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

[txanne.livejournal.com]

I think wormwood is just a flavoring (with added fun pharmaceuticals).

Does lassi ever get alcoholic?

[jadiana.livejournal.com]

Figs, dates and Pomegranates.

[bchbum-98.livejournal.com]

Grand Marnier is made with orange peels. Also, "white lightening" production in prison used to be from oranges, although nowadays prisoners aren't allowed to possess fruit, I believe.

[zinzinzinnia.livejournal.com]

Anything with sugar/carbohydrates can be fermented into alcohol.

[creidylad.livejournal.com]

elderberries and dandelions both make wine.

Also...

[creidylad.livejournal.com]

From pears people also make pear cider which I think is different from perry, and apples can be used to make applejack, which is just gross.

It turns out people really do make lilac wine from lilacs.

Nearly all fruits are used to make wines, come to think of it. I've seen/had peach wine, apple wine and plum wine (as opposed to the brandy, which is derived from plum wine, I guess.)

Per the wikipedia, raki is sometimes made from the fig as well as other fruits as well as from molasses.

Tej is also made from honey.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Calvados is made from apples, isn't it?

K.

[groomporter.livejournal.com]

Of course there's the various "beers" made by so-called "primitive" cultures or indigenous peoples. Is there an anthropologist in the house? I can't remember any examples of what they are made from. (I have visions of an old National Geographic special where the natives spit into the mixture before leaving it to ferment.)

[groomporter.livejournal.com]

Speaking of ingenuity, my father was on a submarine tender in WWII supplying and repairing subs in the So. Pacific. The had a water purification plant on board for supplying distilled water for the batteried on the subs. Dad said the crew operating it could run 5 gallons of medical alcohol (ethanol not denatured, since it was war time) through it and make it drinkable without the officers finding out.

[tesla-aldrich.livejournal.com]

"Sugar" for rum should probably read "cane juice" or molasses" instead.

[tesla-aldrich.livejournal.com]

Browsing around I find that cassava/manioc has been made into three different alcoholic beverages: cauim (still extant), pajuaru, and caxiri (which was also drunk unfermented)

Sool

[madtruk.livejournal.com]

Moon Bae "Sool" is a distilled alcohol made from millet and sorghum using a special method that has been handed down from generation to generation. It's smooth taste improves with age and it is said to be hangover-free.

I also found a variation using Horse's Milk, but couldn't determine if it was a flavoring or in the distillation process itself.

I'm not sure why I started looking at Korean alcohol, but what the hey.

[alisgray.livejournal.com]

Russians drink kvass, which is fermented from black bread. Mildly alcoholic. It was sold on street corner kisoks back in the USSR. Wikipedia says that birch sap was used. I hadn't heard that before.

Sake is fermented from rice.

[alisgray.livejournal.com]

The mares' milk alcohol is Kumis.