An Approved Method of Making Cider

 

 

            AN APPROVED METHOD OF MAKING CIDER.

       [Communicated to the Burlington Agricultural Society, by Mr. Clifford]

TAKE care to have every necessary

utensil to be made use of in the

whole process, perfectly clean, and free

from every foreign smell. For this pur-

pose, before you begin your work, let your

mill, trough, and press, be made perfectly

clean, by thoroughly washing, and if ne-

cessary with scalding water. The casks

are another material object, and if musty,

or any other bad smell, one head should

be taken out, and with shavings or dry

brush, burn the inside; then scrub them

clean, and put in the head; scald them

well afterwards, and drain them perfectly;

when dry, bung them tight, and keep

them in a cool shady place, until wanted

for use.

      The apples should be ripe; and all the

unripe and rotten ones, leaves, and every

other thing that can tend to give the ci-

der any disgreeable taste, carefully sepa-

rated from them.

       I have found from careful attention and

many experiments, that it is a great ad-

vantage to the cider to be separated from

___

the gross parts as soon as possible; for

this purpose I tried several methods. That

which I found succeeded the best, I shall

now relate, as by following it, I was able

to preserve my cider in a sound state,

though made in the early part of the sea-

son.

        I took a large pipe, of about 150 gal-

lons, had one of the heads taken out, and

on the inside of the other laid on

four strips of boards, two inches wide,

and on these strips placed a false bottom,

filled with gimblet holes about three inches

apart. On this false bottom I put a

piece of hair cloth (old blanket, or even

swingling tow will do,) so as to prevent

any sand from washing into the space be-

tween the true and false bottoms. I pro-

cured a quantity of coarse sand, which

was carefully washed in repeated waters,

till it would not discolour the clean water,

then dried the sand, and put it in the cask

on the hair cloth, blanket, or tow, about

nine inches thick.

    Thus having every thing in readiness, I

 

went through the process of making, as

quick as possible, by having the apples

ground fine early in the morning, putting

them in the press as fast as they were

ground; and when in sufficient quanti-

ties, pressed out the juice, and put it over

the sand in the cask, having previously

bored a gimblet hole in the side of the

cask, between the true and false bottoms,

in which I introduced a large goose-quill,

stopped with another. The pipe was

placed so high as to admit a cask under it,

to receive the liquor as it run from the

quill, which, if rightly managed, will be

perfectly fine, and being put away in a

cool cellar, and stopped close, will keep

well, and prove of an excellent quality.

            This process is easy, and in every per-

son’s power to execute, as the liquor, by

being cleared from its gross feculences,

will not run into that violent fermenta-

tion, so destructive to the fine vinous fla-

vour, which renders good cider so pleasing

a drink.