Spirits 1,025 Items Follow

Distilled alcoholic beverages, or spirits, have been made and consumed for thousands of years. Whereas beer and wine are born through a natural fermentation process that depends upon yeast to convert sugar to alcohol, the production of spirits goes a step further, to distillation. The distillation process purifies and concentrates the base alcohol, for further steps of maturation depending on which type of spirits is being produced. While the alcohol concentration in fermented beverages is typically just under 20%, distilled spirits can be anywhere from 20% to 90%.