Ever wondered how your favorited brand of alcohol is made? I do all the time. When I find myself drinking something new, out of curiosity I google it to know what content I’m consuming. What’s more astonishing to me is how they always prove my guesses wrong with so much efforts.
Let’s get familiar with what some of us may be drinking this weekend, might be beer, spirit, wine or whiskey.
Tequila
The main ingredient of tequila is a Mexican agave plant known as the “piña in the city of Tequila in Mexico. 
Tequila is typically produced by steaming the agave inside industrial ovens before being distilled two or three times in copper pots.
Bottles marked with the seal ‘100% Weber Blue Agave’ are the purest tequilas you will find and the alcohol concentration of tequila is typically about 40% ABV
Beer
This is the most popular and one of the oldest alcoholic drink in the world. Its main ingredients are water, hops, yeast and barley but other grains like rye, wheat, rice and maize can also be used.
Making beer goes through the process of extracting the sugar from barley and then fermenting it by yeast. It is a common knowledge that a standard beer has between 4% to 6% alcohol by volume (ABV) but some have higher or lower concentrations of alcohol between 2% to 4% ABV
Vodka
This is interesting!
Some Vodkas known to be made from cereal grains and potatoes by fermenting them always has a standard alcohol concentration of 40% ABV but some brands make vodka from fruits or sugar.
Gin
Gin comes from Juniper berries with ingredients which includes juniper, cinnamon, coriander, citrus peel, and almond in addition to neutral grain alcohol with 35% to 55% ABV
Cognac
Know this, all Cognac is brandy, but not all brandy can be considered Cognac. It is made from a blend of grapes that include the Ugni blanc, Folle Blanche, and Colombard varietals with 40% ABV. At least 90% must comprise of those grapes while the remaining 10% can be made of other kinds, such as Semillon, Folignan, and more. It must be distilled two times in copper pot and then aged for not less than two years in French oak barrels.
Making a good Cognac can be a difficult process as it would need to meet some requirements.
Brandy
This is a liquor distilled from wine or other fermented fruit juices, although a Standard brandy is made from grapes However, it can be made with other fruits, including apples, apricots, and cherries.
The fruit is fermented into wine then distilled into alcohol, Once the process is complete, the aging process begins, the final step is to blend the liquor with other barrels of brandy and water to taste and to age brandy, it is stored in wooden barrels or subjected to caramel coloring.
The more age a brandy is, the more mellow and oaky its flavor and contains about 35% to 60% ABV
Wine
A popular and one of the oldest drinks too, is a liquid fermented fruit. After grapes are gathered and crushed, yeasts come into contact with the sugar in the grapes’ juice and converts that sugar into alcohol.
A standard wine has less than 14% ABV while Some wines fortified with distilled alcohol usually have about 20% ABV.
Whiskey
A spirit prepared from fermented grain mash like rye, barley, wheat and corn. Whiskey is fermented in charred white oak wood in order to achieve the unique kind of flavor. Once bottled from the casks, its aging stops.
A Good whisky should contain about 40% to 50% ABV
Rum
Weirdly enough, Rum is a distilled drink made from fermented sugarcane or molasses, the byproducts of sugarcane and sugarcane juice are distilled directly and left to age in barrels.
It has a concentration of 40% ABV but Some overproof rum has a higher concentration of 57.5% – 75.5% ABV.
Whether it’s about yourself or someone else, take this drinking self-assessment developed by the World Health Organization to help you determine the risk of your drinking
