Сторінка
2

Alcohol

Flavoring

Ethanol is a moderately good solvent for many "fatty" substances and essential "oils", and thus facilitates the inclusion of several coloring, flavoring, and aromatic compounds to alcoholic beverages, especially to distilled ones. These flavoring ingredients may be naturally present in the starting material, or may be added before fermentation, before distillation, or before bottling the distilled product. Sometimes the flavor is obtained by allowing the beverage to stand for months or years in barrels made of special wood, or in bottles where scented twigs or fruits — or even insects — have been inserted.

A well-stocked bar will include a selection of beers and wines, along with the typical liquors of vodka, rum, gin, tequila, and whisky; each in varying qualities from "well" quality (off brand) to premium quality (name brand) to "top shelf" (usually very expensive, ranging from $50 to several hundred USD per 750 ml bottle). Alcoholic beverages can be combined at the time of serving, sometimes with other ingredients, to create cocktails or mixed drinks. Small servings of pure liquor (shots) are also common, with whisky and tequila being traditionally popular selections.

History

Fermented beverages

Fermented alcoholic beverages have been known since pre-historical times. Beer was certainly known in Mesopotamia before 4000 BC, as attested to by recipes found on clay tablets and art that shows individuals using straws to drink from large vats and pots.

Wine was consumed in Classical Greece at breakfast or at symposia, and in the 1st century BC it was part of the diet of most Roman citizens. However, both Greeks and Romans generally consumed their wine watered (from 1 parts of wine to 1 part of water, to 1 part of wine to 4 parts of water). The transformation of water into wine at a wedding feast is one of the miracles attributed to Jesus in the New Testament, and his symbolic use of wine in the Last Supper led to it becoming an essential part of the Catholic Eucharist rite.

In spite of the Qur'anic ban (which is somewhat ambiguous and open to interpretation) on alcoholic beverages, wine (usually sold by Christian tavern-keepers) remained fairly popular in Islamic lands over the centuries, as revealed in the verses of Persian mathematician Omar Khayyám (1040–1131):

"Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,

A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse—and Thou

Beside me singing in the Wilderness—

And Wilderness is Paradise enow." [1]

In Europe during the Middle Ages, beer was consumed by the whole family, thanks to a triple fermentation process — the men had the strongest, then women, then children. A document of the times mentions nuns having an allowance of six pints of ale a day. Cider and pomace wine were also widely available, while grape wine was the prerogative of the higher classes. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, wine production in Europe appears to have been sustained chiefly by monasteries.

By the time the Europeans reached the Americas in the 15th century, several native civilizations had developed alcoholic beverages. According to a post-Conquest Aztec document, consumption of the local "wine" (pulque) was generally restricted to religious ceremonies, but freely allowed to those over 70 years old (possibly the all-time record for legal drinking age). The natives of South America manufactured a beer-like product from cassava or maize (cauim, chicha), which had to be chewed before fermentation in order to turn the starch into sugars. (Curiously, the same technique was used in ancient Japan to make sake from rice and other starchy crops.)

The medicinal use of alcoholic beverages was mentioned in Sumerian and Egyptian texts dated from 2100 BC or earlier. The Hebrew Bible recommends giving alcoholic drinks to those who are dying or depressed, so that they can forget their misery.

Distilled beverages

Main article: Distilled beverage

Beer and wine are typically limited to a maximum 15 percent alcohol, although brewers have reached 25% alcohol. Beyond this limit yeast is adversely affected and cannot ferment. Since the fourth millennium BC in Babylonia, higher levels of alcohol have been obtained in a number of ways. It was not until the still was invented by Islamic alchemists in the 8th or 9th centuries that the history of distilled beverages began. Distilled alcohol appeared first in Europe in the mid 12th century and by the early 14th century it had spread throughout Europe. It also spread eastward, mainly by the Mongols, and was practiced in China by the 14th century. However, recent archeological evidence has supported the idea that China has had wines and distilled beverages dating back to 5000 BC. Paracelsus gave alcohol its modern name, taking it from the Arabic word which means "finely divided", a reference to distillation.

Uses

In many countries, alcoholic beverages are commonly consumed at the major daily meals (lunch and dinner). Most early beers were in fact highly nutritional and served as a means of calorie distribution. Beer can be stored longer than grain or bread without fear of pest infestation or rotting, and drinking beer avoided the tooth-destroying grit that was present in hand-ground or early mill-ground flours.

In places and eras with poor public sanitation, such as Medieval Europe, consumption of alcoholic beverages (particularly weak or "small" beer) was one method of avoiding water-borne diseases such as the cholera. Though strong alcohol kills bacteria, the low concentration in beer or even wine will have only a limited effect. Probably the boiling of water, which is required for the brewing of beer, and the growth of yeast, which would tend to crowd out other micro-organisms, were more important than the alcohol itself. In any case, the ethanol (and possibly other ingredients) of alcoholic beverages allows them to be stored for months or years in simple wood or clay containers without spoiling, which was certainly a major factor in their popularity.

A recent study indicated that ethanol has been found to stimulate the virulence of Acinetobacter baumannii. Tests on infected nematode worms that were dosed with ethanol found that the worms laid fewer eggs and their life spans were only 80% of worms infected with a version of A. baumannii that didn't respond to ethanol. This study suggests that the common misconception that drinking alcohol kills infections is false and drinking alcohol may actually help the infection to grow.^

In colder climates, strong alcoholic beverages such as vodka are popularly seen as a way to "warm up" the body, possibly because ethanol is a quickly absorbed source of food energy and dilates peripheral blood vessels (Peripherovascular dilation). This however is a dangerous myth, and people experiencing hypothermia should avoid alcohol. Although a drunk may feel warmer, the body loses heat and body temperature decreases, which may cause hypothermia, and eventually death. This is because of the dilation of blood vessels not in the core of the body; because of this increased bloodflow, the body loses its heat out of its less protected outer extremities.