Occupations > British wine-maker, and domestic brewer

THE BRITISH WINE-MAKER. 35
Edinburgh for two shillings and sixpence per
dozen. A weak extract of malt wort, brought up
by sugar to the gravity of 110, is still a better, but
a more expensive, basis than the former; but even
by this method a saving of 20 per cent, is made;
and wine which has been manufactured with either
of these foundations, if consistently fermented,
will possess more softness of flavour and spirituo-
sity, than wine whose basis is composed of sugar
alone; for the mucilage contained in the must will
induce a steady and uninterrupted fermentation. A
bushel of good malt is as valuable to the maker
of wine and beer as 23 or 24 lbs. of the best Ja¬
maica sugar. Good malt is generally about 7s.
or 8s. a-bushel, sugar from 6d. to 7d. per lb.; there
is therefore a saving of upwards of 40 per cent, in
using malt. Malaga raisins is another basis, which
may be employed with great advantage—a basis
from which all manufacturers of home-made wines
for sale obtain their saccharine matter, as well as
those who adulterate foreign wine, or imitate
it by employing a home-made material as the
principal constituent of their compound, and mak¬
ing it resemble the foreign article by an admix¬
ture of deleterious ingredients.
Wines made from roots, flowers, &c., such as
parsnip, beet, ginger, cowslips, clary, elderflowers,
&c., which in their composition have little of the
natural leaven, an ingredient so essential to fer-