Recently for my organic chemistry laboratory we did a procedure involving distillation. As a college student, reading the preparatory material got me thinking about how liquors are distilled while beer is fermented and that is how they get so much more alcohol in there.
Now then, let’s take vodka for example. What is it distilled from? Do they ferment something first and distill that?
And, since we’re on the subject, have I got it right as to what these liquors are made from?
Vodka is made from rye, rum is made from sugarcane, tequila is made from agave cacti, and triple sec is made from citrus peelings.
vodka is made from potatoes traditionally, but I guess it could be made from anything, because it is purified until nothing but alcohol and water remain. Rye whiskey (aka Canadian whiskey) is made from rye. I think Bourbon is made from corn, and others are made from barley (not sure about that though). Beer is also made from barley usually, but sometimes wheat and/or rice are included.
I think gin is distilled from grain. IIRC, all grain-based spirits, even the brown ones like whisky, are clear immediately following distillation, and the brown spirits gain their colour later from the wood in the barrels. I seem to remember that a lot of Scotch is aged in used, charcoaled American whiskey barrels specially imported from the USA. Gin is distilled, then flavoured with juniper to give it its distinctive taste.
Most vodka these days is not made from potatoes. Corn alcohol + water + a touch of glycerin to make it slightly “oily.” Canadian whiskey=corn + wheat + rye in some admixture. Bourbon=mostly or all corn. Irish whiskey=barley etc. Gin=neutral spirits (e.g., grain alcohol) + juniper and other flavorings.
All distilled alcoholic beverages are made by fermenting a mash of grain (or whatever sugar- or starch-containing substance) with yeast into a mash that contains, say, 12% alcohol (this is roughly the point at which the alcohol becomes so concentrated that it kills off the alcohol-excreting microorganisms). Then the mash is distilled (sometimes multiple times – the more times you fractionally distill, the greater the concentration).
So all alcoholic beverages begin with a step of fermentation – the question is whether it’s further refined by distillation. Beer (made classically by fermenting malted barley, hops, and yeast) stops fermenting at about 3.2-6%. Wine stops fermenting somewhere in the 10%-15% range. Some wine is fortified or distilled to raise its alcohol content beyond that range.
Different countries have different labelling rules. In the U.S., vodka can be made from just about anything fermentable, but corn (maize) is most commonly used. Potatoes are sometimes considered to be traditional, but I believe they were making vodka in Poland and Russia before the potato was introduced to Europe from South America in the second half of the 16th century.
In the U.S. rye whiskey must be made from a mash of at least 51% rye. Canada has different rules, so many brands that are labelled “rye” in Canda cannot be so labelled in the U.S. I have denigrated Canadian whisky in this forum before. I take it all back, as I have since had the opportunity to sample some very fine specimens.
I think that all alcoholic beverages with alcohol content of over about 13-14% are distilled. I seem to remember that the yeast can’t survive at any alcohol content greater than that.
Whiskey, etc. made from grain start from a beer that is the result of fermentation and then that is distilled to increase the alcohol content.
And as someone said, vodka starts from fermented potatoes followed by distilling.
Vodka can be made from anything at all. The process of making Vodka is different from other spirits because the manufacturer starts with almost pure alcohol and then dilutes it. As ever DrinkBoy has the answer for all things alcoholic.
Or, as Huerta88 pointed out, fortified, which is admittedly cheating on semantics a bit, as a pre-distilled spirit (usually brandy - which is itself distilled from grape wine) is simply added to the undistilled wine to take it to a higher percentage (usually 17 -18% for port, sherry, and the like). The main ingredient in these products (the wine base) remains undistilled.
Kyomara, distillation is the process oh heating a fermented alcoholic substance, "generically called “beer” in the industry, to a temperature ate which the more volatile alcohol will begin to evaporate, but the water will not. The vapours rise from the surface, are directed into a tube which then goes down through a cooling coil. The majority of the water is left behind. The alcoholic vapours are recondensed as the pass through the cooling coil, and a relatively high strength spirit drips out the end.
Incidentally, Kyomera distillation can only produce a purity of 95% alcohol. The process reaches a point where water and alcohol boil together as though they were a single substance. Such things are called Azeotropes.
To get 100% you’d need to add a dehydrating agent to the concoction.
Does anything they could add to the 95% mixture result in 100% ethanol that could be consumed? Or CAN 100% ethanol be consumed without killing tissue? I observed an intraventional procedure once where the doctors essentially dissolved a tumor by embolizing the main blood vessel leading in and putting in 100% ethanol to kill the tissue.
FYI, ethanol vaporizes at (around) 170 degrees F, whereas water does so at 212 F, thus allowing the fractional distillation (i.e., distillation of only the ethanol) by heating to, say, 180 F.
I would not recommend drinking 100% ethanol, assuming it existed commercially, nor yet the 90%-95% USP/grain alcohol products that are (in some states) available. As noted, highly-purified alcohol is quite a strong solvent and is not so good for tissue (my understanding of the main risk would be nerve damage to your tongue/lips/mouth/gullet). I seem to recall a procedure called alcohol rhizotomy (?) in which patients with chronic back pain, sciatica, or something of the like from pinched nerves were ‘cured’ by having ‘pure’ ethanol injected to the offending nerve, thus killing it and ending the pain reception.
Several cos. still/again produce potato-origin vodka. Luksusowa from Poland, maybe. I have always been a bit dubious about vodka snobbery in particular given the comments herein regarding its “neutral” nature – but I’m willing to listen to any arguments (on GD, if you care) for why (above the rotgut Walgreens level) any one vodka is really discernably better than another.
Alcohol usually takes off at 80 degrees C. Rubbing alcohol evaporates at 83C, because I have distilled it as rocket fuel for my brother. Alcohol boils at a lower point than water, so you can boil it out of the mixture. Distilling can be done with any two liquids that boil at different temperatures though and are miscible.
FYI … BATF frowns on private manufacture of hard alcohol (ya little bootlegger :D). I don’t think they care how the concentration was achieved just that you did it.
