This liquor is distilled WHAT?

Factual Questions
1

Some distilled liquors have obvious sources:

rye ===> rye whiskey {e.g., Old Overholt}
corn ==> corn liquor {moonshine; can’t think of a commercial brand}

Many other types of liquor have less obvious origins, I just happen to know them (or at least think that I do):

rum ===> sugar cane
tequila ===> cactus (agave? or is that just the worm?)
cognac ===> wine
brandy ===> wine
vodka ===> potatoes
grain alcohol ===> wheat {e.g. Everclear}
Then there are others for which ignorance reigns:
bourbon ===> “sour mash” (wheat? & charred oak
barrels or something?)
gin ===> “grain” + juniper (what grain?)
scotch ===> barley malt & “grain” (what grain?)
Canadian whiskey
Irish whiskey?

??? ====> hard liquor distilled from rice?
Inbibing minds want to know…

2

I think sake is what you’re looking for in the rice booze category.

3

Bourbon distilled in the United States is required by law to made from at least 51% corn. I’m not too sure, off the top of my sotted old head, about the rest of them.

4

Bourbon (which is made only in Knetucky) and sour mash (think Jack Daniels) are made from corn.

5

Also, vodka under American law need not be made from potatoes, and indeed most commericially available vodkas aren’t. IIRC the legal definition of vodka is 100% neutral grain spirits (neutral meaning no taste).

Canadian wiskey is made from rye.

Irish is wheat, I believe.

6

Tequila is generally made from either the agave cactus or the mezcal cactus (not the same plant from which we get mescaline). Both are relatives of the Aloe plant, and resemble it rather closely.

Bourbon does NOT need to be made in Kentucky, but it DOES need to be aged in charred-oak barrels (FTR, liquors are so named because of the process making them not the location they are made in)

Again, as mentioned, Vodka is the term given to any starch-derived flavorless spirits. Technically, everclear is a vodka.

I believe Gin can be any grain, as it is merely a juniper flavored vodka.

and as mentioned “sake” (pronounced sah-KEE) is rice brandy.

7

*jayron 32: Again, as mentioned, Vodka is the term given to any starch-derived flavorless spirits. Technically, everclear is a vodka. *

Here in the great Commonwealth of Virginia, Everclear is a prescription medicine. That’s right, you can’t buy it without one.

There goes a couple of college party punch recipes out the window.

8

My~ I was expounding on Kentucky bourbon just a few short days ago. You can read further on what our charming uncle was blearily trying to recall right here. :smiley:

9

Do a web search for “bartending guide”. You will find lots of interesting information.

10

Sake isn’t distilled, though it is sometimes fortified, so calling it “rice brandy” may be a bit misleading.

See http://www.sake.com

Bourbon has been amply covered by other posters. As a generic term, “whiskey” refers to distilled spirits made from a fermented grain mash. Canadian and irish are both blended. Irish contains some barley - see http://www.epact.se/acats/whiskey.html

11

>> FTR, liquors are so named because of the process making them not the location they are made in

FWIW, in Europe only brandy from the Cognac region can call itself Cognac. Everything else is brandy.

12

Right, sake is not distilled. Shochu is Japanese distilled liquor that can be made from (flipping through Japanese dictionary) rice, barley, corn, sweet potatoes, buckwheat or millet. So I guess “rice shochu” is the word for distilled rice liquor.

13

don’t forget:

grape stems and skins --> grappa
wormwood --> absinthe
honey --> mead
apples --> cider
bobcat urine --> miller lite

(well, now that i think about it, the wormwood may have been a flavoring and not a source of distillation sugar)

There are also distilled versions of milk and sweetened mud available in some parts of the world, I hear.

14

Dystopos, if I have a whoosh coming I’ll take it like a man, but were you serious in saying there’s a drink made out of fermented mud? If true, I want to hear more about this.

15

Top quality cider, like Hornsby’s, is made from actual apples that are chosen for cider production.

Many sub-premium brands of cider, such as Woodchuck, are not made from apples themselves but rather from fermented apple juice concentrate. This is the equivalent of making beer by boiling a loaf of bread and then waiting for it to ferment.

So don’t mess around with cheap cider, because if you think cheap beer is gross…

16

You’re right–wormwood was a flavoring ingredient, but it has its own potency.

17

Just read an article in the NYT in the past coupla weeks that reported that scientists had finally isolated the active ingredient in wormwood that gives absinthe its, er, added effects.

V.

18

trivia…Jack Daniels is distilled in a dry county…go figure…
[/end hijack]

19

I have a friend who grows wormwood in her garden. The BF came across a recipe for homemade absinthe, and decided “why not?” He took the wormwood from her garden, and brewed it with god-knows-what-else. The product of his labors was a dark brown, vile, viscous liquor. From accounts, real absinthe is a nice green color, and tastes much like Pernod (who, before absinthe was outlawed, made it). The BF drank the stuff, but he just got plain drunk, no hallucinations or anything interesting. Maybe I just need to talk someone in to smuggling some to us from Spain or Czech Republic…

20

In the palm category…

A beer type product (has only 8% alcohol) made from coconut palm flower juice (a sweet brown liquid) is called “tuba” in the Philippines, “tuak” in Indonesia, and “toddy” in India and Sri Lanka. After distilling, it becomes “Arrack”. It can also be made from the sap of other palms (like Caryota urens).

The Japanese also make a distilled liquor from sweet potatoes or rice (fits the rice category) called “Shochu”.