etc. Corn, (with hops).

* * * * *

DISTILLATION.

How does the sugar in grapes and other fruits become alcohol?--"By
fermenting." Yes, and liquors made by fermenting are called _fermented
liquors_. What other alcoholic drinks have you heard about beside cider,
wines, beer, and ales?--"Gin, whiskey, brandy, rum." These are stronger
than the fermented liquors, that is, they contain more alcohol; they are
made by what is called _distillation_.

If you boil water, and let the steam from it fall upon a cold plate, the
steam will change back into liquid and become _distilled_ water. Making a
liquid boil, catching the vapor or steam and cooling it, is what we mean by
distillation.

If two or more liquids are mixed together, the one that boils with the
least heat will be drawn off first. The alcohol of beer, cider, and wines
is mixed with water; it boils at a lower heat than water, so can be drawn
off from it very easily. This does not make more alcohol, it only makes the
alcohol stronger by separating it from the water.

When beer or any other alcoholic liquor is to be distilled, it is poured
into a large copper boiler, called a _still_, and boiled. A tube carries
the vapor from the boiler into a cask filled with cold water. This tube is
coiled like a spiral line or worm through the cask; it is called _the worm
of the still_, and the cask is _the worm-tub_. As the vapor passes through
the tube, it cools and drops out at the end into the worm-tub, changed into
a liquid stronger in alcohol than that from which it was drawn or
distilled.

In this way gin is made from beer, brandy from wine, and rum from fermented
molasses. These are very strong drinks, and only hard drinkers like them.
But very few people begin by taking these; they first learn to like alcohol
by drinking cider, beer, or wine, and end with gin, whiskey, or rum when
they have become drunkards.

DEFINITIONS.

_DISTILLATION._ Drawing the vapor from a boiling liquid and cooling it.

_STILL._ Machinery for distilling; the boiler which holds the liquid.

_THE WORM OF THE STILL._ The tube which passes from the still to a cask, in
which it coils like a worm.

_WORM-TUB._ The cask which holds the tube or worm, and receives the
distilled liquid.

_DISTILLED LIQUID._ A liquid formed by cooled steam.

_DISTILLED LIQUORS._ Liquors made by distilling alcoholic liquors.

_FERMENTED._ Changed by decay.

_FERMENTED LIQ