Spirits
Spirits 101 — An introduction to spirits.
Spirits Categories — Explore the diverse categories of spirits.
How to taste Spirits — The steps to better appreciating and understanding spirits.
Spirits Terms — Our glossary of useful spirits terms.
Spirits Reviews — An archive of our spirits reviews, new and old.
What are Spirits?
Spirits are alcohol beverages made from the distillation of any fermented beverage, like beer, cider, and wine. It’s important to keep this in mind: alcohol is not made in the still; rather, the alcohol is concentrated and made more potent.
Alcohol fermentation, in the simplest terms, is the process of yeast consuming sugars and expelling CO2 and alcohol. Fermentation is a natural process, although man frequently intervenes to better control it by selecting the yeast strains utilized, making the environment sterile, and controlling the temperature. However, fermentation will, and does, occur naturally, as these microorganisms called yeast are around us all the time. A glass of fresh-squeezed fruit juice will ferment (over a period of days) on your kitchen counter.
Distillation, on the other hand, requires man’s intention, effort, and direction.
The materials used first for the fermentation destined to be distilled most significantly influence the flavor of the finished distilled spirit. Most grains’ starches can easily be converted to sugars, and nearly every fruit has sugar in sufficient quantity to be converted to alcohol via fermentation. Sugar itself, or sugar by-products like molasses in liquid form, will ferment and create alcohol.
We will discuss the various materials in some depth in the coming chapters. I’m sure it’s easy to imagine that a fermented beverage made from corn is quite different from one made from apples or rice.
Be sure to check our Spirits-related stories HERE.
Do you want to better understand cocktails? May we suggest Be A Beverage Expert (BABE), a guide to understanding wine, beer, spirits, and cocktails.