White Mead Wine
Take of cold soft water 17 galls., white currants 6 qts. Ferment. Mix honey 30 lbs., white tartar in powder 3 oz. Add balm and sweetbriar, each 2 handfuls, white brandy 1 gall. This will make 18 galls.
Red Mead, or Metheglin Wine Take of cold water 17 galls., red currants 6 qts., black currants 2 qts. Ferment. Mix, honey 25 lbs. beet root sliced 1 lb., red tartar in fine powder 4 oz. Add cinnamon in powder 2 oz., brandy 1 gall. This will make 18 galls. Another. - Fermented mead is made in the proportion of 1 lb. of honey to 3 pints of water or by boiling over a moderate fire, to two-thirds of the quantity, three parts water and one part honey. The liquor is then skimmed and casked, care being taken to keep the cask full while fermenting. During the fermenting process the cask is left untopped and exposed to the sun, or in a warm room, until the working ceases. The cask is then bunged, and a few months in the cellar renders it pleasant, by the addition of cut raisins, or other fruits boiled after the rate of 1/2 lb. of raisins to 6 lbs. of honey, with a toasted crust of bread; 1 oz. of salt of tartar in a glass of brandy being added to the liquor when casked, to which some add 6 or 6 drops of the essence of cinnamon; others, pieces of lemon-peel with various syrups.
Walnut Mead Wine To every gallon of water put 3 1/2 lbs. of honey, and boil them together three-quarters of an hour. Then to every gallon of liquor put about 2 dozen of walnut leaves; pour the boiling liquor upon them and let them stand all night. Then take out the leaves, put in a spoonful of yeast, and let it work for 2 or 3 days. Then make it up, and after it has stood for 3 months bottle it.
To make American Honey Wine Put a quantity of the comb from which honey has been drained in a tub, and add a barrel of cider immediately from the press; this mixture stir and leave for one night. It is then strained before fermentation and honey added until the specific gravity of the liquor is sufficient to bear an egg. It is then put into a barrel, and after the fermentation is commenced the cask is filled every day for 3 or 4 days, that the froth may work out of the bunghole. When the fermentation moderates put the bung in loosely, lest stopping it tight might cause the cask to burst. At the end of 5 or 6 weeks the liquor is to be drawn off into a tub, and the whites of 8 eggs, well beaten up with a pint of clean sand, are to be put into it; then add 1 gall. of cider spirits, and after mixing the whole together, return it into the cask, which is to be well cleaned, bunged tight, and placed in a proper situation for racking off when fine. In the month of April following draw it off into kegs for use, and it will be equal to almost any foreign wine.[1]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ From the Household Cyclopedia,1881
