GIN

or Geneva , from Genievre (juniper), is a kind of ardent spirits manufactured in Holland, and hence called Hollands gin in this country, to distinguish it from British gin. The materials employed in the distilleries of Schiedam, are two parts of unmalted rye from Riga, weighing about 54 lbs. per bushel, and one part of malted bigg, weighing about 37 lbs. per bushel. The mash tun, which serves also as the fermenting tun, has a capacity of nearly 700 gallons, being about five feet in diameter at the mouth, rather narrower at the bottom, and 4 1 ⁄ 2 feet deep; the stirring apparatus is an oblong rectangular iron grid, made fast to the end of a wooden pole. About a barrel, = 36 gallons of water, at a temperature of from 162° to 168° (the former heat being best for the most highly dried rye), are put into the mash tun for every 1 1 ⁄ 2 cwt. of meal, after which the malt is introduced and stirred, and lastly the rye is added. Powerful agitation is given to the magma till it becomes quite uniform; a proce which a vigorous workman piques himself upon executing in the course of a few minutes. The mouth of the tun is immediately covered over with canvas, and further secured by a close wooden lid, to confine the heat; it is left in this state for two hours. The contents being then stirred up once more, the transparent spent wash of a preceding mashing is first added, and next as much cold water as will reduce the temperature of the whole to about 85° F. The best Flanders yeast, which had been brought, for the sake of carriage, to a doughy consistence by pre ure, is now introduced to the amount of one pound for every 100 gallons of the mashed materials. The gravity of the fresh wort is usually from 33 to 38 lbs. per Dicas’ hydrometer; and the fermentation is carried on from 48 to 60 hours, at the end of which time the attenuation is from 7 to 4 lbs., that is, the specific gravity of the supernatant wash is from 1·007 to 1·004. The distillers are induced by the scarcity of beer-barm in Holland, to skim off a quantity of the yeast from the fermenting tuns, and to sell it to the bakers, whereby they obstruct materially the production of spirit, though they probably improve its quality, by preventing its impregnation with yeasty particles; an unpleasant result which seldom fails to take place in the whiskey distilleries of the United Kingdom. On the third day after the fermenting tun is set, the wash containing the grains is transferred to the still, and converted into low wines. To every 100 gallons of this liquor, two pounds of juniper berries, from 3 to 5 years old, being added along with about one quarter of a pound of salt, the whole are put into the low wine still, and the fine Hollands spirit is drawn off by a gentle and well-regulated heat, till the magma becomes exhausted; the first and the last products being mixed together; whereby a spirit, 2 to 3 per cent. above our hydrometer proof, is obtained, po e ing the peculiar fine aroma of gin. The quantity of spirit varies from 18 to 21 gallons per quarter of grain; this large product being partly due to the employment of the spent wash of the preceding fermentation; an addition which contributes at the same time to improve the flavour. For the above instructive details of the manufacture of genuine Hollands, I am indebted to Robert More, Esq., formerly of Underwood, distiller, who after studying the art at Schiedam, tried to introduce that spirit into general consumption in this country, but found the palates of our gin-drinkers too much corrupted to relish so pure a beverage.