Various distilled beverages in a Spanish bar

A distilled beverage, also called spirits or liquor, is a preparation for consumption containing ethyl alcohol purified by distillation from a fermented substance such as wine, malt, or grain. The term is usually restricted to alcoholic beverages. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1500x1000, 1644 KB) Source: http://sxc. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1500x1000, 1644 KB) Source: http://sxc. ... Ethyl alcohol, also known as ethanol or grain alcohol, is a flammable, colorless chemical compound, one of the alcohols that is most often found in alcoholic beverages. ... Strathisla whisky distillery in Keith, Scotland Distillation is a means of separating liquids through differences in their boiling points. ... A glass of red wine Wine display at the Mt Markey Winery This article is about the beverage. ... Malted barley Malting is a process applied to cereal grains, in which the grains are made to germinate and then quickly dried before the plant develops. ... Cereal crops are mostly grasses cultivated for their edible seeds (actually a fruit called a caryopsis). ... Bottles of cachaça, a Brazilian alcoholic beverage. ...

Background

Beer and wine are generally limited to a maximum alcohol content of about 15 percent by volume, beyond which yeast is adversely affected and can not ferment (though in recent years high alcohol tolerant yeast strains have been used with special brewing techniques to increase this maximum up to about 23%). Alcohol levels higher than 15% have historically been obtained in a number of ways. Wine heated in an animal bladder draws out water and leaves alcohol behind (the bladder has a natural property which removes water), but there is no evidence this method was used before modern times. Another method, called freeze distillation, involves freezing the alcoholic beverage and removing water crystals, a method which has been known to have been in use in central Asia, known as the "Mongolian still", as early as the 7th century (Needham, 1980). In Europe and North America, this method was used to make applejack from cider. However the freezing method had limitations in geography and implementation and thus did not have widespread use. This leaves the method of distillation from which most of the history of potable spirits is drawn. A typical mug of lager beer, showing the golden colour of the beer and the foamy head floating on top. ... A glass of red wine Wine display at the Mt Markey Winery This article is about the beverage. ... Freeze distillation is a metaphorical term for a process of enriching a solution by partially freezing it and removing frozen material that is poorer in the dissolved material than is the liquid portion left behind. ... Applejack is a strong alcoholic beverage produced from apples, originating from the American colonial period. ... Cider (also spelled: cyder) refers to a beverage containing the juice of apples. ... Strathisla whisky distillery in Keith, Scotland Distillation is a means of separating liquids through differences in their boiling points. ...

Distillation history

Ancient

In a basic form the technique of distillation goes back to Babylonia in the fourth millennium BC when specially shaped clay plots, it is thought, were used to extract some small amounts of distilled alcohol through natural cooling, for the manufacture of perfumes. It is unlikely this device ever played a meaningful role in the history of the development of the still. Distillation seems to have been known by alchemists in Alexandria, around the 3rd century AD, who used alcohol only for the coloring of metal and sublimation and was not widely known. Babylonia was an ancient state in Mesopotamia (in modern Iraq), combining the territories of Sumer and Akkad. ... (5th millennium BC – 4th millennium BC – 3rd millennium BC - other millennia) Events City of Ur in Mesopotamia (40th century BC). ... Look up Alchemist in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Alchemist may refer to— a person who practices alchemy. ... Antiquity and modernity stand cheek-by-jowl in Egypts chief Mediterranean seaport Located on the Mediterranean Sea coast, Alexandria (in Arabic, الإسكندرية, transliterated al-ʼIskandariyyah) is the chief seaport in Egypt, and that countrys second largest city, and the capital of the Al Iskandariyah governate. ... // Events The Sassanid dynasty of Persia launches a war to reconquer lost lands in the Roman east. ...

Middle East

The development of the still with cooled collector — necessary for the distillation of spirits — was an invention of Arab and Persian alchemists in the 8th or 9th centuries. In particular, Geber (Jabir Ibn Hayyan, 721–815) invented the alembic still, from which he observed heated wine released a flammable vapor, which he described as "of little use, but of great importance to science". Not much later the Al-Razi (864–930) described the distillation of alcohol and its use in medicine. By that time, distilled spirits were not just chemical products, but fairly popular beverages: the poet Abu Nuwas (d. 813) describes a wine that "has the color of rain-water but is as hot inside the ribs as a burning firebrand". The terms "alembic" and "alcohol", and possibly the metaphors "spirit" and aqua vitæ ("life-water") for the distilled product, can be traced to Middle Eastern alchemy. A still is an apparatus used to distill miscible liquids by heating and then cooling. ... The Arabs (Arabic: عرب Ê»arab) are an originally Arabian ethnicity widespread in the Middle East and North Africa. ... Persia or Persian most often refer to: Persia The Persians, an ethnic group, also called Tajiks Persian language Persian (Pokémon) See also Iranian, Iranian peoples, Iranian languages and Aryan. ... (7th century — 8th century — 9th century — other centuries) Events The Iberian peninsula is taken by Arab and Berber Muslims, thus ending the Visigothic rule, and starting almost 8 centuries of Muslim presence there. ... This earthenware dish was made in 9th century Iraq. ... 15th century European portrait of Geber, Codici Ashburnhamiani 1166, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence Jabir Ibn Hayyan (ca. ... Events Former Byzantine emperor Anastasius II leads a revolt against emperor Leo III Theuderic IV succeeds Chilperic II Battle of Covadonga is won by Pelayo, thus preventing the takeover of his Christian Kingdom of Asturias by the Islamic Moors. ... Events An iconoclastic synod is held. ... An alembic is an alchemical still consisting of two retorts connected by a tube. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Events Khan Boris I of Bulgaria is baptized an Orthodox Christian. ... Events With the establishment of the Icelandic Althing, now the worlds oldest parliament, the Icelandic Commonwealth is founded. ... Poets are authors of poems, or of other forms of poetry such as dramatic verse. ... Abu Nuwas (750?–813?) was an early Arabic language poet, probably born at Ahwaz in Persia of Arab and Persian parents. ... Events June 22 - Byzantine Emperor Michael I is defeated in a war against the Bulgarians. ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ...

Names like "life water" have continued to be the inspiration for the names of several types of beverages, like Gaelic whisky, French eaux-de-vie and possibly vodka. Also, the Scandinavian akvavit spirit gets its name from the Latin phrase aqua vitae. The Goidelic languages are one of two major divisions of modern-day Celtic languages (the other being the Brythonic languages). ... Scotch whisky Whisky (or whiskey) is an alcoholic beverage distilled from grain, often including malt, which has then been aged in wooden barrels. ... Having originated in Poland or Russia, vodka is now drunk around the world. ... Scandinavia, Fennoscandia, and the Kola Peninsula. ... A bottle and glass of Linie brand akvavit Akvavit, also known as aquavit, is a Scandinavian distilled beverage of typically about 40% alcohol by volume. ...

Europe

Alcohol appears first in Europe in the mid 12th century among alchemists, who were more interested in medical "elixirs" than making gold from lead. It first appears under the name aqua ardens (burning water) in the Compendium Salerni from the medical school at Salerno. The recipe was written in code suggesting it was kept a secret. Taddeo Alderotti in his Consilia medicinalis refers to the "serpente" which is believed to have been the coiled tube of a still. Map of Italy showing Salerrno southeast of Naples Salerno is a town and a province in Campania, Italy. ...

Paracelsus gave alcohol its modern name, taking it from the Arabic word which means "finely divided", in reference to what is done to wine. His test was to burn a spoonful without leaving any residue. Other ways of testing were to burn a cloth soaked in it without actually harming the cloth. In both cases to achieve this effect the alcohol had to have been at least 95 percent. Paracelsus Paracelsus (November 11 or December 17, 1493 - September 24, 1541) was a famous alchemist, physician, astrologer, and general occultist. ...

Claims on the origins of alcoholic beverages are controversial, often invoking national pride, but they are plausible after the 12th century when Irish whiskey, German Hausbrand and German Brandy can all be safely said to have arrived. These beverages would have had much lower alcohol content, around 40 percent, and had "universal" medicinal elixir application. After the mid 14th century, when distilled liquors were commonly applied as remedies for the Black Death, consumption of liquor rose dramatically in Europe. Around 1400 it was discovered how to distill spirits from beer and grain spirits (corn, barley, rye) and even sawdust was used to make alcohol, a much cheaper option than grapes. Thus began the "national" drinks of Europe: jenever (Belgium and the Netherlands), gin (England), schnapps (Germany), aquavit (Scandinavia), vodka (Russia), rakia (Balkans). The actual names only emerged in the 16th century but the drinks were well known. Irish whiskey is barley malt whiskey made in Ireland. ... Brandy pot stills at the Van Ryn Brandy Cellar near Stellenbosch, South Africa For the singer and actress, see Brandy Norwood. ... Illustration of the Black Death from the Toggenburg Bible (1411). ... Jenever, juniper-flavored and strongly alcoholic, is the traditional liquor in the Netherlands and Flanders, from which modern gin has evolved. ... Gin and tonic This article concerns the beverage. ... Schnapps is a type of distilled beverage. ... Akvavit, also known as aquavit, is a Scandinavian distilled beverage of typically about 40% alcohol by volume. ... Having originated in Poland or Russia, vodka is now drunk around the world. ... The drink rakia or rakija (in Cyrillic alphabet: ракия or ракија) is hard liquor similar to brandy and vodka, made by distillation from fermented fruits that are popular throughout the Balkans. ...

References

• Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, V, pt.4 (1980).
• Robert Forbes, Short History of the Art of Distillation, 1948.
• Robert Multhauf, The Origins of Chemistry, 1966.