Whether you’re a novice or a seasoned pro, you’ll discover that fine spirit liquor is a necessary component in various cocktails. Hard alcohols come in various varieties, each with a distinctive flavor character that makes them ideal for particularly mixed beverages.
Liquors can be clear or brown and come from a variety of sources. For example, gin, rum, and tequila have clear varieties, while whisky, brandy, and cognac are brown liquors that get their color from aging in barrels.
The Craft
Craft spirits (or liquor) are high-alcohol alcoholic beverages, like beer and wine, that are distilled rather than brewed. Spirits are differentiated by their higher average alcohol by volume (ABV), a function of how they’re made: a yeast-based fermentation into fermentable sugars that are then distilled to create ethanol and CO2 in the bottle.
The American Distillers Association, which sets industry standards, says that a company must be small, independently owned, and operated to be labeled a craft distiller. But volume, ownership, and transparency aren’t the only criteria.
As the craft movement has grown, questions of quality have cropped up. Some large distillers have opted to create smaller-scale craft divisions, which produce a range of spirits called “craft.” But the question of quality remains.
The People
Whether you’re looking for a high-end wine or a bottle of premium liquor, plenty of fine spirit liquor near me sells them. The ones that stand out are the small, family-owned establishments.
Some establishments provide customers with the best possible experience regarding spirits.
They have a staff of knowledgeable, experienced individuals who take pride in making the shopping experience as simple as possible for their customers.
The Environment
There are some ways to make your drink more environmentally friendly. These include choosing heirloom ingredients and family farmers, rethinking packaging and transport, rejecting artificial ingredients, and implementing green tech.
The first step is to choose a brand that practices these principles. The best way to do this is to visit a distillery that sources local raw materials, uses organic ingredients, uses renewable energy, and gives back to environmental causes.
For many craft distilleries, sourcing their grain is as important as the other process elements.
Using organic ingredients is one of the most effective ways to reduce emissions from the distillation process, which is a huge source of carbon dioxide. Moreover, organic materials can improve the taste of spirits.
The Process
There are three primary stages in the production of spirits: fermentation, distillation, and aging. Generally speaking, most alcohol in spirits comes from fermentation (the process by which a sugary substance is broken down into ethanol).
In distillation, a fermented mixture of liquids, such as beer, wine, or grain, is heated and condensed to separate the basic elements into different liquors. The vapor from the liquid is collected and filtered, or the foreshots are thrown out, and then the distillate is refined into bottled, labeled, and sealed spirits.
Distillers have a lot of flexibility when blending different spirits and aging them in various vessels to create different styles and age profiles. Many distillers also filter their distilled spirits to remove any extraneous elements that may be present or add coloring agents to change the color of the spirit.
