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over, a vinegar brewed from a rich sweetwort may, from
slovenly manufacture or slovenly storage, lose its acetic
acid and come out a weak vinegar. But to brew a weak
vinegar does not pay any manufacturer. It would mean
passing through his vats a large volume of useless water;
it would mean larger plant, more fuel, more expensive
handling, larger warehouses, and a larger area of ground.
There is, in fact, a strength at which it is best and cheapest
for a manufacturer to brew his vinegar. That point is
from 5 to 6.5 per cent. of acetic acid.
The Vinegar Act of 1818 [58 Geo. III., cap. 65] defined
proof vinegar as containing, by weight, a little over
6 per cent. of real acetic acid. A vinegar of that strength
is the best standard, and all vinegars would be better
sold to contain six per cent. of real acetic acid. A six
per cent. vinegar keeps perfectly, it perfectly preserves
fish, vegetables, or meat which needs to be pickled by
means of vinegar; and it can be diluted with water to
any extent that the consumer chooses for particular
purposes. The consumer no more needs to pay the
merchant for watering his vinegar than he needs to pay the
publican for watering his whiskey. Nor ought the consumer
to pay the cost of barrelling, bottling, and transporting the
water. What he demands is vinegar—not vinegar and water.
In the British Pharmacopoeia of 1898 vinegar has been
omitted from the list of drugs—probably on account of
uncertainty as to what is sold as "vinegar." But in the
previous edition of the British Pharmacopoeia (1885)
vinegar was included, and it was there defined as "prepared
from a mixture of unmalted and malted grain by
the acetous fermentation . . . having a specific gravity
of from 1.017 to 1.019—water being 1,000 . . . and
containing 5.41 per cent. of real acetic acid (HC2 H3 O2)."
Vinegar bought at a pharmacy as a drug would therefore
have had to contain 5.41 per cent of acetic acid. But
vinegar bought as an article of food at a grocer's would
not require to conform to the standard of the British
Pharmacopœia.