ART. V.

_The best method of making common country Gin._

Take of singlings a sufficient quantity to fill the doubling still, put
therein ten or twelve pounds of juniper berries, with one shovel full of
ashes, and two ounces alum--put on the bead, and run her off, as is
done in making whiskey. This is the common mode of making country gin;
but is in this state little superior to whiskey, save as to smell and
flavor.

It is therefore in my mind, that the mode of clarifying, prescribed,
ought to be pursued in all distilleries, so far as necessary to make a
sufficient quantity of good spirit for any market convenient--the supply
of respectable neighbors, who may prefer giving a trifle more per
gallon, than for common stuff and for domestic use. And moreover, I
think the distiller will meet a generous price for such clarified, and
pure spirit, as he may send to a large mercantile town for sale--as
brewers and others, frequently desire such for mixing, brewing, making
brandies in the French and Spanish mode, and spirits after the Jamaica
custom. And after the establishment of a filtering tub or hopper,
prepared as before described, with holes, flannel or woollen cloth, and
plenty of maple charcoal, and burnt brick-dust, a distiller may always
find leisure to attend to the filtration; indeed it will be found as
simple and easy, as the process for making ley from ashes in the country
for soap. But I would suggest that spirit prepared and clarified in this
way, should be put into the sweetest and perfectly pure casks.

New barrels will most certainly impart color, and perhaps some taste,
which would injure the sale, if intended for a commercial town market,
and for brewing, or mixing with spirits, from which it is to receive its
flavor.

For my own use, I would put this spirit into a nice sweet cask, and to
each barrel I would add a pint of regularly, and well browned wheat, not
burned but roasted as much as coffee.

The taste of peach brandy may be imparted to it by a quantity of peach
stone kernels, dried, pounded and stirred into the cask; in this way,
those who are fond of the peach brandy flavor, may drink it without
becoming subject to the pernicious consequences that arise from the
constant use of peach brandy. Peach brandy, unless cleansed of its gross
and cloying properties, or is suffered to acquire some years of age, has
a cloying effect on the stomach, which it vitiates, by destroying the
effect of the sal