Home-Brewing - A Selection of Recipes and Articles on All Aspects of Home-Brewing

By Anon Anon

This vintage book contains a collection of recipes and articles related to making alcoholic drinks at home, including instructions for producing beer, cider, wine, and a variety of liqueurs. Full of useful information and simple, step-by-step instructions, this volume is ideal for the novice brewer and those with an interest in producing alcohol at home as a hobby. Although old, the information contained within this volume is timeless and will be of considerable utility to modern brewers. Contents include: “Domestic Liquors”, “Liqueurs”, “Vegetable Wines”, “Home-made Wines”, and “Cider-Making and the National Cider Institute”. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing “Home-Brewing” now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on cider making.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Nov 3, 2011
• ISBN: 9781447491293

Book preview

DOMESTIC LIQUORS, ETC.

GOOSEBERRY CHAMPAGNE.—Take large, fine gooseberries, that are full-grown, but not yet beginning to turn red; and pick off their tops and tails. Then weigh the fruit, and allow a gallon of clear, soft water to every three pounds of gooseberries. Put them into a large, clean tub; pour on a little of the water; pound and mash them, thoroughly, with a wooden beetle; add the remainder of the water, and give the whole a hard stirring. Cover the tub with a cloth, and let it stand four days; stirring it frequently and thoroughly, to the bottom. Then strain the liquid, through a coarse linen cloth, into another vessel; and to each gallon of liquid add four pounds of fine loaf-sugar; and to every five gallons a quart of the best and clearest French brandy. Mix the whole well together; and put it into a clean cask, that will just hold it, as it should be filled full. Place the cask on its side, in a cool, dry part of the cellar; and lay the bung loosely on the top. Secure the cask firmly in its place, so that it cannot, by any chance, be shaken or moved; as the least disturbance will injure the wine. Let it work for a fortnight, or more; till the fermentation is quite over, and the hissing has ceased. Then bottle it; driving in the corks tightly. Lay the bottles on their sides. In six months, it will be fit for drinking, and will be found as brisk as real champagne.

GREEN CURRANT WINE.—The currants must be full-grown, but not yet beginning to redden. Strip them from the stems; weigh them; and to every three pounds allow a gallon of soft water. Mash them well, and proceed exactly as in the receipt for gooseberry champagne; except that you may use the best light-coloured brown sugar, instead of loaf. Instead of bottling it, as soon as it has done fermenting, you may, whenever the hissing is over, put in the bung tightly; and let the wine remain in the cask. In six months, it will be fit for drinking.

PEACH WINE.—Take eight pounds of ripe, juicy, free-stone peaches, of the best kind. Slice them into two gallons of soft water; and add five pounds of loaf-sugar, broken small. Crack all the stones; extract the kernels; break them up; and lay them in the bottom of a clean tub. Put the peaches, with the dissolved sugar, into a kettle; and boil and skim it, until the scum ceases to rise. Then strain it, through a large sieve, into the tub that has the kernels in the bottom. Stir all well together, and cover it closely till it grows quite cool. Then put in a large slice of toasted bread, covered all over with strong, fresh yeast. Leave it to ferment; and, when the fermentation is over, strain it into a keg, and add a bottle of muscadel or sweet malaga wine. Let it stand six months. Then draw off a little in a glass, and, if it is not quite clear, take out a pint of the wine; mix with it an ounce of powdered gum-arabic; dissolve it in a slow heat; and then add an ounce of powdered chalk. When they are dissolved, return the pint of wine to the keg, stirring it in, lightly, with a stick; but taking care not to let the stick go down to the bottom, lest it should disturb the lees, or sediment. Let it stand three days longer, and then bottle it. It will be fit for use in another six months.

Apricot wine may be made in the same manner.

DOMESTIC FRONTINIAC.—Put into a large kettle, twelve pounds of broken-up loaf-sugar; and pour on it six gallons of clear, soft water, and let the sugar dissolve. Take seven pounds of the best raisins, and chop them small, having first removed the seeds. Mix the raisins with the dissolved sugar; set the kettle over the fire, and let it boil for an hour, skimming it well. Have ready half a peck of full-blown elder-blossoms, gathered just before they are ready to fall from the branches.