The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-07-28
DOMAIN OF TEMPERANCE
TEMPERANCE DRINKS.


One of the most encouraging signs
of progress in temperance is that some
of the leading breweries are putting
out brands of non-alcoholic beer and
advertising them lavishly. Whether
they will become popular or not re-
mains in question, for it depends upon
whether people drink beer for any
other reason than the alcohol it con-
tains Leaving out the alcohol, beer
becomes a cheap, harmless, refresh
ing, slightly nutritious, and to some
tastes, palatable beverage. That it is
quite possible to prepare and preserve
such nonalcoholic beer has been
demonstrated in other countries as
well as in the United States The
British government is encouraging
the sale of new brand of it, though
without much success, it seems, for
the old topers do not take to the
Lloyd George beer" In Canada,
owing to the extension of prohibition
territory, the brewers are putting out
various temperance beers that are
with few exceptions sufficiently free
of alcohol. The Canadian government
has established 3.5 per cent as the
highest limit for temperance beer, but
some of the provinces make 2.5 per
cent the maximum. Of 129 samples
of temperance beer analysed by the
Inland Revenue Department at OF
and eighty-four below the 2.5 limit.
Only one sample was found to con-
tain over 55 per cent, which is the
lowest limit for lager beer.
Most of the samples for unferment-
ed grape juice analysed contained no
alcohol or merely traces, and only
eight out of 1913 ran over the three
per cent limit. Of seventy-three
samples of sweet cider, thirty-three
contained no alcohol, twenty-one
others less than two per cent, and
| only two contained more than three
| per cent. Of other soft drinks, $50
were analysed, most of them being
| though three samples of ginger beer
| ran over the 3.5 per cent limit. On
| the whole, then, the temperance
| drinks of Canada are sufficiently true
to name. Doctor McGill, the chief
analyst of the Canadian government,
| regards the 3.5 per cent as salts
| factory maximum for temperance
beverages, and believes that most of
the oversteppings are accidental.
variation of two-tenths of one per
cent from the standard is allowable,
| because the error of analysis amounts
to as much as this, and because it is
| impossible to regulate fermentation
within such narrow limits.
The growing popularity of temper
| ance drinks in variety to suit all
| tastes, is, as we say, encouraging, but
| too much must not be expected of it.
No non-alcoholic beverage, no matter
| how delectable it's flavor, can ever
hope to rival the alcoholic beverages
| in popularity. Beer, whiskey, and
even the rarest wines, are not drunk
for the bouquet, but simply and solely
for the alcohol they contain. Any
imitation of these drinks, even though
indistinguishable by the taste, would
not displace them if it lacked the
alcohol. Alcoholic drinks increase
| thirst; other drinks quench thirst.
We have seen on soda water foun
tains the sign, "All you want to drink
for five cents" No saloonkeeper
would dare put up such notice.
Thus we can never expect any tenn
perance beverage to be so largely
drunk as the alcoholic beverages have
been, nor is it desirable that they
should be, no matter how harmless
they may be. Excessive drinking of
anything is intemperance, and the ad-
vantage of the temperance drinks is
that, however pleasant they may
taste, there is little temptation to in
temperance in their use.
-IndeDendent.