The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1870-10-24
IMPORTED? WINES.
Jersey Cider and Champagne-An
Insight into IheManufactuEIng pro
cess
IFrom the newark Advertiser. /


cess.
From the Newark Advertiser.l
Those engaged in the business say
that the quantity made this year will
exceed the total amount that has been
made within the last twelve years;
and, Judging from the amount turned
off at some of the largest presses near
Newark, the whole produced In Essex
County can not fall short of 100000
gallons.
This, of course, is the result of an
enormous crop of apples. They lie
now in the orchards, piled up by the
cord.
The cider made in this vicinity dur
ing the season mp to about the first of
the present month has been put in
large casks for vinegar, or sold in
Newark to housekeepers, grocers and
saloons In small casks. From this
time forward, however, the bulk of
the crop will be prepared for bever-
age, stored for bottling or sold to wine
makers. Our largest manufacturers
have more orders than they can fill
for pale cider, as that makes the best
champagne. All older for drinking
is allowed to ferment, and just when
the fermentation ceases it is racked
off into another cask. If allowed to
stand after fermentation it sours. 1t
goes through the racking process
three or four times till all the sedi-
ment is extracted. Fish sounds and
isinglass in q state of solution at the
last racking give it the requisite clear
ness for champagne, and convert 1t
into what is known as clarified cider.
To get champagne, all that is neces-
sary is to give the cider the quality of
grape Juice, which contains sugar. car
bonic acid and alcohol. Granulated
sugar is dissolved, and the solution,
with little alcohol, is put in the cask.
Then an apparatus similar to a soda
water fountain is set to work. A COP
per cylinder, containing whiting or
chalk, has over it little globe con-
nected with it by tube: The globe
contains vitriol, which, being dropped
upon the whiting in the cylinder, gen.
crates carbonie acid gas. Another
| cylinder, with a crank, receives the
cider, and the gas being let in through
a tube, the crank is turned and the
gas thoroughly mingled with the CT
der, after which il passes through a
long pipe into bottles, stood in a ma.
chine which forces In the corks with
out admitting the air. The mixture,
after receiving proper French labels,
is neatly packed In baskets and car
ried to Broadway and other stores,
where it is retailed from So upwards
per quart bottle. Cheap European
wines are generally mixed with cider
in this PROCESS; and an immense guam
tity of champagne manufactured In
this country is made from Rhine wine
and cider.
A we'll known and reliable bother
In Newark states that he was solicited
few years since to enter into this
business, and made acquainted with
the whole secret, but declined. A
80 gallon cask Of cider, at 20 cents
per gallon, costing So, By this process,
yields In champagne, at 50 per quart,
$3.50, with a trihing deduction for
loss, labor, bottles, go. Reliable men
engaged in bottling cider say that it is
their belief that nine tenths Of the
champagne drank in this country is
manufactured from our native cider.
Large cargoes of poor cider are taken
to England, sugared,. mingled with
bad, low priced wines, and receive an
infusion of logwood or other coloring
matter, and come back to us in neatly
bottled port and other colored wines.
Wine that becomes dead and sour,
is fixed up by mixing In cider, which
produces fermentation. This business
is carried on extensively in this i'm
mediate vicinity, Brooklyn, New
York, &c.
Our Newark bottlers complain that
of late years bottling pure cider has
not paid them, on account of the
great competition of a villainous mix
ture made and sold for bottled cider.
The long ropes of dried apples that
used to grace the rafters of every
farmers kitchen, and furnished
abundant and cheap material for pies
when green apples were scarce, for
merly sold By the bushel, ARE now doled
out by the pound at the price of for
eign dried fruits. The bogus cider
makers buy up all the dried apples
within their reach and soak them.
The water is fixed up with alcohol,
simple syrup and oarbonic acid, bot
tied and sold for cider. These bot
tiers are able to undersell those who
make the genuine. What is called
champagne cider is a pure article
clarified with fish sounds, isiDglass.
etc. Laying down the bottle makes
the fluid lively. but it often bursts
the bottles. Good, pure bottled cider
is delightful beverage, and differs as
much from the trash sold as such as
pure wine differs from the English
manufactured port. The casks should
be kept in cool place, and, after be-
ing racked four times, should be bot
tied before the apple blossoms appear
in May. 4
Some idea of the Newark cider
business at the present time may be
gained from the statements of half
dozen mill owners, that they will each
manufacture 5O,000gallons before the
season is over. r