Beer, wine, and spirits are popular alcoholic beverages worldwide, with many regions producing their own unique brands. Alcohol is produced through fermentation of organic materials, with beer being the most popular. Distillation is used to further concentrate ethanol in drinks like whiskey and vodka. In moderation, alcohol can be a recreational and social activity, but excessive consumption can lead to addiction and liver damage.
The basic alcoholic beverages are beer, wine and spirits. All three are consumed in large quantities around the world. Many countries and regions produce or distill their own special brands of alcoholic beverages, which become a matter of local pride. The active ingredient in alcohol is ethanol, a psychoactive chemical with depressive qualities. In excess, alcoholic beverages can cause addiction and liver damage, but in moderation they can be a wonderful form of recreation and a social lubricant.
Alcoholic beverages have been produced by humans since at least 7000 BC. Alcohol is produced through fermentation, where yeasts, under anoxic (oxygen-free) conditions, break down the pyruvate in the feed material into carbon dioxide and ethanol. The raw material can be almost anything organic: honey, cereals and fruits, especially grapes. During the fermentation process, special yeasts are introduced into a slurry of organic material and a few weeks pass until the drink ferments. As long as oxygen is prevented from entering the fermentation medium, the “bad bacteria” that produce rot and toxins cannot survive and a relatively palatable alcoholic beverage can be produced.
The most popular alcoholic beverage in the world is beer, usually barely brewed (slightly sprouted) barely, but sometimes wheat, corn, and rice barely combine. Malt is barely because this helps release enzymes that make it possible to convert the starches found in the grain into sugars. It is barely submerged in water to create wort, a sweet sludge. The wort is then combined with hops, small flowers that have a variety of positive effects on the mix, including adding a bitterness that negates the excessive sweetness, acting as a natural preservative, and adding flavor. The “sautéed wort” is then fermented to make beer.
At around 15% alcohol, the yeasts are used to ferment beer or wine. The process of further concentrating ethanol in the drink is called distillation. There are various techniques for distillation and the simplest simply involves heating the mixture and siphoning the alcohol, which evaporates more easily than the water in the mixture. The distilled beverage is then passed through charcoal filters to ensure it is pure. Some distilled alcoholic beverages include whiskey, vodka, gin, brandy and Everclear.
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