86

Concerning CIDER.

harsh, and of deeper Colour than either of the other two. Now I presumethe Cause of this (at least in part) to be, that in the first fort of JVt ne *which hath little of the Substance, beside the very Juice of the Graft)there is little Lee, and consequently little Fermentation ; and becausedoth not work long, it loseth but little of the original Sweetness it had -The second sort being a little more pressed, hath somewhat more of th eSubstance of the Grape added to the Juices and therefore havingmo seof that part which causeth Fermentation put with it, ferments morestrongly, and is therefore, when it hath done working, less pleasant thanthe first fort, which wrought less. And for the fame reason the thisfort being most of all pressed, hath most of the Substance of th o.Gf&pmingled with the Liquor, and worlceth the longest: But at the end °the working when it settles and is clear , it is much more harsh thaneither of the two first forts. The Thought of this made me first app r ^hend that the Substance of the Apple mingled with the Juice was tn ecause of Fermentation , which is really nothing else but an endeavorof the Liquor to free itself from those heterogenous Parts whichmingled with it: And where there is the greatest proportion of m°i iijfmular parts mingled with the Liquor , the endeavour of .must be the stronger, and take up more time to perfect the Separate Jwhich when finished leaves all the Liquor clear, and the gross P^settled to the bottom of the V?Jfel ; which we call the Lee. Not*this apprehension deceive me; for when I began ( according to the A ^thod which I shall hereafter set down ) to separate a considerable p a ^the Lee from the Cider before it had fermented, I found it to retainvery great part of its original Sweetness, more than it would have doif the Lee had not been taken away before the Fermentation ; andnot once, but constantly for seven Tears. - »

Now the Method which I used was this: When the Cider wasstrained, I put it into a great Vat, and there let it stand tvaenty J 0 ^hours at least (sometimesmore, if the Apples were more ripe than ^dinary ) and then at a Tap before prepared in the Vessel, three ot o ^Inches from the bottom, I drew it into Tails, and from thence nthe Hogjhead (or lesser Vessel) and left the greatest part of thebehind ; and during this time that the Cider stood in the Vat, I ^s Q0it as close covered with Hair-cloths or Sacks , as I could; that 1 °much of the Spirits might not evaporate. . f 0

Now possibly I might be asked why I did not, since I kept 1close in the Vat, put it at first into the Vessels To which Ithat had I put it at first into the Vessel, it would possibly (efp eCl t0if the IVeather had chanced to prove wet and warm) have h c S^ u jjferment before that time had been expired; and. then there yjhave been no Possibility to have separated any Part ofLee, before the Fermentation had been wholly finissied;keeping it only covered with these Cloths was not in dang eI ' •though I kept it warm in some degree, yet some of the Sp irl .still Liberty to evaporate ; which had it been in the Hog]hc a s j )Cthe Bung only open, they would not so freely have done; but m ^first 24 hours it would have begun to ferment , and so my Deng*been fully lost; For thole Spirits, if they had been too strongly \berated into the Liquor, would have cauled a Fermentation ccould have taken away any Part of the gross Lee. For the g rcat y^y

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