The brewer watches to see the bubbles of gas that tell, as plainly as words could, that sugar is going and alcohol is coming.

When the work is finished, the barley has been made into beer.

It might have been ground and made into barley-cakes, or into pearl barley to thicken our soups, and then it would have been good food. Now, it is a drink containing alcohol, and alcohol is a poison.

You should not drink beer, because there is alcohol in it.

Two boys of the same age begin school together. One of them drinks wine, cider, and beer. The other never allows these drinks to pa.s.s his lips. These boys soon become very different from each other, because one is poisoning his body and mind with alcohol, and the other is not.

A man wants a good, steady boy to work for him. Which of these two do you think he will select? A few years later, a young man is wanted who can be trusted with the care of an engine or a bank. It is a good chance. Which of these young men will be more likely to get it?

REVIEW QUESTIONS.

1. Is there sugar in grain?

2. What is in the grain that can be turned into sugar?

3. What can you do to a seed that will make its starch turn into sugar?

4. What does the brewer do to the barley to make its starch turn into sugar?

5. What is malt?

6. What does the brewer put into the malt to start the working?

7. What gives the bitter taste to beer?

8. How does the brewer know when sugar begins to go and alcohol to come?

9. Why does he want the starch turned to sugar?

10. Is barley good for food?

11. Why is beer not good for food?

12. Why should you not drink it?

13. Why did the two boys of the same age, at the same school, become so unlike?

14. Which will have the best chance in life?

FOOTNOTE:

[Footnote B: Car bon'ic acid gas.]

CHAPTER VI.

DISTILLING.

[Ill.u.s.tration: D]ISTILLING (dis till'ing) may be a new word to you, but you can easily learn its meaning.

You have all seen distilling going on in the kitchen at home, many a time. When the water in the tea-kettle is boiling, what comes out at the nose? Steam.

What is steam?

You can find out what it is by catching some of it on a cold plate, or tin cover. As soon as it touches any thing cold, it turns into drops of water.

When we boil water and turn it into steam, and then turn the steam back into water, we have distilled the water. We say vapor instead of steam, when we talk about the boiling of alcohol.

It takes less heat to turn alcohol to vapor than to turn water to steam; so, if we put over the fire some liquid that contains alcohol, and begin to collect the vapor as it rises, we shall get alcohol first, and then water.

But the alcohol will not be pure alcohol; it will be part water, because it is so ready to mix with water that it has to be distilled many times to be pure.

But each time it is distilled, it will become stronger, because there is a little more alcohol and a little less water.

In this way, brandy, rum, whiskey, and gin are distilled, from wine, cider, and the liquors which have been made from corn, rye, or barley.

The cider, wine, and beer had but little alcohol in them. The brandy, rum, whiskey, and gin are nearly one-half alcohol.

A gla.s.s of strong liquor which has been made by distilling, will injure any one more, and quicker, than a gla.s.s of cider, rum, or beer.

But a cider, wine, or beer-drinker often drinks so much more of the weaker liquor, that he gets a great deal of alcohol. People are often made drunkards by drinking cider or beer. The more poison, the more danger.

REVIEW QUESTIONS.

1. Where have you ever seen distilling going on?

2. How can you distill water?

3. How can men separate alcohol from wine or from any other liquor that contains it?

4. Why will not this be pure alcohol?

5. How is a liquor made stronger?

6. Name some of the distilled liquors.

7. How are they made?

8. How much of them is alcohol?

9. Which is the most harmful--the distilled liquor, or beer, wine, or cider?