1892 The flowing bowl when and what to drink (1892, c1891)

COMPOSITION OF DRINKS, ETC.

62

for use. There is some reason to believe that sulphuric acid is occasionally used to give astringency to beer, in which case the addition of chloride of barium to the liquor will cause the formation of a bulky precipitate insoluble in nitric acid. Sulphate of iron was, and probably is still, employed for restoring the flavor of beer. Should this chemical be present in an alcoholic beverage, by add- ing ammonia and sulphide of ammonium to the fluid a black precipitate will be produced. More recently, trials have been made to substitute picric acid instead of hops; beer prepared in this way is nothing but a solution of glucose, augmented or rather spiced with picric acid. Taste by itself fails in helping us to distinguish the presence of this acid, but Lassaigne gave us the means of detecting even the slightest pro- portions of said acid in beer. By shaking good, un- adulterated beer with an excess of pulverized burned bone-dust it loses all its color, as the powder absorbs all the dyestuffs; but when doing the same with beer adulterated by addition of picric acid, it will not lose its yellowish tint. It would be a great comfort to all beer-drinkers to know that such adulterations belong to the past; but, though sorry to say so, we are of the opinion of old Dr. Faust: " It's true the message I do hear, yet I cannot believe it."