Beer and wine stall near 15 percent because yeast cannot survive more
Fermentation has a built-in ceiling: most yeasts stop working once alcohol reaches about 15 percent, which caps beer and wine. To go further you need distillation, which concentrates the ethanol. That step is what separates spirits like vodka, rum and gin from everything brewed or pressed.
Liquor starts as something already fermented, whether grain, fruit, vegetables or sugar, which is then distilled. Because the condensed vapour is richer in ethanol than the starting liquid, the result is stronger. Before being watered down for bottling, spirits typically exceed 50 percent alcohol, and they usually go on sale above 30 percent. North Americans often say hard liquor to mark the difference from undistilled drinks; in Britain, spirits is the common term.
Terms get precise. A spirit, strictly, should have no added sugar and usually sits between 35 and 40 percent alcohol by volume. Add sugar and flavourings, as with Grand Marnier or amaretto, and it becomes a liqueur. Some spirits, including brandy, tequila and whiskey, mature in barrels, while others are infused with botanicals; absinthe is one example. The English word descends from the Latin liquere, to be fluid, and the Oxford English Dictionary traces its meaning from any liquid in 1225 to an intoxicating drink by the 16th century.
European law draws its own lines. A 2019 EU regulation defines spirit drinks by method, whether distilling fermented products, steeping plants in agricultural alcohol, or adding flavourings and sweeteners to it. Such drinks need at least 15 percent alcohol, with egg liqueurs like Advocaat allowed 14. The rules separate plain agricultural ethanol from a distillate that keeps the aroma and taste of its raw material, and they list 44 categories of spirit drink.
A standard neat serving is around 50 millilitres. Undiluted spirits taste slightly sweet and bitter with a burn on the palate. Drinking a lot quickly can cause alcohol poisoning, which may be fatal through organ damage or accidents. Regular spirit drinking is associated with higher mortality even compared with other alcoholic drinks, and all alcohol is classed as a group 1 carcinogen by the IARC.
Source: Liquor
