Page:Old-Time Recipes for Home Made Wines Cordials and Liqueurs.djvu/31

 Rh will keep cider in the same condition as it went into the barrel, if kept in a cool place, for a year. The sulphur vapor checks the fermentation, and the sulphur in the mustard-seed keeps it checked. We hear that professional cider dealers are now using the bisulphite of lime instead of the mustard-seed and the sulphur vapor. This bisulphite of lime is the same as the “preserving powder.” It is only another form of using the sulphur, but it is more convenient and perhaps more effectual. Another method is to add sugar, one and a half pounds sugar to a gallon of the cider, and let it ferment. This makes a fermented, clear, good cider, but sweet. It lasts sweet about six months, if kept in a cool situation.

Preparatory to bottling cider it should be examined, to see whether it be clear and sparkling. If not, it should be clarified in a similar way to beer, and left for a fortnight. The night before it is intended to put it Into bottles, the bung should be taken out of the cask, and left so until the next day, when it may be bottled, but not corked down until the day after, as, if this be done at once, many of the bottles will burst by keeping. The best corks and champagne bottles should be used, and it is usual to wire and cover the corks with tinfoil, after the Rh