GINGER BEER. 175 



water as it passes through (Expt. 152). This action will go on for 

 some days ; when it slackens, the fluid may be distilled (Expt. 38) 

 until about one third has passed over; this distillate should be 

 again distilled until almost one-third has passed over. This twice 

 "rectified" spirit will probably be strong enough to burn if a 

 little be poured on some cotton wick, or warmed in a spoon, and 

 then lighted; but if too weak to burn, a pretty strong spirit may 

 be extracted from it by putting an ounce or two of pearlashes 

 (potassium carbonate) into a bottle, pouring in the weak spirit, 

 shaking up, and allowing to stand, when watery solution of 

 potassium carbonate subsides and strong alcohol floats up to the 

 top (Expt. 39). 



Expt. 190. To make Ginger Beer and Nettle Beer. Dissolve 

 loaf sugar in boiling water in the proportion of from f to 1 Ib. 

 of sugar to the gallon of water ; add to this mixture the rind of 

 a lemon chopped very fine and 1 oz. of powdered ginger ; stir up 

 well, cover, and allow to stand six hours ; then add 1 oz. of cream 

 of tartar and the juice of a lemon, with a tablespoonful of good 

 yeast, and mix thoroughly ; allow to stand in a sufficiently warm 

 room to enable the fermentation to proceed; after some hours 

 the mixture may be poured off from the sediment and bottled, 

 the corks being well tied down ; if kept in a warm room the 

 fermentation will be sufficiently advanced after twenty-four hours 

 more to make the ginger beer fit for use, but a somewhat longer 

 time is usually preferable. 



In some country districts analogous drinks are prepared by 

 gathering certain herbs (in particular, young nettles), and pouring 

 boiling water over the green shoots or leaves, &c.; sugar is dissolved 

 in the decoction (sometimes treacle is used instead), and the whole 

 allowed to stand some hours so as to settle, and the clear liquid 

 poured off; yeast is then added (with lemon juice or other 

 flavouring matters according to taste), and the whole kept in a 

 warm room until fermentation is well developed, when the liquid 

 is bottled and stored awhile, so that the fermentation may become 

 fully developed whilst in bottle. 



In these and all other beverages, a certain proportion of alcohol 

 is necessarily present, owing to the nature of the changes produced 

 in the saccharine matter by the action of fermentation; a some- 

 what similar kind of non-alcoholic " ginger beer," however, is pre- 

 pared by aerated water manufacturers by processes essentially the 

 same in principle as that described in Expt. 72, but carried out 

 on a much larger scale, the carbon dioxide gas employed being 

 generated from chalk and sulphuric acid, and compressed and 

 dissolved in the fluid to be aerated by means of a powerful pump. 



