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MANUFACTURING A.."iD ADULTER.\TING LIQUORS.
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ofmodem decrepitude," and that the discovery of this
:fluid indicated the consummation of all things, and
the end of the world.
The
pr0Ce88
of
distillation,
as carried on in the dis–
tilleries of the United States, may be divided into/our
general operations, viz :
The mashing
or formation
of a saccharine infusion, from certain vegetable mat–
ters, as malt, barley, oats, rye, &c.
;-the cooling
of
this wort or liquor;
thef~ion,
or process by
which the sugar of the cooled wort is converted into
alcohol ; and
the sepMation
of
the spirit
so formed
by means of a still and refrigerator. By the
first
operation, the materials for the formation of the
alcohol are obtained; by the
second,
they are brought
to a temperature most favorable to the transforma–
tion that takes place in the
third,
after which it only
remains to free the product of' the last operation
from the foreign matter with which it is associated :
this is done in the
fourth,
and, correctly speaking,
constitutes the only part of the process which can be
called
distillation.
The general principles of the first three of the pre–
ceding operations, are noticed in the articles BREW–
ING,
DIASTASE, and FERMENTATION. It
will
there be
seen, that the amylaceous or starchy matter of the
grain is firstsaccharified and afterwards converted into
alcohol, and that certain precautions are necessary
Digitized
by