Cassell's dictionary of cookery

" The cider is received by a channel in the frame of the press upon which the hairs stand, emptying into a flat tub called a ' trin.' From the trin it is poured with buckets or ' racking cans ' into casks, placed either out of doors or in sheds where there is a free current of air. In about three or four days, more or less according to the heat of the weather, the liquor usually will ferment ; the thick heavier parts will subside as a sediment at the bottom of the cask, and the lighter become bright clear cider. This should then be ' racked,' or drawn off, into another cask, and the sediment be put to strain through linen bags, and what oozes from them should be restored. "It is during the fermentation that the management of cider is least understood, and there is the greatest hazard of injury. It is necessary also to know what fruit will by itself make good cider, which kinds should be ground together, and what proportions should be mixed. But it is in the preservation of the strength and flavour after the cider is ground that the principal difliculty consists : slight fermentation will leave the liquid thick and unpalatable; rapid fennentation will impair both its strength and durability; careless fermentation will make it sour, harsh, and thin. Other things being equal, that cider will probably be the best in which the vinous fermentation has proceeded slowly, and has not been confounded with the acetous. The remedies used in cases of cider not clearing, are either yeast, or the addition of ■cider in a state of fermentation, isinglass, eggs, jr a quart of fresh blood stirred up with the liquor, in which last case it is to be racked on the following day : these do not always prove effectual. But the common evils are excess or rapidity of fermentation ; and if a better quality than farm-house or ' family drink ' is sought, cider requires so much care to prevent its being spoiled, that the best and most careful makers frequently have i^ looked at during each night for some weeks after it is made ; and if the bubbling hissing noise, the sign of fermentation, becomes frequent or too loud, the liquor is immediately racked off into another cask. This check often requires to be repeated several times, but although at each racking some portion of the strength will be lost, the body flavour and sweetness will chiefly be retained. It is not the habit of the farmer to add sugar, treacle, brandy, or any colouring matter to the liquor; it is only adulterated in the hands of cider dealers and publicans who will not lose a hogshead, and if one has turned sour or has been otherwise damaged, it must be ' doctored ' in order to render it marketable." At the beginning of January the cider is moved into cellars. In March the liquor is bunged down ; it may be used soon afterwards, though it will greatly improve by keeping. If I bottled cider is required, it should be bottled and wired in the September or October after it , is made. Some persons prefer an earlier time — the end of April or the beginning of May ; a ! greater degree of effervescence is thus attained, I but a considerable loss accrues from the number I of bottles that will be burst. The quantity of cider consimied by workmen is very large. The usual allowance given by masters in Herefordshire is two or three quarts