The 6 Types of Distilled Spirits Every Home Bartender Needs to Know About

It is made by first creating a neutral spirit then redistilling it with the addition of a combination of botanicals. Juniper berries (an antioxidant used is some aphrodisiac drinks) were the earliest and most popular botanical used to create gin. The English word gin comes from the French word for juniper, genévrier. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), moderate drinking is considered drinking two or fewer standard drinks for men daily. Meanwhile, women should have one or fewer standard drinks a day. Hard liquor is used in North America, and India, to distinguish distilled drinks from undistilled ones, and to suggest that undistilled are implicitly weaker.

Beginner’s guide to the martini in pop culture: from James Bond to Mad Men

Liqueur is easily the more dominant term and the word cordial is hardly used these days. Rather than put you through the same kind of misery I went through when I first started, I want to clear things up from the beginning. Alcohols may be classified as primary, secondary, or tertiary, according to which carbon of the alkyl group is bonded to the hydroxyl group. Most alcohols are colourless liquids or solids at room temperature. He always had a deep interest in the restaurant and bar industry.

Other fermented beverages

Therefore, the skins of the red wine grapes are left on during the fermentation process. In its simplest sense, beer is a fermented grain juice that sits around 3-8% in ABV. Any fermented cereal grain is considered a type of beer, but wheat or barley is used in most cases. Rather than cover every type of alcohol on the planet, we’re only going to cover the most important ones in this post.

Maraschino Liqueur

It’s popularly featured in several classic cocktails and tends to be used in drinks that include just a few ingredients. However, many modern brandy recipes break this mold and experiment with brandy in some unique flavor combinations. Instead of a distilled spirit like liqueurs or liquors, you can also brew alcohol and that’s how you get wine, beer, and sake. Rum is made from sugarcane byproducts like molasses or sugarcane juice. It’s one of the more popular alcoholic drink types after vodka which is why it’s used in so many cocktails.

1. However, it can also cause people to become full and bloated.
2. The alcohol concentration of tequila is typically about 40% ABV.
3. Winemaking begins with the harvest of the fruit, the juice of which is fermented in large vats under rigorous temperature control.
4. Generally speaking, lighter whiskies tend to be smoother, while those at higher strengths may have more robust flavors.
5. Distilled and aged in oak barrels, brandy comes in a range of colors and flavors and is produced around the world.

These wines are popular in some classic cocktails like the Brooklyn, Maiden’s Blush, and Widow’s Kiss and they also make a great addition to some different desserts. Some popular types of fortified wine are port, sherry, and vermouth and they can be a little too powerful to have on their own so you’ll mainly see them added to another cocktail. There are a lot of different types of wine to choose from like red wine, white wine, sparkling wines, or rose wines and they come from many different types of grapes. St Germain has grown in popularity thanks to being made from elderflower and it’s a great liqueur to use in a number of cocktails. You can use this in drinks like the Hpnotiq Margarita, Blue Kamikaze, and Godfather to enjoy different flavors of mango and other tropical fruits.

Different Types of Alcoholic Beverages (By Alcohol Content)

Among all the how to identify meth on this list, fortified wines are the oddity. That’s because they’re a combination of both fermented and distilled beverages. In our study, nondrinkers seemed to have other risk factors, including being older and lower income. Thus, the exact nature of these complex relationships warrants further investigation. If you love collecting and trying different types of alcoholic drinks, above is a detailed look into 21 types of liquor collected from different countries across the globe.

If you want to learn more about the different types of liquor, you can check out this article here. Some popular brands of whisk(e)y are Johnnie Walker (Scotch), Jameson (Irish Whisky), Jack Daniels (Tennessee Whiskey), Woodford’s Reserve (Bourbon), and Canadian Club (Canadian Whisky). On top of that, beer is usually flavored with additional spices (usually hops) to impart specific characteristics.

They mainly differ in the crop or fruit used as the base and the variety of yeast used for fermentation. Slight differences in the soil composition or weather in the area of production can also cause changes in the drinks’ flavors. Fermented beverages do not exceed 15% alcohol by volume unless they have been modified externally.

Unfortunately, even relatively small doses of pure Methanol can lead to blindness or death due mainly to its highly toxic nature. As such, you won’t find many applications for it outside industrial uses like fuel additives and antifreeze where it’s added in trace amounts for safety reasons. See, that’s why knowledge of the different types of hard liquor is good. Drinking too much alcohol can lead to dangerous physical and mental side effects. To avoid these side effects, consider drinking in moderation or abstaining from any alcoholic beverage completely.

Adults aged 40 years and older underwent 2 health examinations in 2009 and 2011. The cohort was assessed until December 31, 2018, and statistical analysis was co-occurring alcohol use disorder and anxiety performed in December 2021. Her inflammatory bowel syndrome (IBS) had been in remission for two months, and she felt like her life had gone back to normal.

Tequila is a type of mezcal, which is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from any type of the succulent agave. Specifically, tequila is made from the blue agave plant primarily in the region surrounding the Mexican city of Tequila. Among the different gallbladder and alcohol consumptionic drinks worldwide, beer is the most popular. After water and tea, beer is the most commonly consumed drink in the world.

The complexities behind these beverages ignite an appreciation for the craftsmanship that goes into creating them. Standard wine typically contains less than 14% ABV, falling within the range of 12–15%. Fortified wines, on the other hand, have a higher alcohol content due to the addition of distilled spirits, which makes them a type of fortified wine.

Akvavit has a 42 to 45% ABV and hails from Germany and Finland. The main ingredients used to make Raki are aniseed and grapes or raisins. The legalization of Poitín in 1997 has helped expand the production of this drink across Europe as more people embrace different alcohol varieties. Shochu is best consumed by adding varying amounts of water depending on how much alcohol your body can handle. There’s nothing like a shot of whiskey to perk up your senses after a long day.

So rather than go through an exhaustive list of spirits you’re likely never to use (or see), we’re going to focus on the best alcohols in my opinion. Distillation turns fermented beverages into much stronger versions of themselves by separating the alcohol from the water. By removing the water, the alcohol in the liquid becomes much more concentrated.