Occupations > British wine-maker, and domestic brewer

UNRIPE GOOSEBERRIES. 71
be accomplished. It was 90 when put into the
cask. All possible means should now be used to
excite fermentation. I reduce the gravity two-
thirds, and my standard gravity, as noticed be¬
fore, being 110 for gooseberry wine, this reduc¬
tion will bring it to about 36. When it has de¬
creased to this degree, I endeavour to check fer¬
mentation by racking, after having previously
fined the wine with isinglass. Having reduced
the gravity, I treat it in a way similar to that
recommended by Dr Macculloch. It is a very
great improvement to sulphur the cask slightly.
I wash the cask inside with whisky, and as every
part of the interior requires to be wetted with the
spirits, a fifteen gallon cask will require two bot¬
tles. The whisky, after wetting the cask, is al¬
lowed to remain. I return the clear wine into
the cask, and as there is a deficiency, occasioned
by keeping back the lees, I make it up from the
clear wine drawn from the small cask. Should
this, however, not be sufficient to fill the cask, I
add a bottle of whisky. I then put the lees taken
from the large cask into the small one, bung both
up, and allow the spiles to be slightly pressed in
for one day or more, as I find necessary, and then
put them firmly in.
This process of the first fining and racking I
generally perform in the month of September, the
same year in which the wine is made. Towards