Our bar at home, looking a little barren
Spirits are a varied and complex thing, with a rich cultural history that predates the country I live in. The variety, complexity, and depth of spirits encapsulates far more than I could cover in just one post. However, thankfully, spirits can be divided along a variety of lines. Tonight I’m going to break out the grain spirits: gin, vodka, and whiskey.
The grain trifecta is made from, you guessed it, grains. The initial production of such spirits is very similar to beer; the grains are cooked and yeast is added to convert the sugars (that were once starches, but I’ll get back to that) in to alcohol. This is where the tricky part kicks in. Yeast will crap out at about 15% alcohol because the levels become too high, and thus they croak. So now you’ve got a 15% alcohol beer, essentially, and you want to make hard liquor. How do you do it? DISTILLATION! Distillation is the process that removes excess water from the spirit by heating or cooling. There is a lot of science here, and you can find it in a million places on the web. Quick and dirty is that you can evaporate your alcohol off, collected the vapors, cool them until they condense, and there you go. If you want a lot more detail, read here. So what does that matter? Well, I’ll tell you.
Covering vodka first, it is sent through a distillation and filtration process multiple times. During this process, flavoring and coloring compounds are removed. In the US and Europe, law states that vodka must be a neutral spirit, and may not contain a distinctive aroma, character, color or flavor. To achieve this, the vodka often ends up at a higher alcohol percent than the typical consumer desires, usually in the 95% – 96% range. So, water is added to dilute the spirit down to a more drinkable range.
Next we’ll hit whiskey, which is much like vodka in the early process. Also, fun fact, the oldest written record of whiskey is from 1494. Sorry, got off topic. The flavor compounds in whiskey give it unique characteristics, thus they aren’t filtered off. The filtration process isn’t nearly as extensive, and post filtration the whiskey goes in to barrels to age. It is estimated that up to 60% of the flavor of whiskey is given to it by the barrel it was aged in. The barrels are many and varied, though it is interesting to note that bourbon whiskey must be aged in new, highly charred oak barrels to truly be bourbon. Like the above, whiskey usually it diluted down to a more drinkable range from around 85% alcohol, which is where it tpyically stands after the distillation process. Major whiskey producing countries include Scotland (duh; where else would we get Scotch!?), Canada, America, Ireland, and even Japan. In fact, Japan is on the upswing in the premium whiskey market, rivaling many produced at more traditional places.
Finally, we get to gin. An often neglected spirit these days, gin has fallen a bit out of style. Starting in a fashion like the siblings listed above, gin is then flavored with various botanicals. Juniper berries are the predominant flavor associated with gin, but many others can be thrown in, created wide variety in the flavor profiles of various gins. Again, typically gin must be cut with water to bring the alcohol percent down to a more reasonable range. A whole post could be dedicated to gins, but I do not have the time, expertise, or money for that enterprise. Just understand the difference, and do your own research if you’re curious.
I’m sure I got some facts slightly off in here, so feel free to correct. Until then, please leave your favorite grain-spirit cocktail in the comments! Raise a glass today to grain spirits, and their pleasing diversity and rich heritage!
