BRANDY. a spirituous liquor, pro duced by the distillation of wines of all ki nds, and, properly speaking, by no other fermented liquor; though the purely spi rituous part of all fermented vinous quors procured by distillation is essen tially the same, and therefore an infinite variety of imitations of the intermediate products of distillation may be produced, by adding flavouring and colouring mat ters to any kind of pure spirit. Brandy is prepared in many of the wine coun tries of Europe, and, with particular excellence, in Languedoc, in Anjou, whence the well-known Cogniac bran dy, and in other parts of the south of France.
Though every wine will give a certain portion of brandy by distillation, it is not every kind that can be used with advan tage. In general, the strong heavy wines are to be preferred. Those that do not yield a sixth of their quantity of spirit are not work the expense of working. The apparatus is composed of three parts; the alembic, or boiler, the capital fitted on the top of the boiler to receive the spirituous vapour, and the serpen tine, or worm, a convoluted pipe, fitting to the beak of the alembic, and immers ed in water, in which the vapour is con densed, and flows out at the bottom, in the form of distilled spirit. In distilling, care should be taken not to urge the fire too much at first, otherwise the wine boils up into the capital, and comes over into the worm, mixing with and fouling the spirit. In general, the sloe er the process, and the smaller the stream of spirit from the worm-pipe, the finer and better is the brandy. The distillers make a distinction between the former and latter runnings of the spirit. What first comes over has the strongest, richest, and highest flavour, and this is gradually les sened, and the spirit becomes more and more watery to the end. Therefore, when the brandy becomes weak, the portion already distilled is set apart, and the remainder is ,collected in a separate vessel, and is called seconds or feints, in the term of British distillers, and is not immediately fit for use, but is re-distilled with fresh wine in the next process, be ing still too valuable to be lost. Brandy is naturally clear and colourless as water: for the different shades of colour which it has in commerce arise partly from the casks in which it is kept, but chiefly from the addition of burnt sugar, winders wood, and other colouring matters, that are intentionally added by the manufac turer, and which appear to do neither good nor harm to the quality of the spirit.
There are several ways of judging of the strength of the spirit. The following is also much used by the dealers : a phial is filled with the brandy, stopped with the thumb, and suddenly knocked with some force against the knee. This raises a froth on the surface, and by the size and durability of the bub bles, a good idea may be formed of Die strength of the liquor by those who are in the constant habit of examining samples. This is, however, as liable to error as the trial with gunpowder, burning, &c. ; for it is well known, that certain additions may be made to brandy which will very much alter the frothing. After all that has been done, it is still a difficult prob lem to determine, with perfect accuracy, the strength of all kinds of made spirits, by any shorter method than that of distil lation, though the improved hydrome ters answer most of the purposes of trade and revenue. The strength of the spirit, of course, depends on the strength of the wine with which it is made ; and this again depends on the quantity of saccha rine mucilage contained in the must or grape-juice, and the perfection of the fer mentation. Generally speaking, the wines of hot climates furnish much more spirit than those of colder ; and sweet, rich, well ripened grapes give much more than the cold, sour, watery fruits. The richest wines furnish as much as a third of spirit ; and the general average of the wines in the south of France and Spain is stated to be, by Chaptal, about a fourth. On the other hand, some of the northern wines (th•iugh perfect as wines) give no more than a fifteenth of spirit. The manu facture of brandy in other countries very closely resembles the French process which we have just described. Thus, in Spain, the still is filled to four-fifths of its contents with wine, the capital luted on, a fire kindled, and in about an hour and a half the spirit begins to come over. About a fifth of the entire quantity of wine is proof spirit, in which olive-oil sinks, and comes over fit to be used, with out farther process ; and as much of in. ferior and weaker spirit comes over after wards, which is re-distilled and rectified. When the wines are old, heavy, and oily, and a fine clear spirit is wanted, at once, water is added to the wine before dis tillation, to keep down the oil. The principal distilleries in Spain are in Cata lonia.