Adulteration of Beer
Malt liquors, and particularly porter, the favourite beverage of the inhabitants of London, and of other large towns, is amongst those articles, in the manufacture of which the greatest frauds are frequently committed.
The statute prohibits the brewer from using any ingredients in his brewings, except malt and hops; but it too often happens that those who suppose they are drinking a nutritious beverage, made of these ingredients only, are entirely deceived. The beverage may, in fact, be neither more nor less than a compound of the most deleterious substances; and it is also clear that all ranks of society are alike exposed to the nefarious fraud. The proofs of this statement will be shewn hereafter.48
The author49 of a Practical Treatise on Brewing, which has run through eleven editions, after having stated the various ingredients for brewing porter, observes, “that however much they may surprise, however pernicious or disagreeable they may appear, he has always found them requisite in the brewing of porter, and he thinks they must invariably be used by those who wish to continue the taste, flavour, and appearance of the beer.50 And though several Acts of Parliament have been passed to prevent porter brewers from using many of them, yet the author can affirm, from experience, he could never produce the present flavoured porter without them.51 The intoxicating qualities of porter are to be ascribed to the various drugs intermixed with it. It is evident some porter is more heady than other, and it arises from the greater or less quantity of stupifying ingredients. Malt, to produce intoxication, must be used in such large quantities as would very much diminish, if not totally exclude, the brewer’s profit.”
The practice of adulterating beer appears to be of early date. By an Act so long ago as Queen Anne, the brewers are prohibited from mixing cocculus indicus, or any unwholesome ingredients, in their beer, under severe penalties: but few instances of convictions under this act are to be met with in the public records for nearly a century. To shew that they have augmented in our own days, we shall exhibit an abstract from documents laid lately before Parliament.52
These will not only amply prove, that unwholesome ingredients are used by fraudulent brewers, and that very deleterious substances are also vended both to brewers and publicans for adulterating beer, but that the ingredients mixed up in the brewer’s enchanting cauldron are placed above all competition, even with the potent charms of Macbeth’s witches:
“Root of hemlock, digg’d i’ the dark,
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
For a charm of pow’rful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble;
Double, double, toil and trouble,
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.”
The fraud of imparting to porter and ale an intoxicating quality by narcotic substances, appears to have flourished during the period of the late French war; for, if we examine the importation lists of drugs, it will be noticed that the quantities of cocculus indicus imported in a given time prior to that period, will bear no comparison with the quantity imported in the same space of time during the war, although an additional duty was laid upon this commodity. Such has been the amount brought into this country in five years, that it far exceeds the quantity imported during twelve years anterior to the above epoch. The price of this drug has risen within these ten years from two shillings to seven shillings the pound.
It was at the period to which we have alluded, that the preparation of an extract of cocculus indicus first appeared, as a new saleable commodity, in the price-currents of brewers’-druggists. It was at the same time, also, that a Mr. Jackson, of notorious memory, fell upon the idea of brewing beer from various drugs, without any malt and hops. This chemist did not turn brewer himself; but he struck out the more profitable trade of teaching his mystery to the brewers for a handsome fee. From that time forwards, written directions, and recipe-books for using the chemical preparations to be substituted for malt and hops, were respectively sold; and many adepts soon afterwards appeared every where, to instruct brewers in the nefarious practice, first pointed out by Mr. Jackson. From that time, also, the fraternity of brewers’-chemists took its rise. They made it their chief business to send travellers all over the country with lists and samples exhibiting the price and quality of the articles manufactured by them for the use of brewers only. Their trade spread far and wide, but it was amongst the country brewers chiefly that they found the most customers; and it is amongst them, up to the present day, as I am assured by some of these operators, on whose veracity I can rely, that the greatest quantities of unlawful ingredients are sold.
The Act of Parliament53 prohibits chemists, grocers, and druggists, from supplying illegal ingredients to brewers under a heavy penalty, as is obvious from the following abstract of the Act.
“No druggist, vender of, or dealer in drugs, or chemist, or other person, shall sell or deliver to any licensed brewer, dealer in or retailer of beer, knowing him to be such, or shall sell or deliver to any person on account of or in trust for any such brewer, dealer or retailer, any liquor called by the name of or sold as colouring, from whatever material the same may be made, or any material or preparation other than unground brown malt for darkening the colour of worts or beer, or any liquor or preparation made use of for darkening the colour of worts or beer, or any molasses, honey, vitriol, quassia, cocculus Indian, grains of paradise, Guinea pepper or opium, or any extract or preparation of molasses, or any article or preparation to be used in worts or beer for or as a substitute for malt or hops; and if any druggist shall offend in any of these particulars, such liquor preparation, molasses, &c. shall be forfeited, and may be seized by any officer of excise, and the person so offending shall for each offence forfeit 500l.”
The following is a list of druggists and grocers, prosecuted by the Court of Excise, and convicted of supplying unlawful ingredients to brewers.
List of Druggists and Grocers, prosecuted and convicted from 1812 to 1819, for supplying illegal Ingredients to Brewers for adulterating Beer.54
John Dunn and another, druggists, for selling adulterating ingredients to brewers, verdict 500l.
George Rugg and others, druggists, for selling adulterating ingredients to brewers, verdict 500l.
John Hodgkinson and others, for selling adulterating ingredients to brewers, 100l. and costs.
William Hiscocks and others, for selling adulterating ingredients to a brewer, 200l. and costs.
G. Hornby; for selling adulterating ingredients to a brewer, 200l.
W. Wilson, for selling adulterating ingredients to a brewer, 200l.
George Andrews, grocer, for selling adulterating ingredients to a brewer, 25l. and costs.
Guy Knowles, for selling substitute for hops, costs.
Kernot and Alsop, for selling cocculus india, &c. 25l.
Joseph Moss, for selling various drugs, 300l.
Ph. Whitcombe, John Dunn, and Arthur Waller, druggists, for having liquor for darkening the colour of beer, hid and concealed.
Isaac Hebberd, for having liquor for darkening the colour of beer, hid and concealed.
Ph. Whitcombe, John Dunn, and Arthur Waller, druggists, for making liquor for darkening the colour of beer.
John Lord, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, 20l. and costs.
John Smith Carr, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, 20l. and costs.
Edward Fox, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, 25l. and costs.
John Cooper, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, 40l. and costs.
Joseph Bickering, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, 40l. and costs.
John Howard, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, 25l. and costs.
James Reynolds, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, costs.
Thomas Hammond, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, 20l. and costs.
J. Mackway, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, 20l.
T. Renton, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, costs, and taking out a license.
R. Adamson, grocer, for selling molasses to a brewer, costs, and taking out a license.
W. Weaver, for selling Spanish liquorice to a brewer, 200l.
J. Moss, for selling Spanish liquorice to a brewer.
Alex. Braden, for selling liquorice, 20l.
J. Draper, for selling molasses to a brewer, 20l.