New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc

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Beer, Wine and Liquor - What's the Difference?

Beer is made by brewing grain (most commonly barley, but wheat and rice are also used), into what is known as a wort. Yeast then converts the sugars in the brew to ferment. Some light beers can be as low as 3.2% Alcohol By Volume (ABV), while some strong ale could be as high as 12%.

Wine the result of fermentation, but of grape juice and not a grain based wort. Grape juice is higher in sugar than the wort used in beer making. More sugar means more alcohol. Table wine runs from only 6% ABV (usually sweet wines, with some residual sugar) to as high as 17%. In general wine ranges from 11% to 15% ABV. Alcohol levels have been getting higher over recent years, which has become a source of controversy throughout the wine business.

The following step is fortified wine, like Port or Sherry. Brandy is added to the wines to raise the alcohol content. They will run from about 16% up to as high as 24% ABV.

Liquor refers to distilled spirits, and includes the likes of Brandy (Cognac, for example) along with Vodka, Gin, Scotch, Bourbon, etc. These spirits are able ...
... to be made into a liqueur which can have as little as 20% ABV (i.e. Frangelico, a blend of hazelnut, vanilla and cocoa extracts, alcohol, sugar, and water comes in at 24%ABV). Then again, Everclear, grain alcohol, is 95% ABV, and is considered illegal in several states, including New York. Most liquor starts out at about 65% alcohol (which decreases when it ages in barrel) and is usually diluted to 40% - 50% ABV before bottling. Proof is an alternative word used for ABV when discussing the alcohol in liquor. Proof is in reality double the ABV. The Macallan, an extremely popular Single Malt Scotch, is 86 proof, 43% ABV.

Similar to beer, liquor starts off as wort (of grain or grape), which is then distilled to improve the alcohol concentration. Alcohol evaporates more quickly than water at any given temperature, so by heating the wort, the alcohol is able to be collected. Some water and other compounds are collected as well - and these compounds include the flavor components many distillers are searching for.

Vodka is meant to be neutral - no flavor components. Herbs and other botanicals are used to flavor vodca and this produces gin. Makers of brown spirits like Scotch and Bourbon allow more flavor compounds to collect, though the brown color is frequently from the barrels used for aging, not from the distillate.

Differences in flavor among brown spirits are primarily from the grain used. Differences in flavor among Vodkas are commonly through the water used, with slight differences caused from the kind of grain, though it is not meant to. Every Gin has its own recipe (those secret herbs and spices), and as such has a large variation from one brand to another. Brandy, like Cognac and Armagnac, is made out of grapes (the wort is really wine.) Eau de Vie is made out of other fruit, like raspberry (Framboise) or cherry (Kirsch).

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