Alcoholic drink

See also: Alcohol

One calls alcoholic drink (or alcoholic beverage ) all Boisson (fermented, macerated, distilled or other) containing ethanol or ethanol (recall: the Méthanol is toxic).

Chemistry

Ethanol (CH3CH2OH), the active substance of alcoholic drinks, is almost always produced by alcoholic Fermentation - the metabolic way of the Glucide S of certain species of Levures in the absence of Oxygène.

It had been advanced that the impurities of alcohol (Congénère S) were the cause of the Hangover. However, it is more probable than it is caused by the éthanal, an oxidized intermediate form produced by the liver where alcohol is catabolized.

The alcoholic drinks with a concentration higher than 40% of volume are easily flammable.

In chemistry, the term alcohol indicates the whole of the made up organics in which a hydroxyl group (- O H) is related to a carbon atom, which in its turn is connected to other carbon atoms or hydrogen. Other alcohols such as the Propylene glycol and the Polyol S can be present in a current way in food and drinks, but that does not make them products alcoholic. The Methanol (only one carbon), the Propanol (three carbons), and the Butanol (four carbons) are all of alcohols very running, but none them, from their toxicity, can be consumed.

Manufacture

It is the Fermentation Sucre S (Glucose and Fructose) contained in the Fruit S or the Grain S which produces alcohol. The drink thus obtained can be distilled to give a Eau-de-vie or other Spiritueux. The distillation of the residues of pressing gives the marc .

Legal aspects

Alcohol is regarded as a Stupéfiant: its possession, its consumption or its traffic can be regulated or prohibited. The sorrows incurred by the contraveners can include the firm Prison, or, in certain countries ic Islam, the whip. For example, in Maldives, the tourists in transit after a stay in India or in Sri Lanka see themselves confiscating and putting in instruction the alcohol bottles which they could buy net of tax; they are restored to them when they leave the country.

With the the United States and in Finland, the alcohol sale was prohibited during the Prohibition in the years 1920.

In France, the descendants of the soldiers of Napoleon profited from the Privilege of the home distillers, enabling them to produce their own alcohol. Nevertheless since 1959, this privilege is not transmissible any more by heritage.

The vehicle driving under the influence of an alcoholic state is an infringement in many countries (limit with 0,5  g/l in France and Switzerland in particular).

Payment (the EEC) n° 1576/89 of the Council, the May 29th 1989, laying down the general rules relating to the definition, the designation and the presentation of spirituous drinks.

In particular, it specifies the minimum degrees of alcohol to be able to be delivered to human consumption in the Community. The spirituous drinks enumerated hereafter must present the minimal voluminal alcoholometric title according to:

  • 60 to 70% even more for certain arranged vodkas or others rhums
  • 50 to 55% rum, vodka, artisanal brandy (or not)
  • 40% whiskey/whiskey, pastis
  • 37,5% rum, Rum-Verschnitt, brandy of wine, brandy of grape marc, brandy of fruit marc, dryed grapes brandy, fruit brandy, brandy of cider or pear, brandy of gentian, gin/distilled gin, akvavit/aquavit, vodka, grappa, ouzo, Kornbrand
  • 36% brandy/Weinbrand
  • 35% spirituous drink of cereals/brandy of cereals, anise
  • 32% Korn
  • 30% drink spirituous with the Caraway (except akvavit/aquavit)
  • 25% spirituous drink of fruit
  • 15% anisated spirituous drink (except ouzo, pastis and anise)

In France the bottles are provided with a congée capsule.

Classification of alcohols

In France, according to the article L. 3321-1., the drinks are, for the regulation of their manufacture, their setting on sale and their consumption, divided into five groups:
  • 1er group, drinks without alcohol: mineral or gasified water, fruit juice or of not fermented vegetables or not comprising, following a beginning of fermentation, higher alcohol traces than 1,2 degree, lemonades, syrups, infusions, milk, coffee, the, chocolate;
  • 2ème group, not distilled fermented drinks: wine, beer, cider, pear, hydromel, to which the sweet aperitif wines are joined profiting from the tax mode of the wines, as well as the creams of blackcurrant and fruit juices or fermented vegetables comprising from 1,2 to 3 degrees of alcohol;
  • 3ème group, sweet aperitif wines other than those pertaining to group 2, liqueur wines, wine-based aperitifs and liquors of strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrant or cherries, not titrating more than 18 degrees of pure alcohol;
  • 4ème group, rhums, tafias, alcohols coming from the distillation of the wines, ciders, pears or fruits, and not supporting any addition of gasoline like liquors edulcorated by means of sugar, of glucose or honey at a rate of 400 grams minimum per liter for anisated liquors and of 200 grams minimum per liter for other liquors and not containing more than one half-gram of gasoline per liter;
  • alcoholic 5ème group, all other drinks.

The sale of let us timber alcoholic by the bars, is subjected in France to obtaining a license of category II, III or IV according to the groups of alcohol (S) authorized (S) with the sale by the aforementioned license (see: License II, License III, License IV).

Religious aspect

Alcohol takes part in certain evocations in the masses Catholique S. the wine symbolizes for example the blood of the Christ in the Communion.

However, certain Christian movements , the Adventisme, consider that the alcoholic drinks are bad for the body. They thus disadvise consumption of it, like that of others Narcotique S.

The alcohol consumption is banished Islam currently, although many Muslim populations have and produce still many alcoholic drinks.

Alcohol and health

  • One a long time believed and repeated, wrongly, that “alcohol gives forces”.
  • the alcoholic beverage consumption, as well acute as chronic, can lead to severe disorders. See Alcoholism, Binge drinking.
  • In France, 19% of the people state to consume alcohol the every day. The Ministry for health and solidarity estimates that alcohol is responsible for 40.000 deaths each year in France (figure 2000).
  • a specific risk concerns the newborns of mothers having consumed during their Grossesse. See Syndrome of fetal alcoholization
  • the moderate alcohol consumption reduces the risk of occurred of cardiovascular diseases as well as secondary mortality to these last. This reduction in the risk was found whatever the type of absorptive alcohol.
  • alcohol creates a dilation of the blood-vessels, which gives a face rosy/red, as well as eyes of the same color, with somebody who consumed much alcohol.
  • Conclusions of International Research Center on Cancer (CIRC): A woman consuming 50g alcohol per day (5 pints of beer, 5 wine glasses) increases her risk to develop a breast cancer by 50%. For 18g/jour (2 glasses) its risk is seen increased by 7%.

Types of alcoholic drinks

The Degré of alcohol in these drinks varies according to the type:

There exist also the Cocktail S, which are mixtures of various alcohols and whose alcoholic strength can vary according to the rates of the various products used.

See too

  • Méfaits of alcohol
  • Société of alcohols of Quebec
  • LCBO
  • One calls commonly Cadavre S the empty alcohol bottles which remain after a festival.

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