The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1895-07-24
Vinegar Making.

Vinegar is of two or three different kinds.
The most expensive Is made from red wine
and is of deep purple color 1t is strong in
acid--so strong, indeed, that it fairly bites
the tongue. 1t costs about 40 cents gal
Ion. Then there is the cider vinegar Of
farm fame, and 1t is the most popular Of
any for general household use 1t retails
at from IL to 10 cents gallon, and 1t may
be said in passing that some disreputable
concerns make u variety of "cider' vine
gar that is wholly guiltless of apples.
Great quantities of white wine vinegar are
also made, usually from corn and rye. 1t
is perfectly colorless, very sharp to the
taste and is usually used for making pic
kles and condiments of various kinds
The process Of manufacturing this white
wine vinegar is most interesting. In the
first place, the manager starts out just as
II he were going to make genuine corn
whisky, but when he gets part way through
with the work he suddenly switches off,
and the product is vinegar. The corn and
rye come to the side of the factory in cars
| and are elevated to the top floor where
they go into big bins. In the morning,
when the superintendent gives the word, a
| workman pulls the side from spout that
leads down through four stories and into
the top of the cooler, a huge iron boiler
holding 100 bushels. The corn comes rat
| Ting down, and it is soon boiling away
under steam pressure of 90 pounds. At
| the end of two hours it has been reduced
! to mash-a well known whisky term
| and is quite toothsome enough to tempt
any COW homo from a June pasture.
| 1t is now blown through II pipe leading
up stairs to the great mashtubs holding
& trnl Hons nupb Hprn about S0 m
of malt, fresh from the maltsters and
ground to a pulp in a little mill on the
next floor, is dumped in, and two awk
ward paddles begin to revolve, churning
| the mass until it looks like the surface of
a geyser.
The cooking of the corn separated the
starch, and the addition of the malt to-
gether with a temperature of 148 degrees,
turns the starch into sugar. AT this period
| of the process the mash has a really sugary
smell, like moasses candy on the back of
the kitchen stove. After being beaten and
| churned for three or four hours cold water
is turned into "a coil of pipes in the bottom
| of the huge tub to cool the mash. In the
meantime some workmen have been pre-
| pairing the yeast in a little room at one
side Malt and rye are boiled together in
copper lined kettle holding 200 gallons,
| anu ID llbllt VI tIit yctiou ltrIlcuU DtllR duu-
ed the plant begins to grow. When the
process has gone far enough just the right
| proportion of the yeast is taken and
planted" in the mash tub, where without
more ado it begins to make itself felt.
| Now the mash Is allowed to slide down
through a pipe to the fermenting tanks,
| where it sizzles and bubbles away for ~
| hours hard at work fermenting. The al
| coholic spirits are being slowly extracted
by the working" of the sugar. Thus far
the process has been almost identical with
whisky making.
A busy chugging link pump now sends
the mash up stairs to the still-real whisky
stills, except in the use of worms" or
coils of pipe for collecting and condensing
the alcoholic spirits. A worm would be
used in vinegar manufacture but Uncle
Sam is afraid that some day very we'll
meaning charge of corn might by some
mistake turn to whisky instead of vinegar.
Uncle Sam always looks after such things
in prompt and businesslike way.
The alcohol is forced out of the mash
and into the still by means of steam,
which rapidly vaporizes it. The pipe in
the still is surrounded by cold water, which
quickly condenses the alcohol and collects
it below in a receptacle. All the rest of
the nash Stops, as 1t is known to the
vinegar man and the whisky MANS car
ried off to one side where 1t is stored up
ready to sell to the stock raiser for cattle
feed. 1t contains all the corn except the
alcoholic parts, and it therefore makes
very rich food.
The spirits are now pumped to the gen
orators, the only distinctive vinegar max
ing devices in the whole process. These
consist of TALL cylindrical tanks made of
white wood and bound with iron hoops
They extend from floor to ceiling, with an
appliance on top for allowing the alcohol
to trickle in and a cock at the bottom
through which the vinegar may be drawn
off.
Several floors are covered with these gen
orators as thick as they can stand and the
visitor who goes among them is compelled
to sneeze in Difference to the pronounced
acidity of the atmosphere.
The tanks inside are filled from top to
bottom with beach shavings-nothing
more. When the alcohol drips in at the
top, it spreads over the shavings where
the air has ready access to it. The oxygen
pounces upon it and changes it without
more ado into ascetic acid, or vinegar, in
which condition it runs out at the cock
and into trough that carries 1t down to
the next floor into huge storage tank
The shavingS in the generators are merely
for the purpose of providing great
amount of surface over which the spirits
must flow.
After having seasoned for time in the
tanks the vinegar is pumped out into bar
rels, labeled and sent all over the country
20 the pickle manufacturers. Every bushel
Of corn makes about four gallons Of white
wine vinegar which sells all the way from