Sometimes people have what they call _home-made
wines_, which they make from blackberries, currants, elderberries,
gooseberries, cherries, or other fruits. They may ask you to take some,
saying, "This will do you no harm; we did not put any alcohol into it."
They do not know what you have learned, that alcohol is always formed in
fermented juices which contain sugar. It does not wait to be put into the
home-made wines; it quietly comes in as they are getting made, at home or
any other place, and will make people drunk as surely as when it is found
in brandy or any other liquor.
Some of the wines in the stores are made from grape juice, but many more
are made by mixing hurtful and poisonous things together to make the liquor
strong, and give it what is called a fine color and good taste.
_BEER AND ALES._--These are made from grains and hops, which contain no
sugar, it is true, but are composed of starch, which may be changed into
sugar. When a seed of grain is put into the ground and begins to grow, the
starch in it becomes sugar, which feeds the young plant. When a brewer
wishes to make beer, he takes some grain, puts it in a dark place, wets it,
and leaves it to sprout, or begin to grow. Then he puts it into an oven to
dry it, and make it stop growing.
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