 The Liquor Portal 
Liquor (also hard liquor, hard alcohol, spirit, or distilled drink) is an alcoholic drink produced by distillation of grains, fruit, or vegetables that have already gone through alcoholic fermentation. The distillation process purifies the liquid and removes diluting components like water, for the purpose of increasing its proportion of alcohol content (commonly expressed as alcohol by volume, ABV). As liquors contain significantly more alcohol, they are considered "harder" – in North America, the term hard liquor is used to distinguish distilled alcoholic drinks from non-distilled ones.
As examples, this term does not include beverages such as beer, wine, mead, sake, or cider, as they are fermented but not distilled. These all have a relatively low alcohol content, typically less than 15%. Brandy is a liquor produced by the distillation of wine, and has an ABV of over 35%. Other examples of liquors include vodka, baijiu, gin, rum, tequila, mezcal, and whisky. (Also see list of alcoholic drinks, and liquors by national origin.)
| Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane byproducts, such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak barrels. Rums are produced in various grades. Light rums are commonly used in cocktails, whereas "golden" and "dark" rums were typically consumed straight or neat, on the rocks, or used for cooking, but are now commonly consumed with mixers. Premium rums are also available, made to be consumed either straight or iced.
The grades and variations used to describe rum depend on the location where a rum was produced. Despite these variations, the following terms are frequently used to describe various types of rum: dark, light, gold, flavored, overproof, spiced and premium.
The majority of the world's rum production occurs in the Caribbean and Latin America. Rum plays a part in the culture of most islands of the West Indies as well as in The Maritimes and Newfoundland. Rum is also produced in Austria, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii, the Philippines, India, Réunion, Mauritius, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, the United States and Canada.
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| Doctor James C. "Jim" Crow (1789-1856) was the Scottish creator of the sour mash process for creating bourbon whiskey. Dr. Crow, a Scottish chemist-physician, graduated in medicine from Edinburgh University in 1822. He moved from Philadelphia to Kentucky in 1823 and began working for a distiller, bringing his scientific and medical training to the process. Crow began experimenting in 1835 at his Glenn's Creek Distillery in Woodford County Kentucky with a saccharimeter to measure sugar content. This litmus paper test to determine the mash acidity resulted in Crow's decision to age his "Old Crow" whiskey before selling it. Dr. Jason S. Amburgey, an employee of the same distillery as Dr. Crow, is also sometimes credited with creating the sour mash process.
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[nil edit] Selected general articles
FRÏS (pronounced "FREES") is a vodka brand owned by The Sazerac Company. Read more...
 A view of the rear of Diageo's Clynelish Distillery near Brora is a distillery near Brora, Sutherland in the Highlands of Scotland. The original distillery was built in 1819 , adjacent to the new Clynelish. The original Clynelish closed in the year 1968 as the new Clynelish distillery had been built in 1967. They ran side by side as Clynelish A and Clynelish B, shortly after closing the original site due to not being able to keep both running financially. The original distillery was reopened in May 1969 and until July 1983 and renamed Brora Distillery, producing a heavily peated whisky to supply for blending; this was done to cover a shortage of Islay whisky caused by a drought on the island (while taking the Manager's Tour of the distillery in September 2015, I was told that this was due to the Caol Ila distillery being re-built from scratch, and therefore to compensate the lack of Caol Ila for blending during a couple of years).Brora whisky is now one of the most rare and desired whiskies in the world, costing around one thousand pounds a bottle. Read more...
The White Horse Distillery was an Irish whiskey distillery that operated in Mountrath, County Laois, Ireland. The distillery was named after a local river, the White Horse. The river itself is said to be so named due to the colour of the water that ran in the river as a result of the operations of a distillery in the centre of the town. Now long gone, according to local folklore, the distillery or the brand were sold to Scottish distillers in the 1800s. If true, this would mark an interesting change of fortunes in the distilling industries of the two countries, as similarly a named, more enduring White Horse whiskey brand was established in Scotland in 1861. Read more...
 Belle of Nelson poster for their sour mash whiskey is a process used in the distilling industry that uses material from an older batch of mash to start the fermentation of a new batch, analogous to the making of sourdough bread with a starter. The term can also be used as the name of the type of mash used in that process, and a Bourbon made using this process can be referred to as a sour mash Bourbon. Despite a common misconception, sour mash does not refer to the flavor of the Bourbon. In the sour mash process, the mash – a mixture of grain, malt and water – is conditioned with some amount of spent mash (previously fermented mash that still contains live yeast). Spent mash is also known as spent beer, distillers' spent grain, stillage, and slop or feed mash because it is also used as animal feed. The acid introduced by the sour mash controls the growth of bacteria that could taint the Bourbon and creates a proper pH balance for the yeast to work. An established and active strain of live yeast is introduced into the mash to be fermented. By using an established and known fermented "sour", this fermentation process controls the introduction and growth of foreign bacteria and yeasts that could damage the Bourbon and improves the consistency and quality of the liquor, ensuring every bottle tastes as similar as possible. Read more...
 Pagoda at the Linkwood distillery The Linkwood Distillery is a whisky distillery in Elgin, in the Speyside region of Scotland. It is owned by the drinks giant Diageo. The distillery was built in 1821 by Peter Brown with two stills, and started production in 1825 with a capacity of 4,500 litres per year. The distillery was operated by James Walker until Browns death in 1868, after which the distillery got under control of his son, William Brown. Between 1872 and 1873 William Brown, the son of Peter Brown designed and built a new distillery with help of architect Methven, replacing the old one on the same location. The new distillery had a capacity of 227,000 liters per year. After William Browns death, the Linkwood-Glenlivet company was created by Browns family in 1898 and brought to the stock exchange. The distillery was then further extended to a capacity of 454,000 liters per year. Read more...
Marlfield Distillery was an Irish whiskey distillery which operated in the village of Marlfield, just outside of Clonmel, Ireland between approximately 1817 and 1856. The majority of the distillery buildings have since been demolished, aside from those adjacent to Distillery House, which is still extant. Read more...
A Bloody Mary is a cocktail containing vodka, tomato juice, and combinations of other spices and flavorings including Worcestershire sauce, hot sauces, garlic, herbs, horseradish, celery, olives, salt, black pepper, lemon juice, lime juice and/or celery salt. In the United States, it is usually consumed in the morning or early afternoon, and is popular as a hangover cure. The Bloody Mary was invented in the 1920s or 1930s; there are various theories as to the origin of the drink, as well as the origin of its name. It has many variants, most notably the Red Snapper, the Virgin Mary, the Caesar, and the michelada. Read more...
Chill filtering is a method in whisky making for removing residue. In chill filtering, whisky is cooled to between -10° and 4° Celsius (often roughly 0°) and passed through a fine adsorption filter. This is done mostly for cosmetic reasons – to remove cloudiness – rather than to improve taste or consistency. Read more...
The Tullamore Distillery is an Irish whiskey distillery located in Tullamore, County Offaly, Ireland. Built by William Grant & Sons at a cost of €35 million, the distillery officially opened in September 2014. It is the first new distillery to have been constructed on a greenfield site in Ireland in over 100 years, and the first to operate in Tullamore since 1954. Construction of the distillery is proceeding on a phased basis. When first constructed, the distillery initially had the capacity to produce up to 1.8 million litres of pot still and malt whiskey per annum using four pot stills. However, provision has been made for the installation of a further two pot stills in the distillery, which would double this capacity to 3.6 million litres per annum. Following an additional €25 million investment, a grain distillery and bottling plant were added in 2017. The installation of a grain distillery means that the distillery can now produce all three components (pot still, malt, and grain whiskey) of its Tullamore Dew blended whiskey on-site. Read more...
 A glass of Bowmore 12-year-old single malt whisky is malt whisky from a single distillery. Single malts are typically associated with single malt Scotch, though they are also produced in various other countries. Under Scotch Whisky Regulations, a "Single Malt Scotch Whisky" must be made exclusively from malted barley (although the addition of E150A caramel colouring is allowed), must be distilled using pot stills at a single distillery, and must be aged for at least three years in oak casks of a capacity not exceeding 700 litres (150 imperial gallons; 180 US gallons). While the Scotch model is usually copied internationally, these constraints may not apply to whisky marketed as "single malt" that is produced elsewhere. For example, there is no definition of the term "single" with relation to whisky in the law of the United States, and some American whiskey advertised as "single malt whisky" is produced from malted rye rather than malted barley. Read more...
Dalwhinnie Distillery, situated in the Highland village of Dalwhinnie in Scotland, produces Single Malt Scotch Whisky. Dalwhinnie refers to its own whisky as a Highland Whisky but as it is located within both the Highland and Speyside region it can legally be called either a Highland or Speyside whisky. It is owned by Diageo. Read more...
Knockando distillery is a single malt Scotch whisky distillery, located in Knockando, Moray, in the Strathspey whisky-producing area of Scotland. Knockando Distillery was built by John Tytler Thomson in 1898, and is named after the village in which it stands. The name derives from Scottish Gaelic Cnoc Cheannachd, meaning "Hill of Commerce". The village is home to a few other small houses and the larger Knockando House, and is surrounded by woods in which there are buzzards, Red Squirrel and Roe Deer. In 1904 the distillery was purchased by W & A Gilbey, a gin producer from London, becoming part of J&B / Grand Metropolitan in the 1960s and 1970s, and is now owned by multinational firm Diageo. Read more...
Jameson ( ) is a blended Irish whiskey produced by the Irish Distillers subsidiary of Pernod Ricard. The John Jameson and Son Irish Whiskey company was formally established in 1810 when John Jameson and his son (also John Jameson) took ownership of the Bow Street Distillery in Dublin which had originally been built by his wife's cousins the Steins in 1780. Jameson was a Scottish lawyer from Alloa in Clackmannanshire who had married Margaret Haig, a sister of the Haig brothers who owned the Haig distilleries. Margaret Haig was a first cousin of the Steins, a Scottish distilling family, also from Clackmannanshire, with significant distilling interests in Scotland and Dublin. On his marriage to Margaret Haig in 1786, John Jameson moved with his new wife to Dublin to manage the Stein's Bow Street Distillery (which had been established in 1780) for Margaret's Stein uncle. This explains the use of the year 1780 in Jameson marketing as the Bow Street Distillery was where Jameson Irish Whiskey was born. Portraits of John and Margaret Jameson by Sir Henry Raeburn are in the collection of the National Gallery of Ireland. Read more...
 Dundalk Distillery c. 1890 The Dundalk Distillery was an Irish whiskey distillery that operated in Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland between 1708 and 1926. It is thought to have been one of the old registered distilleries in Ireland. Two of the distillery buildings, the grain store and maltings, still exist and now house the County Museum and Dundalk Library. The distillery was used as a navigation point by seamen due to its two large chimney stacks, one of which was the largest in Ireland when it was built in 1817. Read more...
Willett Distillery, also known as Kentucky Bourbon Distillers (KBD), Ltd., is a private family-owned and -operated company that produces various brands of bourbon and rye whiskey. Over the years the company has bottled Bourbon and Rye Whiskeys that range from 2 years of aging maturity all the way up to 28 years. The company is located on the outskirts of Bardstown, Kentucky on a site that began as a farm owned by the family. Primarily operating as a relatively large independent bottling company, KBD has been called "the big daddy of bourbon and rye bottling". The company has remained under family ownership and operation at the same location since it was created in 1936 as the Willett Distilling Company. The company started doing business as KBD in the mid-1980s. As of October 2011, the company employed about 14 people – four family members and 8–12 line workers. In 2012, it began promoting the Willett name again as its primary business name. Read more...
Guinness ( ) is an Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in 1759. It is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide, brewed in almost 50 countries and available in over 120. Sales in 2011 amounted to 850 million litres (220,000,000 US gal). Guinness' 'burnt' flavour derives from malted barley and roasted unmalted barley, a relatively modern development, not becoming part of the grist until the mid-20th century. For many years, a portion of aged brew was blended with freshly brewed beer to give a sharp lactic acid flavour. Although Guinness's palate still features a characteristic "tang", the company has refused to confirm whether this type of blending still occurs. The draught beer's thick, creamy head comes from mixing the beer with nitrogen and carbon dioxide. It is popular with the Irish, both in Ireland and abroad. In spite of declining consumption since 2001, it is still the best-selling alcoholic drink in Ireland where Guinness & Co. Brewery makes almost €2 billion worth of the beverage annually. Read more...
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