f 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