09. Fermentation Prevented

Fermentation Prevented

Professor Donovan, in his work on Domestic Economy, mentions three methods by which all fermentation could be prevented:

“1. Grape-juice will not ferment when the air is completely excluded.

“2. By boiling down the juice, or, in other words, evaporating the water, the substance becomes a syrup, which if very thick will not ferment.

“3. If the juice be filtered and deprived of its gluten, or ferment, the production of alcohol will be impossible”—Anti-Bacchus, p. 162.

Dr. Ure, the eminent chemist, says that fermentation may be tempered or stopped:

“1. By those means which render the yeast inoperative, particularly by the oils that contain sulphur, as oil of mustard, as also by the sulphurous and sulphuric acids.

“2. By the separation of the yeast, either by the filter or subsidence.

“3. By lowering the temperature to 45°. If the fermenting mass becomes clear at this temperature and be drawn off from the subsided yeast, it will not ferment again, though it should be heated to the proper pitch”—Anti-Bacchus, p. 225.

Baron Liebig, in his Letters on Chemistry, says: “If a flask be filled with grape-juice and made air-tight, and then kept for a few hours in boiling water, the wine does not now ferment”—Bible Commentary, xxxvii. Here we have two of the preventives, viz., the exclusion of the air, and the raising of the temperature to the boiling point. The unalterable laws of nature, which are the laws of God, teach these stern facts:

1. That very sweet juices and thick syrups will not undergo the vinous fermentation.

2. That the direct and inevitable fermentation of the sweet juices, in hot climates with the temperature above 75°, will be the acetous.

3. That to secure the vinous fermentation the temperature must be between 50° and 75°, and that the exact proportions of sugar and gluten and water must be secured.

4. That all fermentation may be prevented by excluding the air, by boiling, by filtration, by subsidence, and by the use of sulphur.