DISTILLED LIQUORS, or SPIRITU OUS LIQUORS, the alcoholic beverages ob tained by distillation as distinguished from the fermented liquors, wine, beer and cider, etc. The highly concentrated alcoholic liquids used in technics, medicine, pharmacy, etc., are called alcoholic spirits. In the distilled liquor bever age, alcohol is always the main ingredient and the varying aroma and flavor, due to the origin and the method of production, influence its commercial value. On the other hand, spirits are judged according to their concentration and any secondary ingredients and aromatic sub stances depreciate their value. Hence in the manufacture of spirits everything that is not alcohol is eliminated.
The distilled liquors best known in the United States are: Whisky — made from malt and unmalted cereals.
Brandy—made from grape wine.
Gin—made from malt with rye or barley. Rum—made from molasses. Cordials—compounded from aromatic tinc tures and sugar syrups.
In Germany, kornbranntwein, made from malt and rye or corn, and schnapps, made by diluting rectified alcohol and adding flavors and sugar,. are distilled liquors in common use. In Austria slivovitz is distilled from the fermented juice of the prune-plum. In the East the liquor arrack is distilled from palm wine, with rice and molasses. In Russia the popular liquor vodka is made from rye.
In the United States the concentration of alcohol in liquors and spirits is determined ac cording to proof-degrees. The regulations of the United States Internal Revenue Office say that "proof spirit shall be held to be that alco holic liquor which contains one half its volume of alcohol of a specific gravity of 0.7939 at 60° Therefore each proof-degree is equivalent to a volume measuring one-half of 1 per cent.
If 100 gallons of liquor contain 48 gallons of absolute alcohol, it is 2 x48 or 96 proof, and a spirit containing 92 gallons of alcohol per 100 gallons, is one with 92x2 or 184 proof. The revenue standard is a liquor with 50 vol umes per cent (100 proof) of alcohol. "Over"
and "under" proof are not officially recognized in the United States, although we find these dis tinctions given in older books.
The raw materials used in the preparation of alcoholic liquors and spirits are: 1. Alcoholic liquids, as wine and its waste and by-products (wine-yeast, grape-cakes), the waste and by-products of the brewing industry, in which the spirit is obtained solely by distilla tion. The product of the wine distillation is used almost exclusively for cognac and brandy, which are especially manufactured in California and Ohio.
2. Sugary substances, as the extract of the sugar-beet, sugarcane, mainly molasses and also of sweet fruits (cherries, plums, melons, etc.), the sweet potato, the juice of the sugar palm, the carob bean (Saint John's bread), etc. The sugar must be converted into alcohol by fer mentation prior to distillation.
3. Starchy substances, which comprise the various cereals (barley, barley-malt, corn, rye, wheat, oats, rice, buckwheat, etc.), and also Corn, orn, barley, barley-malt, rye, oats and wheat are those mostly used in the United States. Before the alcohol can be obtained, the starch must be transformed into fermentable sugar, which in turn is fermented, to produce the alcohol previous to distillation.
4. Fibrous substances, in which the cellulose is converted into fermentable sugar. The fur ther treatment is the same as detailed above (No. 3). Concentrated mineral acids acting under pressure on cellulose, will cause the for mation of fermentable sugar, and since such fibrous substances (peat, sawdust, etc.) are in expensive, many experiments have been made to obtain a practical method for producing alcohol from such materials. Many such methods have been patented. The manufacture of alcohol from fibre stuff has of late years assumed greater importance and such spirits can now be successfully obtained in large quantities.