The Beginning of Distilled Alcohol
Long ago, people called distilled alcohol "aqua ardens," which means "burning water." This name comes from the Latin word "ardere," meaning "to burn," because distillation uses heat.
Distillation is the process where heat separates liquids into parts of desired purity. The word "distill" comes from the Latin "destillare," meaning "to trickle down," like the drops that form during distillation.
The word "alcohol" has a different origin. It comes from the 8th-century Arabic word "al-ko’hl," which means "ghost spirit" or "ethereal body." In liquid form, it represented the essence of the raw material, referring to the purification done through distillation.
History of Distillation
Distillation has been used for thousands of years. The ancient Chinese, Egyptians, and Mesopotamians used it to make medicines and perfumes. Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote about using distillation to turn seawater into drinkable water and noted that wine and other liquids could be distilled too.
In the Middle Ages, Arabs, Saracens, and Moors spread distillation practices. An important figure was Albukassen, an alchemist whose writings still exist. These techniques reached Western Europe and were detailed by chemist and philosopher Raymond Llul from Majorca in the 13th century. By then, the Celts in Ireland and Scotland were already making early forms of whiskey, called "uisge beatha" or "water of life."
Distilled drinks became popular because they were safer to drink than often dirty water. Alcoholic beverages also had stimulant and digestive properties.
How Distilled Spirits Are Made
Spirits are made by concentrating alcohol through distillation from fermented liquids. Fermentation is when yeast turns sugars into alcohol, carbon dioxide, and heat. The main alcohol in spirits is ethanol. Mastery in distillation is crucial to create a drinkable liquid, as there are other byproducts like methanol and fusel oils that need to be controlled.
Ingredients for Spirits
Spirits can be made from various ingredients, each affecting the production stages. For materials with readily available sugars like fruit, honey, and agave, only two stages are needed: fermentation and distillation. For example:
- Fruit makes wine, which makes brandy.
- Aguamiel (agave nectar) makes pulque, which makes distilled agave spirit.
For starchy materials like grains, rice, and potatoes, a conversion process called saccharification is needed to turn starch into sugars. This involves heating the starch to trigger a chemical change. For agave spirits, the agave cores contain fructans that become fermentable sugars when heated. For example:
- Grain makes beer, which makes whiskey.
- Agave cores make tepache "beer," which makes agave spirit.
Fermentation
Fermentation is when yeast acts on the sugars in a solution, converting them to ethanol, carbon dioxide, and heat. For fruit-based materials, the resulting "wine" has 8%-14% alcohol. For starchy grains, the resulting "beer" has 5%-10% alcohol. These liquids also contain acids, aldehydes, esters, and congeners, which are important for the flavor and aroma of spirits.
After fermentation, the liquid, now called wine, must, wash, distiller’s beer, or agave’s tepache, contains spent yeast cells called lees. These can be discarded or used to add more flavor to certain spirits.
Distillation
Distillation concentrates the alcohol and separates it from water and other components. Alcohol boils at a lower temperature (173°F/78°C) than water (212°F/100°C), so it turns into vapor first. This vapor is then condensed back into liquid form, resulting in a higher concentration of alcohol.
