The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-10-15
AGRICULTURAL.
How TO Make and How 10 Keep Sweet
Cider.

How TO Make and How 10 Keep Sweet
Cider.
The cider making season is here, and to
keep the product throughout the year is i'm
portant. Cider is liable, even under favor
able circumstances, to undergo (acetous or
hard cider or yInegar) fermentation, and de-
velop rough, hard taste. As soon as bar
rel or cask is tapped it grows more acid and
hard, and finally becomes vinegar.
In order to efectually stop fermentation
after cider has acquired the desired degree of
hardness or acidity, various practises are re-
sorted to. very common one is exposing
the liquor to the influence of sulphurous acid
gas, which is most readily accomplished by
burning sulphur-tipped stick or strip of
cotton cloth dipped in melted birthstone, in-
side cask only partially filed with cider,
and shaking we'll so as to make the liquor
absorb the gas before the cask is filled. This
is done at the time of the first racking, the
sulphur covered stick or cloth being thrust
burning into the bung-hole. Others add at
this same stage sulphurous acid, which, be-
ing powerful disinfectng and antiseptic
agent, retards to remarkable extent not
only the process of putrefaction but that of
fermentation, and prevents the liquor from
ever becoming vinegar, bat it detracts from
the favor of the pure article, and is not
of cider drinkers, and is TO be condemned.
The burning of sulphur unites with the acid
of the cider, and makes snlphuric acid and
caustic irritant.
Some prevent fermentation by treatment
with various compounds prepared for the pur-
pose which contain lime. Sulphite mot sui
phate) of lime is a usual form. Professor
Horsford, of Cambridge, Mass, is one of
many experimenters who has testified to its
af, in Eoopiun aidQr cupQt He advises
one-eighth of an ounce of sulphite of lime
to each gallon of cider after the fermentation
has proceeded until the liquor has attained
the required taste, first mixing the powder in
a quart or so of cider, and then pouring it
into tho oasis and giving it. a thnrnngh Shah
ing.
And yet another plan is pouring into the
bung-hole of the cask after small draught
has been made, half a pint OF warm clear
sperm or sweet oil, the argument being that
this spreads thin coat over the surface and
keeps spreading as the cider is drawn out,
excluding the air and imparting no taste of
oil to the cider.
The methods here given are among the
least Objectionable of the many practised,
and afford, according to the testimony of
some farmers, a beverage on draught which
is very tolerable if not excellent. Connois-
seurs, however, detect these and all other
appliances, and the majority of cider-drink-
eTs consider pure cider, untampered with, as
the only good cider.
Cider properly made, at the right season of
the year and from the right sort of apples,
will, when tightly bunged IN good barrels or
casks, change but little, and that very gradu-
ally; when bottled there is no change except
a certain improvement which comes with age.
When prime article is desired for keeping
during the entire year or longer, the first step
then is to produce good article. October
and November, according to the climate, or
when the light autumn frOsts have begun
and the fruit is In all its rudGy perfection of
ripeness, is the time to make cider. A good
cider apple is rather astIingent in its proper
ties OF flesh and juice. The celebrated New
ark IN. j. cider, which always commands
high price on account of its superior excel
lence, and is often sold under the name of
champagne cider, is made from apples the
juice of which ferments or develops the larg-
est percentage of alcohol, as the Hessian,
Garfield and the Virginia Grab. The strong
est cider apples vary in their power to devel
op alcohol by fermentation, some making
twice as much as others. The strongest CT
der, furthermore, comes as rule from apples
which contain the least amount of juice. The
apples are sweated and permitted to dry
somewhat before they are ground, the quality
and strength of the cider being improved in
consequence of the apples having parted dur
ing this process with six or eight per cent. of
water. The apples, cleared of leaves, shriv-
eed wnefas and rotten fruit, are crushed
or ground according to the old or new pro-
cess employed; the former is preferable, as
pomace which has been finely ground is liable
to yield cloudy or muddy liquor. The pulp
is generally laid aside for at least twenty-fou
hours, and turned occasionally to allow fer
mentation to set in before the juice is eX-
nraeeod RU this means the aromatic oil
contained in the seeds iSextracted, commu-
nicating its flavor to the mass, and richer,
fuller favored beverage is the result.
The color of the juice is changed by the
management OF the pulp. Different kinds of
apples give different favors, but from any
one kind two distinct varities in point of col
or of cider may be made, the one by express
ing the juice before any change of color oc-
ours from the exposure OF the pulp to the at
mosphere, and the other after this exposure.
In champagne cider, therefore, the juice, in
order that it may be light colored is pressed
from the pomace as fast as ground. The
casks into which the juice is put should be
clean and sweet. If new ones are used those
made OF strong oak slaves are recommended,
but these new oak stave casks or barrels
should be soaked for few days with water
and some potash or lye OF wood ashes or soda
added, to destroy the oak tree acid so observ-
able in all new oak casks and which, if the
cask be used with the slaves in their natural
state will give peculiar taste to the cider,
But it is best to use old cider or whiskey bar
rels after thorough cleaning. If secondhand
ones are used, whiskey or other spirit casks
are best, provided they are cleaned of must
and all impurities. If not, they should be
thoroughly cleansed with lime or wood ashes
and water. In addition to this thoroughly
fumigate with matches of roll birthstone
dropped into the bung, afterwards rinsing
with hot water and draining dry. The bar
rels filled, they should be placed with bungs
up on blocks or skids where the Temperature
will not fall below sixty degrees nor increase
above seventy-fve degrees Fahrenheit.
An active saccharine fermentation will be-
gin in few hours, and ought to be allowed
to continue with the bung loose, until the
kissing sound so readily discernable when car
bolic acid gas is escaping, shall cease. The
cider is then ready for the first racking and
1t is at this point that it is exposed to the
action OF sIlphurous acid gas by the advo-
Gates of "stumming', or "matching'' as it is
called. As it has besn before intimated the
connoisseur quickly desecis matched or sui
phured cider; therefore old manufacturers
omit it. After having racked or drawn the
cider off into clear barrels the bungs should
be driven in tight for few days, when it can
again be permitted to ferment, the bungs be-
ing, of course, loosened as before. The cider
may now be racked again and the bung
tightly closed. If intended for draught use