QUOTE (nezumi @ Jul 7 2008, 08:56 AM)
I believe moonshine is distilled at least once. That's why I didn't say potato-wine is vodka. Vodka has a minimum proof, and you're unlikely to get either corn-wine or potato-wine to a proof of more than about 25 without distillation.
Hops are currently not worh making artificially, but of course, that'll change by 2050. Similarly, while malted grains are just processed cereal grains, the price is already significantly higher than non-malted grains, and in a world where most people can't afford to eat better than soy, I suspect that malt will be eliminated completely from the process, hence soy or rice. I have to imagine 2050 average "beer" is basically flavored soy/rice-wine.
There is no minimum level of alcohol content for any distilled spirits. Depending on the mashing technique and the distilling process/technologies used the alcohol content can vary from 20% to 90%. Yes local, state, and federal laws can place a minimum but most to just tax the percentage of alcohol in the beverage. Ie they want higher content because that means higher taxes.
Get out this Wine term usage please.
Wine is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermentation of grape juice.
Beer is an alcoholic beverage produced by the fermentation of sugars derived from starch-based material.
Ale is a type of beer brewed from malted barley using a top-fermenting brewers' yeast.
Mead is a fermented alcoholic beverage made of honey, water, and yeast.
Cider is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of apples mainly, though pears are also used in the UK, pear cider is known as perry
In the United States, "rye whiskey" is, by law, made from a mash of at least 51 percent rye. (The other ingredients of the mash are usually corn and malted barley.) It is distilled to no more than 160 (U.S.) proof, and aged in charred, new oak barrels. The whiskey must be put into such barrels at not more than 125 (U.S.) proof. Rye whiskey which has been so aged for at least 2 years may be further designated as "straight", as in "straight rye whiskey". Rye whiskey was the prevalent whiskey of the northeastern states, especially Pennsylvania and Maryland, but largely disappeared after Prohibition.
Any Canadian whisky is often referred to as "rye whisky", since historically much of the content was from rye. Now, however, most Canadian whisky is blended with only a minority of rye. There is no requirement for any rye to be included in the blend used to make whiskies with the legally-identical labels "Canadian Whisky", "Canadian Rye Whisky" nor "Rye Whisky" in Canada, provided they "possess the aroma, taste and character generally attributed to Canadian whisky"[3]. In some cases, the corn-to-rye ratio may be as high as 9:1. In contrast with the US "rye whiskey" counterpart, a minimum of 3 years of small (<=700l/~185USG) wooden barrel aging is required for the "Canadian Whisky", "Canadian Rye Whisky" and "Rye Whisky" labels, although they need not be new oak, nor charred, necessarily.
Sour mash is the name for a process in the distilling industry that uses material from an older batch of mash to start fermentation in the batch currently being made, similar to the making of sourdough bread. It was developed by either Dr. James C. Crow or Dr. Jason S. Amburgey while they were working at the Old Oscar Pepper Distillery (now the Woodford Reserve Distillery) in Woodford County, Kentucky. Sour mash is not a type or flavor of whiskey, as is commonly thought.
The mash is the mixture of fermented grain and water from which the raw "beer" is made. In the sour mash process an established and active strain of live yeast is introduced into a grain & water mixture that is to be fermented. By using an established and known fermented "sour", this fermentation process controls the introduction and growth of foreign bacteria and yeasts that could damage the whiskey, and improves the consistency and quality of the liquor, so that every bottle tastes as close to the same as possible. Sour mash is popular in bourbon whiskey and Tennessee whiskey.
IIRC the costs to produce a case of 12 bottles of grain neutral spirits ie Vodka including packaging is about $20.00, but the taxes state and federal is over $60.00, that was a few years ago, so the taxes are higher now I bet.
Malting is letting the grains germinate aka sprout.
Growing rice and growing grains hydroponically is about the same tech wise and cost wise.
WMS