1.
Alcohol by volume
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Alcohol by volume is a standard measure of how much alcohol is contained in a given volume of an alcoholic beverage. It is defined as the number of millilitres of pure ethanol present in 100 millilitres of solution at 20 °C, the number of millilitres of pure ethanol is the mass of the ethanol divided by its density at 20 °C, which is 0.78924 g/ml. The ABV standard is used worldwide, the International Organization of Legal Metrology has tables of density of water–ethanol mixtures at different concentrations and temperatures. In some countries, such as the U. K and France, alcohol by volume is referred to as degrees Gay-Lussac and this results in the slight difference in marked % noted later in this article. Mixing two solutions of alcohol of different strengths usually causes a change in volume, mixing pure water with a solution less than 24% by mass causes a slight increase in total volume, whereas the mixing of two solutions above 24% causes a decrease in volume. The phenomenon of volume due to mixing dissimilar solutions is called partial molar volume. Details about typical amounts of alcohol contained in various beverages can be found in the articles about them. Another way of specifying the amount of alcohol is alcohol proof, for example, 40% abv is 80 proof in the US and 70 proof in the UK. However, since 1980, alcohol proof in the UK has been replaced by abv as a measure of alcohol content, in the United States, a few states regulate and tax alcoholic beverages according to alcohol by weight, expressed as a percentage of total mass. Some brewers print the ABW on beer containers, particularly on low-point versions of domestic beer brands. However, because of the miscibility of alcohol and water, the factor is not constant. 100% ABW, of course, is equivalent to 100% ABV, during the production of wine and beer, yeast is added to a sugary solution. During fermentation, the yeasts consume the sugars and produce alcohol, the density of sugar in water is greater than the density of alcohol in water. A hydrometer is used to measure the change in gravity of the solution before. The volume of alcohol in the solution can then be estimated, there are a number of empirical formulae which brewers and winemakers use to estimate the alcohol content of the liquor made. The simplest method for wine has been described by English author C. J. J, the number 0.7936 is the specific gravity of a 100% ethanol solution. The difference between the starting SG and the final SG measures the specific gravity lost to CO2 release
2.
Fruit brandy
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Fruit brandy is a distilled beverage produced from mash, juice, wine or residues of culinary fruits. The term covers a class of spirits produced across the world, and typically excludes beverages made from grapes. Apples, pears, apricots, plums and cherrys are the most commonly used fruits, in British usage, fruit brandy may also refer to liqueurs obtained by maceration of whole fruits, juice or flavoring in a distilled beverage, for example cherry brandy. Such beverages are used similar to cordials, and as an ingredient in cocktails, fruit brandies obtained by distillation are referred by the French term eau de vie. Fruit brandy usually contains 40% to 45% ABV, fruit brandy is customarily drunk chilled or over ice, but is occasionally mixed. Applejack is an American apple brandy made from the distillation of hard cider and it was once made by fractional freezing which would disqualify it as a proper brandy. Brinjevec is a Slovenian brandy distilled from ground and fermented juniper berries, buchu is a South African brandy flavoured with extracts from Agathosma species. Calvados is an apple brandy from the French region of Lower Normandy, coconut brandy is actually made from the sap of borassus flowers. Damassine brandy is made with the fruit of the Damassinier tree in the Jura Mountains of Switzerland Eau de vie is a French term for colorless fruit brandy. This term is applied to grape-based brandy other than Armagnac and Cognac. Kirschwasser is a brandy made from cherries. Kukumakranka brandy is South African and flavoured with the fruit of the Kukumakranka. Obstler is a German word for brandy and often referred to as Schnapps in English. Pálenka or Pálené is a common description for Slovak brandy. It must be distilled from Slovakian wild or domestic fruits, pálinka is a traditional Hungarian fruit brandy. It can only be made with fruits from Hungary, such as plums, apricots, peaches, elderberries, pears, poire Williams is made from the Williams pear, also known as the Bartlett pear. Slivovitz is a straw to yellow-colored plum brandy produced in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Macedonia, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Țuică, also known as horincă or turţ, is a clear Romanian plum brandy. Other Romanian fruit brandies, often distilled from apples, pears, apricots, mulberries, peaches, quinces, somerset cider brandy which dates back to 1678 obtained European protected status in 2011
3.
Distillation
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Distillation is a process of separating the component or substances from a liquid mixture by selective evaporation and condensation. Distillation may result in complete separation, or it may be a partial separation that increases the concentration of selected components of the mixture. In either case the process exploits differences in the volatility of the mixtures components, in industrial chemistry, distillation is a unit operation of practically universal importance, but it is a physical separation process and not a chemical reaction. For example, In the fossil fuel industry distillation is a class of operation in obtaining materials from crude oil for fuels. Distillation permits separation of air into its components — notably oxygen, nitrogen, Distillation of fermented products produces distilled beverages with a high alcohol content, or separates out other fermentation products of commercial value. An installation for distillation, especially of alcohol, is a distillery, the distillation equipment is a still. Distillation is an old method of artificial desalination. Aristotle wrote about the process in his Meteorologica and even that ordinary wine possesses a kind of exhalation, later evidence of distillation comes from Greek alchemists working in Alexandria in the 1st century AD. Distilled water has been known since at least c,200, when Alexander of Aphrodisias described the process. Work on distilling other liquids continued in early Byzantine Egypt under the Greek-Egyptian Zosimus of Panopolis, Distillation in China could have begun during the Eastern Han Dynasty, but archaeological evidence indicates that actual distillation of beverages began in the Jin and Southern Song dynasties. A still was found in a site in Qinglong, Hebei province dating to the 12th century. Distilled beverages were more common during the Yuan dynasty, arabs learned the process from the Alexandrians and used it extensively in their chemical experiments. Clear evidence of the distillation of alcohol comes from the School of Salerno in the 12th century, fractional distillation was developed by Tadeo Alderotti in the 13th century. In 1500, German alchemist Hieronymus Braunschweig published Liber de arte destillandi the first book dedicated to the subject of distillation. In 1651, John French published The Art of Distillation the first major English compendium of practice and this includes diagrams with people in them showing the industrial rather than bench scale of the operation. As alchemy evolved into the science of chemistry, vessels called retorts became used for distillations, riveted joints were often kept tight by using various mixtures, for instance a dough made of rye flour. These alembics often featured a system around the beak, using cold water for instance. Today, the retorts and pot stills have largely supplanted by more efficient distillation methods in most industrial processes
4.
Cultivar
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The term cultivar most commonly refers to an assemblage of plants selected for desirable characteristics that are maintained during propagation. More generally, cultivar refers to the most basic classification category of cultivated plants governed by the ICNCP, most cultivars have arisen in cultivation, but a few are special selections from the wild. Popular ornamental garden plants like roses, camellias, daffodils, rhododendrons, trees used in forestry are also special selections grown for their enhanced quality and yield of timber. Cultivars form a part of Liberty Hyde Baileys broader grouping. Cultivar was coined by Bailey and it is regarded as a portmanteau of cultivated and variety. A cultivar is not the same as a variety, a taxonomic rank below subspecies. In recent times, the naming of cultivars has been complicated by the use of statutory plant patents, the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants offers legal protection of plant cultivars to people or organisations who introduce new cultivars to commerce. UPOV requires that a cultivar be distinct, uniform and stable, to be distinct, it must have characteristics that easily distinguish it from any other known cultivar. To be uniform and stable, the cultivar must retain these characteristics under repeated propagation, a cultivar is given a cultivar name, which consists of the scientific Latin botanical name followed by a cultivar epithet. The cultivar epithet is usually in a vernacular language, for example, the full cultivar name of the King Edward potato is Solanum tuberosum King Edward. The King Edward part of the name is the cultivar epithet, the origin of the term cultivar arises from the need to distinguish between wild plants and those with characteristics that have arisen in cultivation. This distinction dates back to the Greek philosopher Theophrastus, the Father of Botany, botanical historian Alan Morton notes that Theophrastus in his Enquiry into Plants had an inkling of the limits of culturally induced changes and of the importance of genetic constitution. In Species Plantarum, Linnaeus listed all the known to him. Most of the listed by Linnaeus were of garden origin rather than being wild plants. Over time there was an increasing need to distinguish between plants growing in the wild, and those with variations that had produced in cultivation. In the nineteenth century many garden-derived plants were given names, sometimes in Latin. In the twentieth century an improved international terminology was proposed for the classification and it is essentially the equivalent of the botanical variety except in respect to its origin. However, Bailey was never explicit about the etymology of the word, and it has suggested that it is a contraction of the words cultigen and variety
5.
Prunus cerasus
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Prunus cerasus is a species of Prunus in the subgenus Cerasus, native to much of Europe and southwest Asia. It is closely related to the cherry, but has a fruit that is more acidic. The nutritional differences between the sweet and the tart or sour cherries are displayed at the page for the fruit. The tree is smaller than the cherry, has twiggy branches. There are several varieties of the cherry, the dark-red morello cherry and the lighter-red varieties including the amarelle cherry. The Montmorency cherry is the most popular type of sour cherry, the reason for its popularity is its use in baking and recipe creation. Including cherry pies, cherry desserts and other cherry-based recipes, Prunus cerasus is thought to have originated as a natural hybrid between Prunus avium and Prunus fruticosa in the Iranian Plateau or Eastern Europe where the two species come into contact. Prunus fruticosa is believed to have provided its smaller size and sour tasting fruit, the hybrids then stabilised and interbred to form a new, distinct species. Cultivated sour cherries were selected from wild specimens of Prunus cerasus and the doubtfully distinct P. acida from around the Caspian and Black Seas and they were also extremely popular with Persians and the Romans who introduced them into Britain long before the 1st century AD. The fruit remains popular in modern-day Iran, in Britain, their cultivation was popularised in the 16th century in the time of Henry VIII. They became a popular crop amongst Kentish growers, and by 1640 over two dozen named cultivars were recorded, in the Americas, Massachusetts colonists planted the first sour cherry, Kentish Red, when they arrived. This is a variety, and thus misses more frosts than its sweet counterpart and is therefore a more reliable cropper. The Morello cherry ripens in mid to late summer, toward the end of August in southern England and it is self-fertile, and would be a good pollenizer for other varieties if it did not flower so late in the season. Sour cherries require similar cultivation conditions to pears, that is, they prefer a rich, well-drained, moist soil, although they demand more nitrogen, trees will do badly if waterlogged, but have greater tolerance of poor drainage than sweet varieties. During spring, flowers should be protected, and trees weeded, mulched and sprayed with natural seaweed solution and this is also the time when any required pruning should be carried out. Morello cherry trees fruit on younger wood than sweet varieties, and they are usually grown as standards, but can be fan trained, cropping well even on cold walls, or grown as low bushes. Sour cherries suffer fewer pests and diseases than sweet cherries, although they are prone to heavy losses from birds. In summer, fruit should be protected with netting, when harvesting fruit, they should be cut from the tree rather than risking damage by pulling the stalks
6.
Liqueur
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A liqueur is an alcoholic beverage made from a distilled spirit that has been flavored with fruit, cream, herbs, spices, flowers or nuts and bottled with added sugar or other sweetener. Liqueurs are typically sweet, they are usually not aged for long after the ingredients are mixed. In the United States and Canada, where spirits are often called liquor, there is confusion over liqueurs and liquors. You can distinguish them from each other because liqueurs are quite sweet and often syrupy in consistency, most liqueurs have a lower alcohol content than spirits, but some contain as much as 55% ABV. Liqueurs are historical descendants of herbal medicines, they were made in Italy as early as the 13th century and were prepared by monks. Nowadays, liqueurs are made worldwide and are served in many ways, by themselves, poured over ice, with coffee, mixed with cream or other mixers to create cocktails and they are often served with or after a dessert. Liqueurs are also used in cooking, some liqueurs are prepared by infusing certain woods, fruits, or flowers in either water or alcohol and adding sugar or other items. Others are distilled from aromatic or flavoring agents, layered drinks are made by floating different-colored liqueurs in separate layers. Each liqueur is poured slowly into a glass over the back of a spoon or down a glass rod, so that the liquids of different densities remain unmixed, the word liqueur comes from the Latin liquifacere via French. Liqueurs Liqueurs at The Cooks Thesaurus
7.
Bartending terminology
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Various unique terminology is used in bartending. In bartending, the straight up refers to an alcoholic drink that is shaken or stirred with ice. This is contrasted with a drink served neat – a single, unmixed liquor served without being chilled and without any water, ice, neat drinks are typically served in a rocks glass, shot glass, snifter, Glencairn glass, or copita. On the rocks refers to liquor poured over ice cubes, the terms straight and straight up can be ambiguous, as they are sometimes used to mean neat, up is less ambiguous. A pony is slang for one US fluid ounce of spirit, while the shot of alcohol is a 1. 5-US-fluid-ounce jigger. This method breaks down into convenient sub-measures, each count is approximately one-quarter fluid ounce, making a pony 4 counts, there is substantial confusion in the usage of neat, or straight up, straight, and up. In the context of describing ways of serving a drink, all of these mean served without ice, neat and up are relatively unambiguous. The term neat means a single, unmixed liquor at room temperature, straight is often used interchangeably with neat. However, straight is also used to refer to a spirit that is in an unmixed state in general. For example, many bourbons are identified as Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey on their bottling labels, so sometimes straight may be used to mean either straight up or neat, and clarification may be needed to determine the exact manner for serving it. With a twist signals the bartender to add a twist of lemon or lime to the cocktail, often, the bartender will hang the rind of the citrus on the glass as a garnish. Cocktails are generally served chilled, although some may be served either with or without ice, cocktails can be served frozen which is with crushed ice instead of cubes. Unmixed liquors may be served neat, up, or on the rocks. High quality whisky and other aged liquor is most often served neat, a shot of whisky, tequila, or vodka, when served neat in a shot glass, is often accompanied by a chaser or a water back. These terms commingle as well, it is common in locales to hear a beer back ordered as the chaser to a shot. A drink may specifically be ordered no chaser as well, a chaser in the UK however usually refers to a shot taken after a pint of beer or similar
8.
Cocktail
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When used to refer to any generic alcoholic mixed drink, cocktail may mean any beverage that contains two or more ingredients if at least one of those ingredients contains alcohol. When a mixed drink contains only a spirit and a mixer, such as soda or fruit juice, it is a highball. When a cocktail contains only a spirit and a liqueur, it is a duo. Additional ingredients may be sugar, honey, milk, cream, the origin of the word cocktail is disputed. S. The first definition of cocktail known to be an alcoholic beverage appeared in The Balance and Columbian Repository May 13,1806, editor Harry Croswell answered the question, What is a cocktail. It is said, also to be of use to a democratic candidate, because a person. Anatoly Liberman endorses as highly probable the theory advanced by Låftman and they were called cocktailed horses, later simply cocktails. By extension, the cocktail was applied to a vulgar, ill-bred person raised above his station, assuming the position of a gentleman. The mention of water as an ingredient, Låftman concluded that cocktail was an acceptable alcoholic drink, but diluted, not a purebred, a thing raised above its station. Hence the highly appropriate slang word used earlier about inferior horses, several authors have theorized that cocktail may be a corruption of cock ale. David Wondrich also speculates that cocktail is a reference to a practice for perking up an old horse by means of a ginger suppository so that the animal would cock its tail up, there is a lack of clarity on the origins of cocktails. Traditionally cocktails were a mixture of spirits, sugar, water, but by the 1860s, a cocktail frequently included a liqueur. The first publication of a guide which included cocktail recipes was in 1862 — How to Mix Drinks, or, The Bon Vivants Companion. In addition to recipes for punches, sours, slings, cobblers, shrubs, toddies, flips, a key ingredient differentiating cocktails from other drinks in this compendium was the use of bitters. Mixed drinks popular today that conform to this meaning of cocktail include the Old Fashioned whiskey cocktail, the Sazerac cocktail. The term highball appears during the 1890s to distinguish a drink composed only of a distilled spirit, the first cocktail party ever thrown was allegedly by Mrs. Julius S. Walsh Jr. of St. Louis, Missouri, in May 1917. Mrs. Walsh invited 50 guests to her home at noon on a Sunday, the party lasted an hour, until lunch was served at 1 pm. The site of this first cocktail party still stands, in 1924, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis bought the Walsh mansion at 4510 Lindell Boulevard, and it has served as the local archbishops residence ever since
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