Spirits

Spirits
• Spirits are odorless liquid containing
either ethyl alcohol.
• Ethyl alcohol is potable whereas
Methyl alcohol is fatal and used for
industrial purpose only.
• Alcohol beverage contains ethyl
alcohol.
• Spirits are prepared by distillation.
 Production Methods of Spirits
1. Pot –still method:
• Pot still is a method of distilling
fermented liquid to make
alcohol.
• This the olden method and also
known as traditional method.
 Production Methods of Spirits
❖Advantages of pot still method:
• It produces spirits that are individualistic due to the presence of
congeners.
• Spirits with pronounced aroma are produced.
• Small quantity of wash can be distilled.

❖Disadvantages of pot still method:

• It needs more time and labor.
• It is costly to operate.
• Still need frequent cleaning and refilling, often after each distillation.
 Production Methods of Spirits
2. Patent still method:
• Patent still is the fastest and quick
method of making spirit.
• It is also known as Coffey still,
factory still, column still.
• In this system the alcohol is
separated from the liquid by hot
steam and the end product is
‘congener-free’; it has high alcohol
content.
 Production Methods of Spirits
❖Advantages of patent still method:
• It does not required too much of labor, cleaning, and refilling.
• More quantity is produced as compared to pot still method.
• It is cost-effective.

❖Disadvantages of patent still method:

• It is not suitable for distilling small quantity of spirits.
• Aroma and other essential elements that are required in a drink may not be
achieved.
• After manufacturing, most of the fermented and distilled drinks are aged
before bottling to mellow them and to make them acquire unique
characteristics.
 Production of spirits
❖Whisky:
• Whisky is obtained by the distillation of grains, particularly barley
malt, and is aged in oak wood casks for minimum of 3 years for scotch
whisky, a minimum of Irish whisky.
• Regular scotch whiskies are matured for 3-12 years, premium scotch or
Deluxe premium scotch are matured for 12-20 years and the finest old
‘Blue label’ for a minimum of 20 years.
• Whiskies are colored by the addition of desired color caramel.
• It is distilled either, by the pot still method (which gives body) or patent
still method (which gives volume).
 Production of spirits
❖Brandy:
• Brandi is obtained by the distillation of fermented grape juice and is suitably matured in oakwood
casks for a minimum of 3 years.
• Brandies are never colored because they obtain a beautiful amber color from the black oakwood
casks.
• Brandies can be matured up to a period of 70 years (usually used for blending purpose).
One star - Matured for two years
Two stars - Matured for two to four years
Three stars - Matured for five to eight years

V.O — Very Old

V.O.P. — Very Old Pale
V.S.O. — Very Superior Old
V.S.O.P. — Very Superior Old Pale (matured for 50 years)
V.V.S.O.P. — Very Very Superior Old Pale
 Production of spirits
❖Rum:
• Rum is spirit made from sugar cane products such as molasses, sugarcane
juice, or sugarcane syrup.
• The rums produced from molasses are called industrial rums and those
produced from pure can juice are called agriculture rums (rums agricole).
• Rum is produced in all sugarcane producing countries of the world. The most
important countries are West Indies (Jamaica, Trinidad, and Barbados),
Puerto Rico, Guyana, Cuba, Haiti, South Africa, Venezuela, United States
and Australia.
• The word ‘rum’ is probably derived from the Latin term for sugarcane
saccharum, which means ‘sweetness’.
• The rum was first produced in the seventeenth century in Barbados.
 Production of spirits
❖Gin:
• Gin was first produced in Holland in the sixteenth century as a medicinal spirit,
flavored with the oil of juniper (“genievre” in French’; “jenever” or “genever” in
Dutch—Anglicised to gin).
• The spirit was brought to England and acquired sufficient popularity in places such
as London, Portsmouth, Plymouth and Bristol.
• Distilled gin is obtained by original distillation of mash or by the reinstallation of
distilled spirits, with juniper berries and other plants, the grain formula consists of
75% corn, 15% barley malt and 10% other grains and the resulting spirit has to be
mixed with distilled water as it is too strong to drink.
• Each distiller has his own secret formula, which, in some cases has not altered since
the first distiller made gin.
• There are several kinds of gin. Altogether “London dry” is the most commonly used.
There are others not at all alike in flavor.
• Old Tom gin is slightly more perfumed and sweeter; Golden gin is a dry gin and
because it is aged, is gold or straw colored, but the distiller by law cannot make any
age claim; Plymouth gin is the driest of all and is produced by one distiller only.
Production of spirits
 Production of spirits
❖Vodka:
• Vodka was produced in Poland and Russia in the twelfth century and has been a
favorite drink in these countries ever since.
• The traditional way of drinking vodka is to gulp the chilled drink neat accompanied
by nibbles of food. Caviar and smoked salmon go very well with vodka.
• In Russia, Vodka 84 Hotel Operations has different flavorings, from chocolate to
cayenne pepper.
• This drink has now gained global popularity as a good cocktail mixer.
• It is an alcoholic distillate from a fermented mash of grain. In the making of
genuine vodka, nothing is added to the neutral spirit.
• All its characters are removed, leaving it odorless, tasteless, colorless and smooth.
• This gives you the advantage of being able to add to it your favorite non-alcoholic
beverage while mixing drinks.
• It has an alcoholic content of 40%.
 Production of spirits
❖Tequila:
• Tequila is an alcoholic spirit that is created from the sap of the blue
agave plant, through a process of distilling and fermenting.
• The drink originated around the town of Tequila, in Mexico where the
blue agave plant grows plentiful due to the red volcanic soils found
there.
• The blue agave plant is a relative of the lily, not a cactus as many
people believe and has been cultivated for at least 9,000 years.
• By law, tequila is produced solely in the Mexican states of Jalisco,
Guanajuato, Michoacán, Nayarit, and Tamaulipas and cannot be
produced in any other country.
Production of spirits
 Different Proof Spirit
• Alcohol proof is a measure of how much ethyl alcohol is present in a
beverage. The term ‘proof’ is originated in the 18th century.
• In earlier days, distillers used to test the alcohol content of their
products by mixing them in equal proportions with gun powder and
then lighting the mixture.
• If there was no flame, it meant that the product was under proof, or too
weak.
• If it exploded, or burnt with too strong flame, it meant that it was too
strong or over proof.
• If it burnt with steady flame, it was just right, or 100 proof.
• Basically, proof is the twice of absolute alcoholic content of beverages
(100 proof alcohol means 50% alcoholic solution).
 Different Proof Spirit
❖American Proof:
• American introduced their own system, which was reasonably logical when they decided
that Sikes was not an exact scale, in this scale, pure alcohol is 200 proof.
• Consequently, 100-proof whiskey contains 50 percent of alcohol by volume; 86-proof
whiskey contains 43 percent of alcohol by volume.
❖British Proof (Sikes scale):
• This scale is used in the United Kingdom. It is introduced by Bartholomew Sikes in 1816.
• Alcohol strength is shown in ‘degrees proof’ (i.e., ‘proof’).
❖Gay Lussac (OIML Scale):
• Organization International de metrologie Legale system has become mandatory in the
European Union since 1980. In modern days, most of the countries follow this system.
• This is very similar to Gay-Lassac system except OIM measures alcoholic strength at 20° C.
• The strength of acoho is epressed as ‘% alc/vol’.
Different Proof Spirit
Thanks