HOW TO MAKE PERFECT LIQUIORS For Ladies Of Commercial Flavour FROM HOME
LIQUEURS AND PARTY SPECIALS
(FROM HOME-MADE WINES)
Most of us have stocks of home-made wine and, at party time or at Christmas, we often wonder how we can turn them into ‘party specials’ and do so inexpensively. The main question always is: How much spirit to add to get a given percentage of alcohol.
Firstly, and in the ordinary way, a well-made wine will not need doctoring of this sort because if fermentation was satisfactory the alcohol content will be in the region of fourteen percent by volume (24 to 26 proof). This is the alcohol content of most commercial wines; indeed, some are lower in alcohol than this while others are, of course, higher.
Come party time the question is often one of economy-how to make that one bottle of Scotch, or gin or rum, go farther without the economy being noticeable. As already mentioned, spirits are hardly drunk meat; additions of some sort are usually employed, such as ginger, orange or lemon cordial, and these reduce the alcohol content to about a quarter. For those who want to experiment a bit on their own accord, the table shows the relation between alcohol by volume and proof spirit, and the range covered by this allows for the limits within which they will be working.
Those not wishing to start from scratch will find the following guidance useful.
Let me begin with whisky, gin or rum of 70 proof. Wines made with the following fruits are ideal for mixing with gin, either sweetened or unsweetened-damson, sloe, lemon, orange.
We have a bottle of one or the other of these wines and a bottle of gin handy. The gin contains forty percent alcohol by volume and a bottle of wine fourteen percent. Mix the two and you have (for the sake of simplicity) twice as much of both. Therefore you have twenty percent by volume (the gin) and seven percent by volume (the wine), total of twenty-seven percent by volume.
To make it simpler:
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The gin 40 percent by volume
The wine 14 percent by volume
54 percent
But because the volume (amount) has been doubled, the alcohol content has been reduced by half-twenty seven percent by volume. As we can get fifty-four percent of alcohol in this way we could use two bottles of wine and one of gin and get three bottles of a product containing eighteen percent.
NOTE: It is important to understand that when two bottles of wine at 14% of alcohol are put together you have twice as much wine still at 14%. But when you do this for the purpose of fortifying, the alcohol in each bottle must be accounted for. Therefore, three bottles of
wine each containing 14% equals 42%, plus one bottle of gin at 40% = 82%. Divide this figure by the number of resulting bottles-in this case four bottles-and each will contain just over 20%.
Going further-5 bottles at 14% = 70%
1 bottle gin at 40%
Total 110%
In this case six bottles result, therefore 110 divided by 6 = 18% approximately. The same would apply when whisky or rum
are used.
Wines more suitable for mixing with whisky are: Root wines (not beetroot). Root wines made with cereals such as wheat, and with raisins, or both, or with wheat or raisins alone added. Grain wines — those made mainly with wheat or maize, etc. Orange. Dandelion.
Wines more suitable for mixing with rum:
Root wines with a rather higher than average acid content.
Other more acid wines such as rhubarb.
Orange.
Lemon.
Grapefruit.
Wines more suitable for mixing with port and other high alcohol red wines:
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Elderberry and all of the red wines whether made from one fruit or a mixture of fruits, or mixtures of fruits and grains such as wheat or maize. White wines or the paler-color ones made from such fruits as
raisins, raspberries, loganberries, red or white currants, etc, may be mixed with the higher-alcohol white ‘ports’ or high-alcohol white wines.
NOTE: Owing to the lower alcohol content of port as compared with spirits, the mixing should be confined to one bottle of wine to the bottle of port if they are required for keeping. Two to one mixing may be practiced where it is intended to use up the product within, say, three or four days. Copyright © Global Publishing
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WINES THAT ARE A HIT WITH THE LADIES - PRESERVED, SWEET OR DRY WINES WITH LOW ALCOHOL CONTENT
It is mostly men who want their wines to be knock-out drops and usually they take care to get them as strong as possible. But a high percentage of alcohol is not everything. Many-indeed, I would say most-continental wines are in the region of eight to eleven percent of alcohol. Ours, made with the recipes in this book, will be a good deal stronger than this as has already been explained. It is the ladies who like the milder-flavored, low-alcohol, dry to medium-dry or medium-dry to sweet wines, so let me explain how any recipe here may be quite easily turned into a ‘wine for the ladies’.
Mentioned in earlier chapters is the fact that a good percentage of alcohol ensures that wines keep well, and that the lower-alcohol wines - those under twelve percent-might begin ferment again at any time. This is because a stray yeast spore, either left in the wine or one reaching it at some later stage, will begin to reproduce and live on any sugar present. Only the very driest of low-alcohol wines will keep and these must be so dry that no unfermented sugar remains at all.
However, not everybody likes bone-dry wines; most people prefer them medium dry to medium sweet or even sweet.
The wines made with the recipes in this book will keep well provided the maximum alcohol has been reached, an if all directions have been followed this will have been achieved. they will keep because they contain enough alcohol to destroy any yeast or bacteria that may reach them.
Our aim when making low-alcohol wines is to add just enough sugar to make the amount of alcohol required and to allow the wine to ferment right out, and this will do of its own accord. The wine will be dry if less than two and a quarter pounds of sugar are used for one gallon.
Now take a look at the short table. This shows the amount of sugar needed to produce the amount of alcohol required in one gallon of wine;
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if two gallons are being made the amount of sugar required would have to be doubled.
Let us suppose we have decided on making a wine of ten percent of alcohol: The amount of sugar to add is approximately one pound fourteen ounces per gallon.
Very well then, take any recipe in this book (but not those containing dried fruit as these contain quite a lot of sugar) and instead of using the amount of sugar given in that recipe, use one pound and fourteen ounces instead.
As already mentioned, the resulting wine will be bone dry-to dry even for those fond of the drier wines. To reduce this dryness we may sweeten to taste either by adding dissolved invert sugar (which dissolves quite readily) or by dissolving household sugar in some of the wine in the following manner.
Care must be taken here to ensure that the wine does not come into contact with metals. One pint of wine from one gallon will do. Put this into a china jug or similar vessel and stand this in a saucepan of water. Add, say, one teaspoonful of sugar for each bottle (one per gallon, six bottles) and warm the water until the sugar in the wine is dissolved. Mix this with the bulk and sample. If this is not quite sweet enough, you will know that the may be repeated. If you are using invert sugar, the sugar itself may be dissolved in an enamel sauce pan and the resulting syrup stirred into the wine.
Very well, we now have a low-alcohol wine with sugar in it. To prevent it fermenting or some later date we may preserve it without harming it in any way.
Here again, Campden tablets play their part, but if the wine is crystal clear, Campden tablets might cloud it slightly. This should settle our, but it would mean that rebottling might be necessary when this had happened. It is better therefore to use four grains of potassium metabisulphite in place of one Campden tablet. This should be enough to preserve one gallon of wine.
Crush the bisulphite crystals, and dissolve them in a little warmed wine and stir this into the bulk immediately after sweetening. Make sure the crystals are quite dissolved. I have written that one Campden tablet (or four grains of bisulpite crystals) should preserve a gallon of wine-and so
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it should, but under exceptional circumstances it might not. One more tablet (or four more grains of bisulphite crystals) may be added without harmful effects, except that it might give just a hint of flavour to the most delicately flavored wines-through it will not affect those with a good all-round flavor. Fortunately, there is a simple test that we may carry out to decide whether a second tablet is needed or not.
First, pour a little of the treated wine into a wine-glass and bung down the remainder. Cover the glass with a small piece of cloth and leave in a warm room (not a hot place), overnight or for eight to twelve hours. Note carefully the color when setting it out again the following morning (or compare this sample with a sample freshly drawn from the bulk). If darkening of the sample left overnight has occurred, then an extra tablet is needed. If darkening has not occurred, one tablet (four grains metabisulphite) has done the job, and you have a low-alcohol wine of required dryness or sweetness that will keep well.
Up to 450 parts SO2 are allowed by law in 1,000,000 parts wine, and this is represented by approximately eight Campden tablets (or thirty-two grains potassium metabisulphite). Two tablets (eight grains) represents just over one hundred parts per million; so it will be seen that we are not, after all, using very much.
Dry wines finish fermenting sooner than wines of a higher alcoholic content because there is less sugar to be fermented out.
This preserving of wines may be carried out with all wines if you wish, whether they be high-alcohol wines or not.
SUGAR POTENTIAL ALCOHOL
lb. oz. per cent
1 4 7.6
1 8 9.2
1 14 10.8
2 0 12.3
The above figures refer to the use of household sugar. If invert sugar is being used, it must be borne in mind that this contains some moisture, so that for every pound of household sugar one must use one and a quarter pounds of invert sugar. So that mistakes do not occur, I have included the amounts of each sugar to use so that you may choose for yourself which to use and know how much of either-not both.
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Invert sugar is usually supplied in tins containing seven pounds or in blocks by whatever weight is ordered. If weighing this proves awkward, dissolve it and measure it by the pint, bearing in mind that one pint represents two pounds of sugar.
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IF YOU HAVE ANY DIFFICULTY GETTING HOLD OF THESE…HERE ARE SOME IDEAL REPLACEMENTS
INVERT SUGAR
This can be made at home by the reader if he has difficulty obtaining same: Put 8 lb. of ordinary household sugar (white sugar) in a suitable pan with 2 pints of water and 1/2 ounce of citric acid
(obtainable in drug stores), or use the juice of four lemons. Bring slowly to a boil, stirring all the time so that all sugar dissolves.
When all sugar is dissolved, allow to boil for half an hour very gently without stirring or stirring only occasionally. Allow this to cool somewhat and then make up to exactly 1 gallon by adding boiled water.
You now have INVERT SUGAR - the inversion being caused by the acid. To measure, use 1 pint to each lb. sugar called for in the recipe - 1 pint is equal to 1 lb. sugar. Store in suitable jars, tightly corked.
YEAST NUTRIENTS
These are blends of chemicals which stimulate yeast reproduction, thereby helping the yeast to make as much alcohol as it is capable of making. There are no actual substitutes.,
CAMPDEN TABLETS
A substitute is given in the book. Four grains of sodium metabisulphite is equivalent to one Campden tablet. Your druggist will probably think four grains too small an order, so ask him for an
order of, say, ten packs of four grains each, and use one four-grain pack for each Campden tablet called for in the recipe. Do not buy by the ounce and try to measure four grains yourself.
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RIBENA
If you cannot obtain this, try to substitute black-currant syrup instead. However, it is best to use RIBENA proper.
CONTAINERS
Good quality tin or stainless steel containers may be used quite safely, but do not use vessels specifically not recommended by the author, and do not use galvanized containers.
As we are at an end of this huge manual I hope you are excited about being able to make your own fine wines!
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