Possible Clues:

• Cider brandy
• Distilled cider, a type of brandy
• Brandy distilled from cider
• Fermented cider
• Not the first to spot tar in liquor
• Brandy man on beer, drinking very quietly
• Possibly Jonathan's device for lifting the American spirit
• Brandy very gently poured into beer by sailor
• Jonathan's boy displaying the American spirit?
• Something for the drinker or eater, perhaps, to raise