A distilled beverage, liquor, or spirit is a drinkable liquid containing ethanol Ethanol, also called ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid. It is a powerful psychoactive drug and one of the oldest recreational drugs. It is best known as the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages and thermometers. In common usage, it is often referred to simply as that is produced by distilling Distillation is a method of separating mixtures based on differences in their volatilities in a boiling liquid mixture. Distillation is a unit operation, or a physical separation process, and not a chemical reaction, or less commonly freeze distilling Fractional freezing is a process used in process engineering and chemistry to separate two liquids with different melting points. It can be done by partial melting of a solid, for example in zone refining of silicon or metals, or by partial crystallization of a liquid, for example "freeze distillation", also called "normal freezing&, fermented Fermentation in food processing typically is the conversion of carbohydrates to alcohols and carbon dioxide or organic acids using yeasts, bacteria, or a combination thereof, under anaerobic conditions. A more restricted definition of fermentation is the chemical conversion of sugars into ethanol. The science of fermentation is known as zymology grain, fruit, or vegetables.^[1] This excludes undistilled fermented beverages such as beer Beer is the world's most widely consumed and probably the oldest of alcoholic beverages; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from cereal grains—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize , and rice are widely used. Most beer is and wine Wine is an alcoholic beverage, typically made of fermented grape juice. The natural chemical balance of grapes is such that they can ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes or other nutrients. Wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast consumes the sugars found in the grapes and converts them.

The term hard liquor is often used to distinguish distilled beverages from (implicitly weaker) undistilled ones.

Beer Beer is the world's most widely consumed and probably the oldest of alcoholic beverages; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from cereal grains—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize , and rice are widely used. Most beer is and wine Wine is an alcoholic beverage, typically made of fermented grape juice. The natural chemical balance of grapes is such that they can ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes or other nutrients. Wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast consumes the sugars found in the grapes and converts them are limited to a maximum alcohol content of about 15% ABV Alcohol by volume is a standard measure of how much alcohol (ethanol) is contained in an alcoholic beverage (expressed as a percentage of total volume). The ABV standard is used worldwide, as most yeasts Yeasts are eukaryotic micro-organisms classified in the kingdom Fungi, with the 1,500 species currently described estimated to be only 1% of all yeast species. Most reproduce asexually by budding, although a few do so by binary fission. Yeasts are unicellular, although some species with yeast forms may become multicellular through the formation of cannot reproduce when the concentration of alcohol is above this level; consequently, fermentation ceases at that point.

The term spirit refers to a distilled beverage that contains no added sugar and has at least 20% ABV Alcohol by volume is a standard measure of how much alcohol (ethanol) is contained in an alcoholic beverage (expressed as a percentage of total volume). The ABV standard is used worldwide. Popular spirits include brandy Brandy is a spirit produced by distilling wine, the wine having first been produced by fermenting grapes. Brandy generally contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink. While some brandies are aged in wooden casks, most are coloured with caramel colouring to imitate the effect of such aging, fruit brandy Brandy is a spirit produced by distilling wine, the wine having first been produced by fermenting grapes. Brandy generally contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink. While some brandies are aged in wooden casks, most are coloured with caramel colouring to imitate the effect of such aging (also known as eau-de-vie An eau de vie is a clear, colorless fruit brandy that is produced by means of fermentation and double distillation. The fruit flavor is typically very light / Schnapps Schnapps is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage. The English word schnapps is derived from the German Schnaps , which can refer to any strong alcoholic drink but particularly those containing at least 32% ABV (64 proof). American schnapps, however, are liqueurs), gin Gin is a spirit whose predominant flavor is derived from juniper berries . Although several different styles of gin have existed since its origins, gin is broadly differentiated into two basic legal categories. Distilled gin is crafted in the traditional manner, by re-distilling neutral spirit of agricultural origin with juniper berries and other, rum Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane by-products such as molasses and sugarcane juice by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak and other barrels, tequila Tequila is a blue agave–based spirit made primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila, 65 kilometres (40 mi) northwest of Guadalajara, and in the highlands (Los Altos) of the western Mexican state of Jalisco, vodka Vodka is a distilled beverage and one of the world's most popular liquors. It is composed primarily of water and ethanol with traces of impurities and flavorings. Vodka is made from the fermented substances like grain and potatoes, and whisky Whisky or whiskey (Irish English) is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Different grains are used for different varieties, including barley, malted barley, rye, malted rye, wheat, and maize (corn). Whisky is aged in wooden casks, made generally of white oak, except that in the United States corn whiskey need not.

Distilled beverages that are bottled with added sugar and added flavorings, such as Grand Marnier Grand Marnier is a liqueur created in 1880 by Alexandre Marnier-Lapostolle. It is made from a blend of true cognacs and distilled essence of bitter orange. Grand Marnier is 40% alcohol (80 proof). It is produced in several varieties, most of which can be consumed "neat" as a digestif and can be used in mixed drinks and desserts. In, Frangelico Frangelico is a brand of noisette, or hazelnut and herb-flavored liqueur which is produced in Canale, Italy. It is 24% alcohol by volume, 48 proof. It was released in the 1980s, gaining attention largely because of its unusual packaging: its bottle was designed to look like a friar, complete with a knotted white cord around the waist. It is most, and American schnapps Schnapps is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage. The English word schnapps is derived from the German Schnaps , which can refer to any strong alcoholic drink but particularly those containing at least 32% ABV (64 proof). American schnapps, however, are liqueurs, are liqueurs A liqueur is an alcoholic beverage that has been flavored with fruit, herbs, nuts, spices, flowers, or cream and bottled with added sugar. Liqueurs are typically quite sweet; they are usually not aged for long but may have resting periods during their production to allow flavors to marry. In common usage, the distinction between spirits and liqueurs is widely unknown or ignored; consequently all alcoholic beverages An alcoholic beverage is a drink containing ethanol . Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and spirits other than beer and wine are generally referred to simply as spirits.

Fortified wines Fortified wine is wine to which a distilled beverage has been added. Fortified wine is distinguished from spirits made from wine in that spirits are produced by means of distillation, while fortified wine is simply wine that has had a spirit added to it. Many different styles of fortified wine have been developed, including port, sherry, madeira, are created by adding a distilled beverage (often brandy) to a wine.

Serving

• Neat or straight In bartending, the term straight up refers to an alcoholic drink that is shaken or stirred with ice, strained, and served in a stemmed glass — The spirit is served at room temperature without any additional ingredient.^[2]
• Straight up In bartending, the term straight up refers to an alcoholic drink that is shaken or stirred with ice, strained, and served in a stemmed glass — This term refers to an alcoholic drink that is shaken or stirred with ice, strained, and served in a stemmed glass.
• On the rocks — The spirit is served over ice.
• The spirit is served with water.
• The spirit is served with a simple mixer such as club soda, tonic water Tonic water is a carbonated soft drink flavoured with quinine, which gives it a distinctively bitter taste, juice Juice is the liquid that is naturally contained in fruit or vegetable tissue. Juice is prepared by mechanically squeezing or macerating fresh fruits or vegetables flesh without the application of heat or solvents. For example, orange juice is the liquid extract of the fruit of the orange tree. Juice may be prepared in the home from fresh fruits, or cola Cola is a beverage usually containing caramel color, caffeine and a sweetener such as sugar or high fructose corn syrup.
• The spirit is served as an ingredient of a cocktail A cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink that contains two or more ingredients — at least one of the ingredients must be a spirit.
• The spirit is served with water poured over sugar (as with absinthe Absinthe is historically described as a distilled, highly alcoholic (45–74% ABV) beverage. It is an anise-flavored spirit derived from herbs, including the flowers and leaves of the herb Artemisia absinthium, commonly referred to as "grande wormwood". Absinthe traditionally has a natural green color but can also be colorless. It is)

Etymology

The origin of “liquor” and its close relative “liquid,” was the Latin verb liquere, meaning “to be fluid.” According to the Oxford English Dictionary The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is a dictionary of the English language. Two fully-bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. As of December 2008[update], the editors had completed one quarter of a third edition, an early use of the word in the English language, meaning simply "a liquid," can be dated to 1225. The first use that the OED mentions in reference to a “liquid for drinking” occurred in the early- to mid-1300s. Its use as a term for “an intoxicating alcoholic drink” appeared in the 16th century.

The origin of "spirit" in reference to alcohol stems from Middle Eastern alchemy. These alchemists were more involved in medical elixirs than in creating gold from lead. The vapors given off and collected during some of their alchemical processes were described as being the spirits of the original object. When processes akin to distillation were carried out by accident alcohol was produced and the result known as a spirit.

History of distillation

Middle East

The first evidence of distillation comes from Babylonia Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia , with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged when Hammurabi (fl. ca. 1696 – 1654 BC, short chronology) created an empire out of the territories of the former Akkadian Empire. Babylonia adopted the written Semitic Akkadian language for official use, and retained the and dates from the 2nd millennium B.C. Specially shaped clay pots were used to extract small amounts of distilled alcohol through natural cooling for use in perfumes. By the 3rd century A.D., alchemists Alchemy, possibly derived from the Arabic word al-kimia , is both a philosophy and an ancient practice focused on the attempt to change base metals into gold, investigating the preparation of the "elixir of longevity", and achieving ultimate wisdom, involving the improvement of the alchemist as well as the making of several substances in Alexandria Alexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving approximately 80% of Egypt's imports and exports. Alexandria is also an important tourist resort. Alexandria extends about 32 km (20 mi) along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in north-central Egypt. It is home to the, Egypt Egypt (pronounced /ˈiːdʒɪpt/ ; Arabic: مصر‎ Miṣr, pronounced [misˤɾ] ( listen); Arabic: مِصْر Miṣr [ˈmisˤɾ]; Egyptian Arabic: مَصْر Maṣr [ˈmɑsˤɾ]; Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, kīmi; Egyptian: 𓆎𓅓𓏏𓊖 Kemet), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula, may have used an early form of distillation to produce alcohol for sublimation or for colouring metal.^{[citation needed]}

Alcohol was distilled for the first time by Persian chemists Alchemy and chemistry in Islam refers to the study of both traditional alchemy and early practical chemistry by scientists in the medieval Islamic world. The word alchemy itself was derived from the Arabic word الكيمياء al-kimia, in turn derived from the Persian word کيميا kimia in the 8th and 9th centuries.^[3] The development of the still A still is a permanent apparatus used to distill miscible or immiscible liquid mixtures by heating to selectively boil and then cooling to condense the vapor. Stills have been used to produce perfume and medicine, Water for Injection (WFI) for pharmaceutical use, generally to separate and purify different chemicals, and most famously, to produce with cooled collector—necessary for the efficient distillation of spirits without freezing—was an invention of alchemists during this time. In particular, Geber (Jabir Ibn Hayyan, 721–815) invented the alembic An alembic (from Arabic al-inbīq الأنبيق, from Greek ambix possibly from Semitic) is an alchemical still consisting of two vessels connected by a tube. Technically, the alembic is the lid with a tube attachment (the capital or still-head), which is placed on top of a flask, the cucurbit, containing the material to be distilled, but the still; he observed that heated wine from this still released a flammable vapor, which he described as "of little use, but of great importance to science". Not much later Razi (864–930) described the distillation of alcohol and its use in medicine. By that time, distilled spirits had become fairly popular beverages: the poet A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary greatly in different cultures and time periods Abu Nuwas Abu-Nuwas al-Hasan ben Hani Al-Hakami ,a known as Abū-Nuwās (Arabic: ابونواس‎; Persian: ابونواس, Abu Novas), was one of the greatest of classical Arabic and Persian poets. Born in the city of Ahvaz in Persia, of an Arab father and a Persian mother, he became a master of all the contemporary genres of Arabic poetry. Abu Nuwas has (d. 813) describes a wine that "has the colour of rain-water but is as hot inside the ribs as a burning firebrand". The terms "alembic" and "alcohol", and possibly the metaphors "spirit" and aqua vitae (“water of life”) for the distilled product, can be traced to Arabic alchemy Alchemy and chemistry in Islam refers to the study of both traditional alchemy and early practical chemistry by Muslim scientists in the medieval Islamic world. The word alchemy itself was derived from the Arabic word الكيمياء al-kimia.^[3]

Names like "life water" have continued to be the inspiration for the names of several types of beverages, like Gaelic The Goidelic languages are one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic languages, the other consisting of the Brythonic languages. Goidelic languages historically formed a dialect continuum stretching from the south of Ireland through the Isle of Man to the north of Scotland. There are three modern Goidelic languages: Irish , Scottish Gaelic (Gà whisky Whisky or whiskey (Irish English) is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Different grains are used for different varieties, including barley, malted barley, rye, malted rye, wheat, and maize (corn). Whisky is aged in wooden casks, made generally of white oak, except that in the United States corn whiskey need not, Scandinavian Scandinavia is a region in northern Europe that includes Denmark and the Scandinavian Peninsula's two nations, Norway and Sweden. Finland is sometimes considered a Scandinavian country in common English usage, and Iceland and the Faroe Islands are sometimes also included. The term Nordic countries refers to Denmark, Norway and Sweden as well as akvavit Akvavit or aquavit is a flavoured spirit that is produced in Scandinavia and typically contains 40% alcohol by volume. Its name comes from aqua vitae, the Latin for "water of life", French France is a founding member state of the European Union and is the largest one by area. France has been a major power for several centuries with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and in the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America; during the 19th and early 20th eaux-de-vie and possibly vodka.

Central Asia

Freeze distillation, the "Mongolian still", is known to have been in use in Central Asia sometime in the early Middle Ages. This method involves freezing the alcoholic beverage and removing the ice. The freezing method had limitations in geography and implementation and consequently was not widely used. A notable drawback to this technique is that it concentrates toxins such as methanol and fusel alcohols, rather than reducing concentrations.

Medieval Europe

Distilled alcoholic beverages first appeared in Europe in the 12th century among alchemists who were more interested in brewing medical elixirs than in making gold from lead. They first appeared under the name aqua ardens (burning water) in the Compendium Salerni from the medical school at Salerno. The production method was written in code, suggesting that it was being kept secret. Taddeo Alderotti in his Consilia medicinalis referred to serpente, which are believed to have been the coiled tube of a still.

In 1437, burned water (brandy) was mentioned in the records of the county of Katzenelnbogen in Germany.^[4] It was served in a tall, narrow glass called a “goderulffe.”

Paracelsus gave alcohol its modern name, taking it from the Arabic word which means "finely divided", in reference to what is done to wine. His test was to burn a spoonful without leaving any residue. Other ways of testing were to burn a cloth soaked in it without actually harming the cloth. In both cases, to achieve this effect the alcohol had to have been at least 95 percent, close to the maximum concentration attainable through distillation (see purification of ethanol).

Claims upon the origin of specific beverages are controversial, often invoking national pride, but they are plausible after the 12th century A.D. when Irish whiskey and German brandy became available. These spirits would have had a much lower alcohol content (about 40% ABV) than the alchemists' pure distillations, and they were likely first thought of as medicinal elixirs. Consumption of distilled beverages rose dramatically in Europe in and after the mid 14th century, when distilled liquors were commonly used as remedies for the Black Death. Around 1400 it was discovered how to distill spirits from wheat, barley, and rye beers; even sawdust was used to make alcohol, a much cheaper option than grapes. Thus began the "national" drinks of Europe: jenever (Belgium and the Netherlands), gin (England), schnapps (Germany), grappa (Italy), akvavit/snaps (Scandinavia), vodka (Russia and Poland), rakia (the Balkans), poitín (Ireland). The actual names only emerged in the 16th century but the drinks were well known prior to that date.

Modern distillation

The basic process of distillation has not changed since the 8th century. Freeze distillation also remained in limited use, for example during the American colonial period applejack was made from cider using this method.^{[citation needed]} There have been many changes in the methods by which organic material is prepared for the still and in the ways the distilled beverage is finished and marketed. Knowledge of the principles of sanitation and access to standardised yeast strains have improved the quality of the base ingredient; larger, more efficient stills produce more product per square foot and reduce waste; ingredients such as corn, rice, and potatoes have been called into service as inexpensive replacements for traditional grains and fruit. For tequila, the blue agave plant is used. Chemists have discovered the scientific principles behind aging, and have devised ways in which aging can be accelerated without introducing harsh flavors. Modern filters have allowed distillers to remove unwanted residue and produce smoother finished products. Most of all, marketing has developed a worldwide market for distilled beverages among populations which in earlier times did not drink spirits.

Microdistilling is a trend that began to develop in the United States following the emergence and immense popularity of microbrewing and craft beer in the last decades of the 20th century. It is specifically differentiated from megadistilleries in the quantity, and arguably quality, of output.

In most jurisdictions, including those which allow unlicensed individuals to make their own beer and wine, it is illegal to distill beverage alcohol without a license—with the notable exception of New Zealand, where personal alcohol distillation is legal (although selling still requires an appropriate licence).^[5] Although illegal, moonshining has a long tradition in some locations.

See also

• Absinthe
• Alcoholic beverage
• American Whiskey Trail
• Brandy
• Eau-de-vie
• Fractional freezing, sometimes called “freeze distillation”
• Moonshine
• Neutral grain spirit
• Rectified spirit
• Rum
• Schnapps
• Vodka
• Whisky

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