A testament to human ingenuity

[lollardfish]

I want to come up with a comprehensive list of all the things that people have turned into alcohol. Please help me. What I want are the things that are actually fermented/distilled, as opposed to the flavors people dump in.

- Any grain: Beer (Barley is key!), Whiskey (Corn, Rye, Wheat), distilled grain alcohols (Vodka, Gin, Sool), sometimes fermented directly from bread (kvass from Russian black bread).
- Potatoes: Vodka, rarely Beer
- Mare's Milk: Kumis
- Sugar Cane Juice: Rum, Raki
- Grapes: Wine (of all types, including fortified and grappa and bubbly and ouzo and such).
- Pears: Perry
- Apples: Cider, Calvados
- Rice: Sake, Rice wine (rarely other kinds of distilled liquors)
- Agave: Tequila
- Artichoke: Cynar - A wierd Venetian liquor like Campari (with added wine)
- Assorted Veggies: Campari and Aperol (with added wine).
- Honey: Mead
- Plums: Slivovitz, or plum brandy (Romanian)
- Elderberries: Elderberry Wine
- Various Fruits: Various gross fruit wines made by Boon's
- Dandelion: Dandelion Wine
- Fig: Boukha, sometimes Raki
- Lilacs: Lilac Wine
- Cassava: Caxiri. Cauim. Pajuaru.
- Dates: Thibarine, Mahia
- Pomegranites: Sipak
- Birch Sap: Kvass
- Palm Sap: Arrack, Palm Wine
- Coconut Milk: Arrack
- Yucca Sap: Sotol
- Cactus fruit: Colonche
- Pineapple: Chica
- Maple Sap: Specialty vodka.

I'll add more as they occur to me and y'all direct me. I am mostly organizing my office today as I get set to move to the next chapter.

Comments

[alisgray.livejournal.com]

The mares' milk alcohol is Kumis.

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Ok. I'm not convinced entirely. But that article does have a link to This (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrack) so I've got to add palm and coconut.

[alisgray.livejournal.com]

one ought never implicitly trust wikipedia, it's true.

add pineapple to your list and check out this page:
http://www.mexicanmercados.com/food/drinkssi.htm

also, maple sap vodka: http://www.vermontspirits.com/press_wsj.html

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

sotol: in Jalisco and Nayarit, a distilled drink using fermented sap of the desert yucca called sotol, of the genus Dasylirion. Yucca gets added.

colonche: in central Mexico, made from the fermentation of macerated cactus fruit and sugar: Cactus gets added

I may just have to say, "Fruits." Then list some examples.

The maple sap vodka looks like maple sap added to vodka, rather than fermented maple sap itself?

[alisgray.livejournal.com]

some of them do seem to be maple flavored, but not all: "Duncan's Spirits Inc., started by a former anthropologist in St. Johnsbury, Vt., who studied Southeast Asian hill tribes, makes one vodka from 100% maple sap and another from milk sugar."

oddly, I can find no reference to alcohol intentionally made from citrus, instead of flavored by it.

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

Nice. It's on the list. Thanks so much for digging for me.

[alisgray.livejournal.com]

what's a weekend for! :)