ALCOHOLIC DRINKS
=Drink needed for Health.=--Water in the form of sweat and in other
ways is constantly passing off from the body. This water carries with
it the waste matter which, if it remained, would poison the body.
There is some water in the food we eat, but not enough to supply the
wants of the body.
Some persons think that the body needs beer or wine to keep it in good
order. These liquids, as well as whisky, brandy, and rum, are called
_alcoholic drinks_. The latest experiments and studies show that the
body never needs alcoholic drinks to keep it in the best of health.
These drinks sometimes make the body sick, and if much alcohol is
taken at one time, the person becomes dizzy, staggers, and may fall
down and go to sleep.
=The Desire for Drink.=--When parts of the body have too little water,
there is a longing for drink. This is called _thirst_. As soon as a
cup of water is drunk the desire is satisfied. There is no danger of
drinking too much pure water.
Persons who have been accustomed to use alcoholic drink have a thirst
which water does not satisfy. It is an _unnatural thirst_. Even beer
or wine will not satisfy such a thirst except for a few minutes. Very
often a person's thirst is not satisfied until he has used so much
wine or whisky that he becomes dull and unsteady in his walk. He is
then said to be drunk.
[Illustration: FIG. 35.--Yeast plants growing as in the making of beer
and wine. Much enlarged.]
=How the Yeast Plant makes Alcohol.=--In the cake of yeast bought at
the grocery there are millions of tiny plants, each shaped somewhat
like a potato. This strange little plant will grow very rapidly when
put into any sweet watery substance. It sends out a bud which grows
larger and larger until in a half hour the bud is as large as the old
plant. It may then break loose and grow other buds, just like the
mother plant.
When yeast grows, it changes the sugar or sweet part of the water into
alcohol and a gas called carbon dioxide. It is this gas which makes
beer foam and bubble when opened. All alcohol used in beer, porter,
ale, wine, brandy, rum, gin, and whisky is made by yeast plants.
[Illustration: FIG. 36.--Photograph of sprouted barley grains called
malt.]
=How Beer is Made.=--There is more beer used than any other alcoholic
drink. It is cheap and is much weaker in alcohol than wine or whisky.
Only about one twentieth part of beer is alcohol.
[Illustration: FIG. 37.--Photograph of a spray of hops, which are used
to flavor beer.]
In making beer, a sweet watery mixture is first prepared by mashing
sprouted barley grains in water. Barley or any other grain forms sugar
as soon as it begins to grow. Yeast plants are added to the sweet
mixture. By growing they change some of the sugar into alcohol. Hops
are also put in to give the beer a fine flavor. After a time the clear
liquid is separated from the barley grains and hops and put into tight
casks and bottles.
=The Making of Wine.=--Wine contains from two to four times as much
alcohol as beer. Most of the wine is made in California, France, and
Germany because grapes grow better in these countries than elsewhere.
Wine may be made from the juice of any fruit, but the grape is
generally used.
[Illustration: FIG. 38.--The quantity of grapes required to make this
glass full of wine.]
The grapes after being picked are thrown into large tubs and crushed
so that the juice runs out. The wild yeast always present on the grape
skins begins to grow in the juice and change some of the sugar into
alcohol. This work of the yeast lasts from one to eight weeks. At the
end of that time, the grape juice has become a kind of poor wine,
consisting of alcohol, water, grape flavor, and some acid. To make the
wine good it must be drawn off into casks, where the yeast causes
further changes during several weeks. It is then put into bottles,
where it should remain about five years to get the right flavor.
=Sherry= is a strong wine used in flavoring food, such as puddings and
sauces. A few teaspoonfuls of this wine will make a child drunk. The
wines made at home from elderberries, blackberries, and cherries
contain alcohol which will do just as much harm as that in the
purchased wines.
=How Brandy is Made.=--Brandy contains more alcohol than wine and
almost as much as whisky. In fact brandy is only very strong wine.
After the yeast plants have formed as much alcohol as they can in
grape juice it becomes so strong that it kills them. This wine is then
heated in such a way as to separate some of the water from it. The
taking away of the water leaves the wine stronger in alcohol and it
then forms brandy.
[Illustration: FIG. 39.--The shaded part at the bottom of each bottle
shows the amount of alcohol in the drink.]
[Illustration: FIG. 40.--A still used in making whisky or brandy. The
heat makes the alcohol fumes or vapor rise and pass over through the
pipe coiled in a vessel of cold water. The cold changes the vapor to a
liquid which is whisky.]
=Whisky and Rum.=--These two drinks are strong in alcohol. Nearly one
half of each is pure alcohol. Whisky is usually made from rye, corn,
or wheat, or all three together. They furnish the food in which the
yeast grows and makes alcohol. This watery mixture of grain and
alcohol is then heated and the vapor or steam forms whisky after it
goes off through a pipe into another vessel. This kind of heating is
_distillation_. Rum is formed in somewhat the same way from molasses
or cane juice.
PRACTICAL QUESTIONS
1. Name some alcoholic drinks.
2. What is an unnatural thirst?
3. Explain how the yeast plant forms alcohol.
4. Tell how beer is made.
5. Tell how wine is made.
6. What is brandy?
7. Which drinks contain most alcohol?