Alcohol - What Is It Made Of?

What Is It Made Of?

The chemical composition for ethanolThe colorless flammable liquid in alcoholic drinks; ethanol is the substance that gets people drunk. or ethyl alcohol, otherwise known as alcohol, is C2H5OH. That means it is composed of two atoms of carbon, one atom of oxygen, and six atoms of hydrogen. Ethanol is a colorless liquid that is highly flammable. Aside from being an ingredient in alcoholic beverages, it is used in fuels, solvents, disinfectants, and preservatives.

Pure alcohol is too strong to drink by itself. It must be diluted with water and other substances to create alcoholic beverages. Ethyl alcohol is the only alcohol considered safe to drink. Other alcohols such as methanol (also called wood alcohol) and isopropyl alcohol (pronounced EYE-so-PROPE-uhl; also called rubbing alcohol) are not used in beverages. They are highly toxic (poisonous) to the body. Methanol, in particular, can cause blindness and even death if swallowed.

No Nutritional Value

Alcohol contains what are called "empty calories." Beer, wine, wine coolers, and liquor have no nutritional value, but they still cause weight gain. Drinking alcohol is bad for the skin as well as the waistline. It increases the number and severity of acne breakouts. It is also known for causing bad breath among users.

Types of Alcoholic Beverages

Wines and beers are produced by fermenting fruits, vegetables, and grains. Fermentation occurs when sugar in berries or grains is combined with yeast, which is a fungus. A fungus is a sort of recycler that dissolves nutrients and changes them. A chemical reaction takes place as yeast cells eat up the sugars in food. Those sugars are changed into carbon dioxide and alcohol. Wine is formed when the combination of sugar, yeast, and berries reaches an alcohol concentration point between 9 and 15 percent. Similarly, when sugar, yeast, and grains such as barley are combined and reach an alcohol concentration of 3 to 6 percent, beer is made and fermentation stops.

Hard liquor is produced by a process called distillation, which adds an extra step to the fermentation process. In distillation, liquids that have already been fermented are boiled to remove the alcohol. At the boiling point, the alcohol separates from the fermented liquid to create a vapor. The vapor is captured and then held separately in a cooling tube until it turns back into a liquid. The resulting alcohol, now removed from the original fermented liquid, becomes hard liquor when mixed with water.

Alcohol makes up 50 percent of distilled liquors such as whiskey, rum, vodka, scotch, and gin. The percentage of alcohol in hard liquor is used to determine the "proof" number printed on every bottle. Proof is determined by doubling the percentage of pure alcohol in a liquor and then dropping the percentage sign. For instance, whiskey that is 50 percent alcohol is said to be 100 proof.

Liqueurs (pronounced lick-OARZ) are distilled from grain and mixed with fruit, herbs, spices, and sugary syrups. They are extremely sweet and very high in alcohol content. They are intended to be drunk in very small quantities, usually as an "after dinner" drink. Popular liqueurs include Cointreau (pronounced KWANNtroh), Tia Maria, and Drambuie (pronounced dram-BOO-ee).

Hard Liquors

The difference between hard liquors lies in the grains or vegetables that are used to make them. Rye, corn, and barley are used to make whiskey. Vodka is distilled from potatoes, rye, or wheat. Scotch is derived from malted barley. Gin is a combination of distilled spirits (alcohol) flavored with juniper berries. Rum is made from molasses.

Adding carbonated drinks to hard liquor—mixing rum with cola or whiskey with ginger ale, for instance—produces a drink that seems stronger than liquor mixed with plain water. Carbonation speeds up the absorption of alcohol into the bloodstream.

Sweet and powerful drinks like brandy and port are made from distilled wine, which increases the alcohol content of 12 percent to two to three times that amount. "The original idea of distillers," wrote Andrew Weil and Winifred Rosen in From Chocolate to Morphine, "was to concentrate wine to a smaller volume to make it easier to ship it in barrels overseas. At the end of the voyage the brandy was to be diluted with water back to an alcohol content of 12 percent. What happened… was that when people got their hands on what was in the barrels, no one waited to add water. Suddenly a new and powerful form of alcohol flooded the world."