# Booze **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 5, 2000, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booze/5915 "2000-01-05T00:17:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GasDr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ba9def/32.png) [@GasDr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GasDr)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booze/5915/1 "2000-01-05T00:17:00Z")
What exactly is the fermented ingredient in the more popular spirits (or the not so popular)? tequilla–agave plant gin– rum–molasses? vodka–potatoes? bourbon scotch whiskey–corn feel free to add to the list. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booze/5915/2 "2000-01-05T00:20:00Z")
Gin - juniper berries? Scotch - fermented barley, with flavor added by smokey peat. ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booze/5915/3 "2000-01-05T00:21:00Z")
WAG but I think Gin is fermented from the juniper berry. Vodka from potatos? ---
**Author:** ![GasDr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ba9def/32.png) [@GasDr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GasDr)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booze/5915/4 "2000-01-05T00:30:00Z")
thought gin was just flavored with juniper and fermented from something else ---
**Author:** ![ignatiusjreilly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/2acd7d/32.png) [@ignatiusjreilly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ignatiusjreilly)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booze/5915/5 "2000-01-05T00:31:00Z")
I think vodka used to be from potatoes, but now I think it’s made from wheat or some other cheap grains. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booze/5915/6 "2000-01-05T00:31:00Z")
I think gin is fermented from some kind of grain–it’s just flavored with juniper. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecccb3/32.png) [@Lord\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booze/5915/7 "2000-01-05T00:31:00Z")
Isn’t whiskey a generic term for liquor made from fermented grains. As, bourbon is corn, rye is ,well, rye, scotch is barley. But they are all whiskeys. Am I right about that? ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booze/5915/8 "2000-01-05T00:38:00Z")
Sterno–petroleum ---
**Author:** ![Studi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Studi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Studi)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booze/5915/9 "2000-01-05T01:32:00Z")
“Alright, who wants a bathtub mint julip?” Couldn’t help it. * * * “What contemptible scoundrel has stolen the cork to my lunch?” --W.C. Fields ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booze/5915/10 "2000-01-05T01:35:00Z")
There are so many posts here about drinking your own urine, pardon me for asking but it is possible to make urine wine? ---
**Author:** ![lvick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d07c76/32.png) [@lvick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lvick)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booze/5915/11 "2000-01-05T03:22:00Z")
Only for diabetics, sweetpee ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booze/5915/12 "2000-01-05T03:41:00Z")
lvick I nearly spat cookie crumbs at my computer when i read your answer! ::: still giggling ::: ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booze/5915/13 "2000-01-05T05:43:00Z")
Letseehere… Gin is a spiritous liquor distilled chiefly from fermented cereals, malted and unmalted, and flavored with juniper berries. It originated in Holland (giving us the name _Hollands_ and _Holland Gin_. A type of gin developed in England is known as _London gin_; it is more highly distilled than Holland gin. Dry gin has been highly rectified. Old Tom gin is sweetened for use as a liqueor. Sloe gin is flavored with fresh sloes instead of juniper. And before anyone asks, a sloe is a name applied to the Blackthorn and to various American wild plums. Isn’t a dried plum a prune? So couldn’t sloe gin be a really neat way to take your prune juice? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booze/5915/14 "2000-01-05T13:23:00Z")
\*Doug Bowe: Isn’t a dried plum a prune? So couldn’t sloe gin be a really neat way to take your prune juice? \* The (very)last time I had Sloe Gin, it did help keep me regular: regularly puking. Of course, I did drink too much of it. It doesn’t taste like a liquor, which was my doom. Sloe Gin Free Since 1983. 🙂 * * * Everybody got to elevate from the norm - Rush ---
**Author:** ![Nickrz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbce88/32.png) [@Nickrz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nickrz)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booze/5915/15 "2000-01-07T17:30:00Z")
I once got sick on sloe gin - in the car on the way home from a new year’s eve party. I could not get the window down quite fast enough (it was about 10 below zero that night) and the next morning the inside of the car looked like someone had been shot in the head with a 12-gauge shotgun. Eew. ---
**Author:** ![Phillies\_Phan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b2d939/32.png) [@Phillies\_Phan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phillies_Phan)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2000, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/booze/5915/16 "2000-01-08T06:01:00Z")
In Poland there are two types of Vodka: From potatoes and from grain. (both around 80 to 100 proof). The cleaner (more pure, less gunky) vodka is thought be grain vodka. In fact, there are Kosher Vodkas, certified by the appropriate rabbinical authorities. These vodkas are all grain vodkas, and not too bad. * * * Alone we can move buckets; together we can drain rivers.–Mike Brady, from the Brady Bunch movie