The next operation is to press the crushed fruit, which is performed after it has stood for about twelve holm, at the most, in a wooden tub or cistern. Here, fermentation commences, and the breaking up of the cells takes place, by which the subsequent separation of the juice is much facilitated. The crushed pulp is then placed in bair-cloth or coarse canvas bags, and allowed to drain into suitable receivers, after which it is subjected to a powerful pressure in the eider-press, a large screw-press. The juice which runs away is at first foul and muddy, but is afterwards as clean and pure as if filtered through paper. It is common to throw away the remaining thin, dry cakes of pressed pulp, as useless, or to feed pigs with them ; or sometimes it is ground a second time with water and pressed for an inferior kind of cider, which is very weak, and must be drunk at once, as it will not keep. The first runnings may be strained through a sieve ; the whole is then placed in large casks, filled to the brim, where it soon begins to exhibit tumultuous fermentation ; the froth or yeast which collects upon the surface of the fermenting liquor is always removed. A bung-hole affords a sufficient exit for the carbonic acid gas disengaged. The fermentation is usually conducted in airy sheds, where the warmth is scarcely greater than that of the open atmosphere. If the liquor be much agitated, the process may last only one day ; but when allowed to remain at rest, the fermentation commonly goes on two or three days, and even five or six. No ferment is used. The liquor is then racked or drawn off from the lees, and put into fresh casks. A fresh fermentation usually commences after racking, and if it becomes violent another racking is often performed in order to check it, in consequence of which the same liquor may require to be racked afresh five or six times. It is customary to fumigate the cask before running in the liquor by burning inside it a strip of linen coated with sulphur ; this is kindled at one end and lowered into the casks through the bung-hole, the bung being immediately replaced. The object of this operation, called " stumming," is to prevent the liquor from " fretting," or undergoing the after-fermentation already mentioned. The casks containing the cider are then stored in a cellar, barn, or other cool place, where a low and regular temperature can be maintained, and left to mature or ripen. By the following spring, the cider is considered fit for consumption and bottled or re-racked for sale.
Cider is made of three different qualities : rough, aweet, and bitter. In the manufacture of the first or lowest quality, very little trouble or care is taken. The rougher the drink, the farther it will go, and the more acceptable it is to the working man. A palate accustomed to a eweet cider would judge the rough cider of farmhouses to be a mixture of vinegar and water, with a little dissolved alum to givo it roughness. The method of producing this austere liquor ia to grind the fruit in a crude, unripe state, and aubject the juice to a full fermentation. For sweet cider, the sweeter fruits are chosen and ground in a perfectly ripe stet., the fermentation of the juice being, also, checked before completion. To produce the bitter cider, particular varieties of fruit must be used, and the season in which it ia matured must be taken into consideration.
The temperature at which the fermentation is conducted is a matter of much importance, though it very rarely receives from cider-makers the attention it requires. The juice, when expressed from the fruit, ia left in a cool place, at a temperature of about 10° or 12°. When, as is frequently the case, the juice is permitted to stand in the full heat of the autumn sun, much of the alcohol undergoes acetone fermentation, being thus converted into vinegar, to which the unpleasantly rough and acid taste of common cider ia entirely due. These properties are especially characteristic of the cider of Devonshire, in which county but little attention is paid to this part of the proceas ; the result is that the cider will keep, at the most, only four or five yeara, whereas, that made in Herefordshire and Worcesterahire, where the fermentation is more carefully conducted, can be kept for a much longer period.
Before bottling, it is cuatomary to improve the flavour or strength of weak cider, and for this purpose there are many plana in use. The want of strength is aupplied by brandy or any other apirit, in sufficient quantity to prevent acetous fermentation. To supply flavour, an infusion of hopa is sometimes added, which is said to communicate an agreeable bitterness, and at the same time a fragrant odour. The want of colour is sometimes supplied by elderberries, but more generally by burnt sugar. Isinglass, eggs, or the blood of oxen are often made use of to refine and brighten the liquor. The proper time to bottle cider depends greatly upon the quality of the liquor itself ; it can seldom be bottled with propriety until a year old, sometimes not until it is two years old. It should have juat acquired ita utmoat degree of richnerss and flavour in the cask; and thia it will preserve for naany years in bottles. The liquor called " ciderkiu " is made of the mare or gross matter remaining after the cider is pressed out. To make this liquor, the mare is put into a large vat, with a proper quantity of boiled water which has just become cold ; the whole ie left to infuse for forty-eight houra, and then well pressed. The liquor which runs out from the press ia immediately tunned up and stopped ; it is fit to drink in a few days, and serves in families instead of small beer.
Improved Method of Cider-mahing.—When the juice of any fruit is required for use, it is a matter of much importance that as complete au extraction be made as possible, since the economy of the entire process depends prituarily upon this. It is not effected easily, even by maceration, unlesa the vegetable tissue has previously been thoroughly disintegrated, in order to break open the. minute cellules of which it is composed, and thua to set free the saccharine juices held in them: The more carefully this disintegration ia conducted, the more easy is it, by mechanical means, to effect a thorough extraction ; and an incomplete disintegration not only leads to very poor results, but alao renders it necessary to employ a process of maceration in order to obtain all the sugar, instead of submitting the pulp to the action of a press, which is a far quicker and more economical method. To obtain, therefore, the maximum yield of juice from his fruit, the cider-maker should consider it au indispensable condition that the apples be thoroughly crushed or ground before subjecting them to presaure.