Page:Old-Time Recipes for Home Made Wines Cordials and Liqueurs.djvu/71

 Rh it five quarts of strong beer in the height of working; cover up and let it work forty-eight hours; then skim and tun. If none remains for filling up, use new beer for that purpose. This method may be adopted with all boiled wines, and will be found to improve their strength and promote their keeping. In a fortnight or three weeks, when the head begins to sink, add two and one-half pounds raisins (free from stalks), one ounce of sugar candy, one ounce of bitter almonds, one-half cup of the best brandy; brown paper, as in former articles. It may be bottled in one year; but if left three years in the wood, and then bottled, it will be found equal in strength and flavor to foreign wine.

The following is a good recipe for mead: On five pounds of honey pour five quarts of boiling water; boil, and remove the scum as it rises; add one-quarter ounce of the best hops, and boil for ten minutes. Then pour the liquor into a tub to cool; when all but cold add a little yeast spread upon a slice of toasted bread. Let it stand in a warm room. When fermentation is finished, bung it down, leaving a peg-hole which can afterwards be closed, and in less than a year it will be fit to bottle. Rh