SC - kegs and barrels

[Cindy Renfrow]

>According to the catalog these barrels are "lined with parafin for water
>tightness", so it sounds as if they have been designed to hold liquids.  As to
>whether or not brewers pitch is period I am not sure.  I have been looking for
>it to use to seal the interior of leather bottles and mugs.  I do know it is
>made from natural pine tar.
>
>
>Noemi
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Hello!

"...But it may also be proper to give an account of the method of preparing
wine, as Greek authors have written special treatises on this subject and
have made a scientific system for it -for instance Euphronius,
Aristomachus, Commiades and Hicesius.  The practice in Africa is to soften
any roughness with gypsum, and also in some parts of the country with lime.
In Greece, on the other hand, they enliven the smoothness of their wines
with potter's earth or marble dust or salt or sea-water, while in some
parts of Italy they use resinous pitch for this purpose, and it is the
general practice both there and in the neighbouring provinces to season
must with resin; in some places they use the lees of older wine or else
vinegar for seasoning...  In some places they boil the must down into what
is called sapa, and pour this into their wines to overcome their harshness.
*** Still both in the case of this kind of wine and in all others they
supply the vessels themselves with coatings of pitch... *** The method of
seasoning wine is to sprinkle the must with pitch during its first
fermentation, which is completed in nine days at most, so that the wine may
be given the scent of pitch and some touches of its piquant flavour..."
Pliny , Natural History, c. 77 A.D., Book XIV, section XXIV, pp. 265-269.
(Excerpted from "A Sip Through Time", p. 244.)

HTH,

Cindy Renfrow
renfrow at skylands.net
http://www.alcasoft.com/renfrow/


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