This change is contradictory and nonsensical because alcohol plays a central role in Shadow Over Innsmouth, so the original item being an alcohol makes more sense. Also, this ignores the possibility that there might be other influences on the work, and that maybe the original name was intentional for other reasons. Or maybe the game was just poorly made and this is just covering over that.

The more infamous changes of older games at least reflected the localization standards of their era, and that the changes were done out of commercial or technical necessity. For this one the translator basically just admitted that they were bored.

Reminds me of the stories of 1990s JRPGs being sanitized for US release, per Nintendo of America. eg. in FF6, Shadow drinks sake. In US FF3, he drinks milk.