ade wines, and to
those which are the produce of the grape, the progress of fermentation
and attenuation being (or ought to be) interrupted in them by racking
off, which is similar to cleansing in beers and ales: and in Madeiras,
and other dry wines, the incipient acidity is corrected and restrained,
by proper additions introduced in the early part of the process, and
with others of similar effect when the wines are making up, either for
use or exportation.

We may gather from these observations, that worts attenuated for beer
or ale, to the decomposition of all their fermentable matter, that is,
attenuated so high, or so low, that their specific gravity is reduced
to the standard of common water, and from that to the degree of levity
spirit is known to give to water, in the proportion to the quantity
added, and left to the preservation of the spirit formed, they have
little or no auxiliary assistance from their original products, already
exhausted by the highest or completest attenuation obtainable; an
important circumstance, always to be attended to, particularly by those
who affect an unnecessarily high attenuation!

The intelligent brewer may, by the assistance of these observations,
form a most accurate rule for the regulation of his future conduct in
the management of fermentation, according as his beer or ale is to
be weak or strong, or for present use or long keeping; for the
accomplishment of which, the use of the hydrometer and thermometer
claim his peculiar attention, and will undoubtedly answer his
expectations, when joined to the certainty he is now at, of knowing
when he is, or is not, to expect the development of fixed air and
additional spirit, by which he can govern himself accordingly.

These observations lead to a removal of the difficulties that lay in
the way, and, at the same time, suggest a mode of applying the present,
or of constructing a future _hydrometer_, for ascertaining the strength
or the quantity of the vinous spirit in beer, wine, ale, and other
fermented fluids, which has long been a desirable object.

The distiller, having none of these niceties to attend to, is governed
by the ultimate extent of the attenuation the worts, or wash, is found
capable of, and which is both assisted and protracted by its superior
density, in its progress from specific gravity to specific levity, if
such an expression is admissible.

Fermentation, begun in a fluid more or less saturated with saccharin