MALT AND BEER IN SPANISH AMERICA. 349 



IMITATIONS OF FOREIGN BEER. 



In spite of these precautions, however, it is known that from the 

 many local liquor manufacturers (licoristas) there are surreptitiously 

 put upon the market no inconsiderable quantities of bottled ales, ex- 

 port beers and porters, which are not genuine most of them, indeed, 

 being mere imitations; though it may be that, in many cases they me 

 put up in legitimate bottles. That is to say, the purchase pf beer 

 and other bottles by parties parading the streets and calling out 

 for "empty bottles" (botellas vacias),i8 now a large and well recogni/ed 

 branch of business. With the trade-mark still upon them or a good 

 imitation put in its place, these bottles are refilled with a spurious 

 article, which thus readily deceives those who are not careful where 

 or from whom they purchase. 



ADULTERATION OF FERMENTED LIQUORS. 



Deceptions, however, are not confined to imported beers. Although 

 the brewing industry here is scarely yet out of its teens it is intimated 

 to me that even in some well accredited establishments various expe- 

 dients are not infrequently resorted to to produce taste, strength, or 

 color in the product, and the chemical knowledge which now exists 

 in regard to the artificial production of liquors makes the intimation 

 very plausible. Of course, however, the extent of those adulterations 

 is the secret of the manufacturers and can only be guessed at by out- 

 siders or consumers. And here in the Argentine Republic, where every 

 hop used in the mash must at great expense be imported from abroad, 

 there must be ample occasion for using substitutes. While the impor- 

 tations of hops are given at about 70 tons per annum, the custom -house 

 returns for 1888 show that the imports of quassia, gentian, and worm- 

 wood bitter amounted to 649,565 liters. Whether this was made use 

 of as a substitute for hops of course I am not able to affirm, nor 

 would I intimate that ginger and carraway are resorted to to impart 

 pungency ; or alum and blue vitrol to enable the beer to keep a frothy 

 head ; or coculus indicus, nux vomica, and tobacco to increase its intoxi- 

 cating power. But even with these possible ingredients in its produc- 

 tion, the criticism of the old toper in regard to whisky, that "it wasa/J 

 good," seems to be much more the general decision here in regard to 

 malt liquors. 



PRICES, ETC. 



Indeed, beer is becoming more and more the popular drink of the Ar- 

 gentine Republic, and every year sees the establishment of new plants 

 in the different provinces and the enlargement of old ones. 



As I have already indicated, the variety in general request is the or- 

 dinary lager, sold for family use in bottles and to drinking establish- 

 ments in kegs. The price of this beer is $2.40 per dozen bottles and 15 

 cents per liter in kegs, in the paper money of the country, which is equal 



