good, stout, rough be- verage, to one of a more luscious quality, and moreover dreads the expense of continual care and rackings. The common family drink and washings most frequently receive no care whatever, from the time when the liquor is tunned, to that when it is tapped for use ; and the grounds remaining in it cause a continual fermentation until it bepomes acid, often so much so as to be fit for nothing but making vinegar. If it is intended for the cider to attain the highest perfection of which it is capable, it must be carefully watched, to prevent any active fermentation taking place ; and, if this should be the case, it must be again racked, and this course be pursued until it becomes perfectly quiescent. The fewer the rackings required, the better the cider will be ; for during each successive rack- ing a portion of the spirit evaporates, and, if they be repeated too frequently, the liquor is rendered poor and thin. In this lies the great art of managing cider ; and, in warm seasons especially, it is still a desideratum to discover some means of checking its too rapid fermentation, which is always induced by increase of temperature. When it has remained a short time quiet, and shows no disposition to renewed fermentation or fretting, if not perfectly star-bright, which it seldom is, it should be fined with isin- glass ; an operation which will, in some cases, require to be repeated two or three times, ere the inaximum of transparency is obtained. The cask may then be stopped down close, but must be occasionally examined. It is usual to heighten the colour of the cider by the addition of a small quantity of sugar boiled with water until black : none is ever added to perry. Every time the liquor is racked, a certain quantity of lees will be found ; and it is the presence of these which excites the fretting. These lees must on every occa- sion be put into bags, termed dropping-bags, suited for the purpose, by means of which the liquor mingled with the grounds is obtained clear, the feculency remaining behind. Some preserve the product of this separate ; for from its having dripped drop by drop from the bags, and its long exposure to the air in the receiving-tub, it becomes quite flat, hadng, at the same time, parted with much of its spirit. Others, on account of that very flatness, return it back to the cask, as tending to check fermentation. Among other unfounded, absurd, and ignorant accusations which are alleged against merchants for doctoring their cider, it is affirmed that they are in the habit of mixing with it bul- lock's blood. The only use to which sheep's and bullock's blood is applied in the manu-