In spite of the many different opinions on this subject, cider, if carefully prepared, is a ve.ry excellent beverage, and se,cond only to good wine ; it possesses many qualities which render it in many respects greatly superior to beer. Unfortunately, however, both in England and abroad, so little care is bestowed upon the preparation of this drink, and such antiquated and faulty methods are employed, that the ordinary cider of commerce is a far inferior article to what might be made by processes based upon scientific principles and conducted with more care and discrimination. The inferior quality, made from unripe fruit and not carefully fermented, is decidedly unwholesome, and its consumption liable to cause colic.
The best cider contains from 8 to 10 per cent. of alcohol ; and the ordinary varieties, from 4 to 6 per cent. The former kind is made at the present day in Normandy, New Jerey (U.S.), and Herefordshire, the remainder being chiefly made in Devonshire and Somerset.
The following table represents an average analysis of the apples and pears used in cider making :— The loss of 23.9 per cent. in mellowed apples, and of 23.15 per cent. in mellowed pears, is due to the evaporation of the water and the decomposition of a portion of tbe organic matter, especially of the sugar, which is converted into alcohol and carbonic acid. The sugar which is con tained in the ripe fruit ia sufficient to furnish from 3.12 to 7.34 per cent. of alcohol by voluine.
The keeping qualities of the fermented juice of apples and pears depend upon the presence of a sufficient quantity of alcohol and sugar, and upon the absence of all nitrogenous, fermentable matter, especially of aromatic principles, which are abundant in the unfermented juice. Unless alcohol be present in the fermented juice in the proportion of 18 or 20 per cent. by volume, the latter ie certain sooner or later to undergo acetone fermentation. Now, ciders made from the juice of the apple alone, without any addiIion of water, canuot possibly attain a higher richness than from 3 to 7 per cent. of alcohol, which gives an average of 5 per cent. for common ciders, or only one-fourth of the proportion required to ensure ita keeping. From this it is clear that the alcohol alone will not prevent the drink from undergoing acetous fermentation, but that the absence of any fermentable principle must alao be ensured. In order to render the fermented cider preservable, the apple juice should, at the time of fermentation, always stand at 8° or 10° B.
But since this proportion of sugar will not produce a sufficient quantity of alcohol to prevent an acetous fermentation from taking piece, it should be considered only as an auxiliary to e,crtain other precautions, to be treated of later.
It may be assumed, from what has been already said, that 5 per cent. of alcohol is a sufficient quantity, provided that the MIMS of after-fermentation have been carefully removed, but that a larger quantity, if it can be obtained, is much to be preferred.
Besides increasing the density of the juices, and thus augmenting the proportion of sugar con tained in them, there is another method by which the saccharine richness of the " must " may be considerably raised, and this method i8 by far the best, notwithstanding the time which it occupies. It consists in gradually replacing the ordinary and less sweet varieties of apple by those which are much richer in sugar, and this is by no means impossible, or even difficult. It is true that there exists still a deep, but utteily unfounded prejudice against sweet apples among cider-makers ; this prejudice, however, may be easily combated, since it is opposed to the fu•st principles of fermentation and of cenological science. Unless the fruit eroployed for cider-making contain a proper quantity of astringent substances, it is true that the product ob,ained from it is subject, though only after an incomplete or careless fermentation, to the annoying accident termed " viscous fermentation." It is owing to this that cider, made by the usual faulty process, from sweet apples, is more liable to alteration than that made from apples containing less sugar. But this objection loses all its force when tho process has been carried on upon soulider and more correct principles, and hence it is that cider-makers have, in their ignorance, been compelled to make use of fruit containing but little sugar, and thus to produce cider insufficiently rich in alcohol to be either agreeable to the taste or capable of resisting acetification and other vexatious alterations. It should be remembered, that the more sugar any fruit contains, the more alcohol it will yi ld, and the smaller, cou sequently, will be the chances of any subsequent alteration of the product, provided that certain substances favourable to alteration have been carefully eliminated.