What You Should Know About Alcohol

What is Alcohol? It is a hydroxyl compound. Its chemical name is ethyl alcohol, or ethanol. The chemical properties of this liquid include its flammability and solubility in water. It is less dense and evaporates at a lower temperature. Alcohol is prepared by the fermentation of yeast, sugars, and starches. Alcohol can be produced from a wide range of agricultural products, such as grapes, barley, wheat, grains, fruit, and potatoes.

Popular Processes

The popular process is fermentation sugar (usually grain or fruit mixtures) is converted by a single-celled microorganism such as yeast into alcohol. e.g. beer. Another popular process is distillation wherein a fermented liquid (fruit or grain mixtures) is heated to make the alcohol evaporate as vapor. The alcohol vapor is them condensed into liquid form e.g. gin, vodka, whiskies etc., are made by distilling a kind of beer made from grain. Rum is obtained from fermented sugar cane juice or molasses. Brandy is obtained from fermented grape juice. Similarly you will get fruit Brandy if you ferment fruits other than grapes.

Alcohol Concentration

Ethyl alcohol or ethanol is the intoxicating ingredient found in beer, rum, vodka, whisky and wine. So when we say "alcohol," we mean ethanol. However just understand that the ethyl alcohol concentration is not hundred per cent. You are consuming pure alcohol in your drink. If you consume few ounces of pure alcohol your blood alcohol concentration will shoot up to the danger zone.

Among the alcohols, beer has the lowest (4 to 6 per cent) ethanol concentration. In wine it is about 7 to 15 per cent. The concentration is about 40 to 95 per cent in gin, rum, whisky, vodka etc.

Indian Liquor and Illegal Dilleries

The rural illegal distilleries in India produce and market country liquor, an alcoholic drink made from locally available cheap raw material such as sugar-cane, rice, palm, coconut and cheap grains, country wood bark, expired battery cell with an alcohol concentration between twenty five to forty five per cent. Most popular country liquor varieties are arrack, desi sharab, tari etc. The country liquor is produced clandestinely in desolated places e.g. jungles, hills, isolated cottages. In each village there will be one or two units operating illegally.

There is no quality check on these liquors and the alcohol concentration varies and touches high. Another evil with country liquor is adulteration. Illicit units always use industrial methylated spirit as a common adulterant and sell the liquor at a cheaper rate. Consumption adulterated liquor is popular among poorer rural or urban mass. Often mass poisoning incidents are often reported in newspapers in India. Loss of life or irreversible damage to the eyes is very common.

Toddy

Have you heard of 'toddy'? Toddy is an alcoholic drink obtained by fermenting the sap of a coconut palm. This white colored natural drink will turns from sweet to sour taste as the fermentation progresses. Its alcohol concentration is between four and six per cent. The drink has a shelf life of about 24 hours. Toddyis very popular drink among the rural mass in south India.

Jack-fruit wine

The ethnic groups in the eastern part of India enjoy Jack-fruit wine, an alcoholic beverage made from the pulp of jack-fruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus). They peel off the ripened jack fruit and discard the skin. They obtain the pulp after removing the seeds and soak it in water. They extract juice from soaked pulp and for extraction they use bamboo baskets. The juice will be collected in earthen pots and a small quantity of water added to the pots along with fermented wine inoculums from a previous fermentation. The pots are meticulously covered with banana leaves and set to ferment at 18 to 30ºC for about one week. The fermented liquor is then decanted and drunk. The alcohol concentration is about seven to eight per cent.

Other Popular Liquors

Apong is a popular rice wine consumed by the rural mass in Arunachal Pradesh. Zu and Rohiare locally processed alcoholic liquors found in Nagaland. The alcohol concentration ranges from ten to twenty per cent.

Daru, popular liquor distilled from the flowers of the mahwa tree. It is consumed by the rural mass - the Rajputs of north-western India. The alcohol concentration ranges from twenty to forty per cent.

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