Contrary
to what you may have heard there are actually only three types of
alcohol sold in bars, taverns and liquor stores. Beer, Wine and
Spirits – that’s it! Beer is water mixed with cereal grains -
such as malts, barley's and corn – and then its let to ferment.
Wines comes from grapes or some other type of sugary fruit which are
also let to ferment. Finally there are spirits. Spirits are
commonly a mixture of water and cereal grains - such as malts, corn,
rye, wheat, barely or even potatoes as in the case of vodka; however
instead of letting the mixture ferment the mixture is distilled. The
distilling process heats the mixture to produce vapors which are
captured and then run though a series of metal coils to collect the
moisture after the vapor cools. (some call this a still).
Trivia
# 1 Most people aren’t aware of this but the production of alcohol
is really a function of yeast. Yes yeast! Yeast is included in each
mixture above and it is the yeast that breaks down the sugars in the
grains and juices to produce the alcohol. Without the yeast neither
fermentation or distillation would produce any alcohol of value.
Trivia
# 2 The highest alcohol content that natural fermentation can achieve
is about 18%. Its bio-chemically impossible to get a beer or wine
with a higher proof than18% by
using a ‘natural fermentation’ process.
Trivia
# 3 12 ounce Cans of Budweiser, Miller or Corona etc. roughly have
approximately 5% alcohol by volume (ABV). So if you ever see a beer
advertised with 65% alcohol - rest assured that extra alcohol was
added by some non-natural process.
Trivia
# 4 Most wines are generally bottled at around 18% proof.
Trivia
# 5 However, when a beverage is distilled it is possible to achieve
an alcohol content of up to 200% proof; however most, distilled
spirits are sold around 80 proof, 84 proof and 100 proof. Why?
Because any higher alcohol proof would taste horrible; it would be
like drinking kerosene.
Now
here’s really great trivia about two misunderstood alcoholic
beverages: Brandy and Cognac - both of which are distilled and
therefore classified as spirits. Sadly most people don’t
appreciate Brandy and Cognac but that I think that is simply a
maturity factor. The older one gets the more they appreciate a good
Brandy or Cognac.
Some
people say Brandy taste like fruit
and
often cite
apricots,
oranges, and lemons; whereas
Cognacs
are
said
to have
the
flavor
of flowers
or
spices
– spices
like nutmeg and cinnamon.
Why
is that?
Trivia
# 6 Both
Brandies
and Cognacs
start off pretty just
like
a
wine.
Brandies
are
fruit
juices
(any
kind)
- grapes
and
sugary
fruits
are
mashed
and their
juices are distilled
to
make Brandy.
Ever
heard of blackberry Brandy,
blueberry Brandy
or apple
Brandy?
Cognac,
on
the other hand,
is
only
made
from the
juices
of only
“white
grapes”.
Trivia
# 7
Brandy
can
be
produced anywhere
in the world.
Trivia
# 8
Not
so with Cognac.
Cognac
can
only be
produced in
France.
Remember
from
my
previous articles
we learned that Champagne
can
only be
produced in France,
Scotch
can only be
made in Scotland
and Tequila can only come from Mexico? Well
Cognac can
only
come
from
southwestern
France.
Trivia
# 9 The
juice
from the white
grapes
for
making Cognac are
distilled
– not
just
once
… but twice.
And
get
this – they
can
only be distilled from October 1st to March 31st.
Trivia
# 10 Most Cognacs are blended – which means a variety of distilled
white grape juices are mixed together (just like with a Scotches are
blended ) to form the cognac.
There
are a few single blend Cognacs made, but few ever people drink them.
They are way to expensive and they’re not that much appreciable
better then blended Cognacs.
Trivia
# 11 To make a Cognac a special committee is assembled. The
committee must meet between 11 am to 1 pm and will taste
approximately 40 different blends of Cognacs and “Cognac Eaux de
Vies," (that’s the name given to the initial Cognac spirit
produced by distilling). The committee’s job then is to decide
which Cognac flavors should be mixed together to create the new
Cognac blend.
Trivia
# 12
To
be a member of a Cognac Tasting Committee, a person must be a Master
Cognac Blender – and
it
takes 10
years of extensive
training
to become a Master
Cognac
Blender.
Trivia
#
13
Cognacs,
like
most
distilled
spirits,
are
aged.
Aged
in
wooden
barrels.
Cognac
must be aged in barrels made
of
only
French
Oak.
After
the Cognac
has been aged
there
are one
of three
official
designations
it
can
receive:
VS, V.S.O.P. or
X.O.
After
two years of aging
a
Cognac
blend
is
labeled
"VS” (for
Very
Special)".
A
Cognac blend
that has been aged
for
a minimum
of at least
four
years is
labeled V.S.O.P.
(for
Very
Superior Old Pale).
Finally, the
designation
X.O.
(Extra Old) is
applied to a
Cognac
blends
that
have
all been certified
to have been aged
for
a
minimum of at
least six
years in French
Oak
barrels
.
Unfortunately,
many
people think
Cognac
is just
for sipping
after
dinner or when sitting
by
a
warm fire
on
a
cold winter
night.
That’s
not true.
There
really
are
some great
tasting
cognac cocktails. If
you are not familiar with
a
Cognac cocktail
then
I encourage you to try
one.
My
suggestion
would
be to try a ‘A
Sidecar’.
However,
I
caution you – only order
a
Sidecar from
a fine bar or restaurant. Smaller
bars
and
taverns will
typically
substitute
a Brandy
rather then use
Cognac
as its primary cocktail
ingredient.
There
is so oh
so much
more I
would
like
to share
about Brandies and Cognacs but I will have to save that for a future
article. Now
if
you remember just one thing from this article – let
it be
this
– all
Brandies and Cognacs pair wonderfully with any type
of rabbit
dinner. Thanks
for reading this article. Ralph’s Rabbit Ranch