"Briefly summarized, the method to be employed for the manufacture of good vinegar at home, without the use of generators, is this : Use sound, ripe apples, picked or picked up before they have become dirty, if possible, otherwise washed. Observe the ordinary precautions to secure cleanliness in grinding and pressing, and discard all juice from second pressings. If possible, let the juice stand in some large receptacle for a few days to settle, then draw off the clear portion into well-cleaned barrels which have been treated with steam or boiling water, filling them only two-thirds or three fourths full. Leave the bung out, but put in a loose plug of cotton to decrease evaporation and to prevent the entrance of dirt. If these barrels are stored in ordinary cellars, where the tempera ture does not go below 50° or 45° Fahr., the alcoholic fermentation will be complete in about six months; but by having the storage room at a temperature of 65° or 70° the time can be con siderably shortened, and the addition of Fleisch mann's compressed yeast or its equivalent at the rate of one cake to five gallons of juice may reduce the time to three months or less. Use a little water thoroughly to disintegrate the yeast cake before adding it to the juice. The temperature should not go above 70° for any length of time, to avoid loss of the alcohol by evaporation.
"After the sugar has all disappeared from the juice, that is, when the cider has entirely ceased " working" as revealed by the absence of gas bubbles, draw off the clear portion of the cider, rinse out the barrel, replace the liquid and add two to four quarts of good vinegar containing some "mother" and place at a temperature of 65° to 75° Fahr. The acetic fermentation may be complete in
three months or may take eighteen months, accord ing to the conditions under which it is carried on; or if stored in cool cellars may take two years or more. If the alcoholic fermentation be carried on in the cool cellar and the barrel be then taken to a warmer place, as outdoors during the summer, the time of vinegar formation may be reduced from that given above to fifteen or eighteen months. Where the alcoholic fermentation is hastened by warm temperature, storage and the use of yeast and the acetic fermentation favored by warmth and a good vinegar "start," it is possible to produce good merchantable vinegar in casks in six to twelve months. When the acetic fermentation has gone far enough to produce 4.5 to 5 per cent of acetic acid, the barrels should be made as full as possible and tightly corked in order to prevent destructive changes and consequent deterioration of the vinegar." Literature on cider and vinegar.
For cider, consult Bulletins Nos. 71 and 88, United States Department of Agriculture (Division of Chemistry); Bulletins Nos. 136, 143, 150, Vir ginia Experiment Station; J. M. Trowbridge, The Cider-makers' Handbook, New York, 1890; C. W. Radcliffe Cooke, A Book about Cider and Perry, London, 1898. An early American book was J. S. Buell's, The Cider-makers' Manual, Buffalo, N. Y., 1869. Brannt, Manufacture of Vinegar, etc., London.
For vinegar, consult Bulletins No. 258, A Study of the Chemistry of Home-made Cider Vinegar, and No. 258, popular edition, Making Cider Vin egar at Home, New York (State) Agricultural Experiment Station ; Bulletin No. 22, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.