Is Liquor The Same As Alcohol

As we all know, the main component of liquor and alcohol is ethanol, which leads many people to question: Why can't alcohol be drunk?

What is the difference between alcohol and liquor?

The difference between alcohol and Liquor is their different properties: Baijiu is the general name for Chinese alcoholic beverages (except fruit wine and rice wine). Ethanol is a flammable, volatile, colorless and transparent liquid at normal temperatures and pressures.

Different degrees: liquor is diluted alcohol, which has some of the effects of alcohol, but the alcohol content is higher, and the alcohol content is generally more than 75%.

Different uses: Liquor is consumed as a drink, but alcohol is often used in medicine and has an extremely powerful disinfection effect on many bleeding wounds.

From the basic concept and content components, alcohol and wine are definitely two different things.

Alcohol is ethanol, and its molecular formula is CH3CH2OH. In terms of purity and concentration, anhydrous ethanol is the purest, with a concentration of 99.5%;

Liquor is an aqueous solution containing ethanol. Liquor is a very broad concept. In addition to ethanol, there are many other substances in it. Sometimes, even ethanol is not its main component. For example, red wine and rice wine only have about ten degrees. That is to say, its ethanol content is only 12~15%, and the remaining 85~88% is water and other ingredients.

Fermented wine: It also contains other more complex material components such as juice, sugar, and amino acids.

Although the alcohol content of distilled wine is higher, in addition to alcohol, it also contains many other trace ingredients, which account for about 2%.

Secondly, in the process of historical development, the two are also different. Liquor  is an ancient craft product. Liquor has been around since human civilization began in the Pottery Age. Alcohol appeared very late. It was only after the emergence of modern chemistry that people knew the molecular composition and structure of substances and separated it from wine. Aside from ethanol (alcohol), alcohol is one of the important components of wine, but not all of it. The real alcohol industry only began to develop in the late 19th century. China's alcohol industry developed even later. A small number of alcohol plants began to be built in the early 20th century.

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So, alcohol and liquor are very different! Alcohol is flammable and has high alcohol content and is often used for disinfection; liquor is clear and has low alcohol content and is a delicious drink. They differ in nature, use, and degree.

According to process differences: alcohol can be divided into three categories: industrial alcohol, medical alcohol and edible alcohol.

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Specific parameters: The degree of industrial alcohol is as high as over 95% and contains toxic substances;

Industrial alcohol is ethanol obtained by cracking long-chain organic compounds from petroleum under catalysts and high temperatures. Modern industrial technology is then used to reduce the content and purity of ethanol to a level that can be consumed by humans.

The so-called liquid state is: the material is first prepared into a liquid, and then mixed with the liquid culture medium for fermentation.

This kind of alcohol has a high purity, and most of the methanol is effectively separated. It is relatively light and does not have a strong aroma. It can be used to blend Liquor, which is the so-called alcoholic wine.

The other kind: it is pure grain wine obtained by solid-state fermentation. It uses high-quality sorghum and wheat as the main raw materials and is brewed through a one-year complex process. It has a rich aroma, sweet taste, refreshing, smooth, long aftertaste, and can be stored in cellars. and other characteristics, this wine is truly a pure grain wine.

Whether it is industrial alcohol, medicinal alcohol or edible alcohol, the main active ingredient is ethanol. However, since the concentration of alcohol that our bodies can accept is relatively low, alcohol-blended wines also emerged from the perspective of profit and cost savings.

In the 1990s, some unscrupulous merchants mixed industrial alcohol into liquor, causing consumers to be poisoned. The country was abuzz for a while, but there are still criminals making mistakes for profit.

The relevant departments of liquid fermented alcohol blending wine also allow it, and the implementation standard number is GB/T20821. When choosing liquor, consumers can focus on pure grain wine fermented by solid state fermentation. Pure grain brewed wine is the first choice for health!

There are significant differences between wine and alcohol in terms of production processes, raw materials, production costs, production cycles, alcohol output, and effects on the human body. The following is an introduction to the production process:

Production process: Liquor is usually brewed from grain (sorghum, barley, wheat, corn, etc.) through traditional methods such as fermentation and distillation, while alcohol is mainly made through chemical synthesis methods, by blending synthetic alcohol with other ingredients.

Raw materials: The main raw material of pure grain wine is grain, while alcoholic wine uses edible alcohol.

Production cost: The production cost of grain wine is high. Usually five kilograms of grain can only produce one kilogram of wine, which includes labor, equipment, warehousing and logistics costs.

In comparison, the production cost of alcoholic wine is very low. It is mainly blended with alcohol and costs about 1 to 5 yuan per bottle.

Production cycle: The production cycle of grain wine takes one year, especially Maotai-flavor wine, which generally takes 3-5 years (long cellaring time). The production cycle of alcoholic wine is extremely short, and mass production can be completed within 10-15 days. Listed.

Alcohol output: The alcohol output rate of grain wine is very limited. It takes 5 kilograms of grain to produce 1 kilogram of wine, while alcoholic wine can be produced in unlimited quantities as long as enough alcohol is used.

Impact on the human body: Although both wine and alcohol contain ethanol, the authoritative organization of pure grain wine has tested that it has the least impact on the body among the 12 major flavor liquors. Moderate drinking is very beneficial to the health of the body, while alcoholic wine has added other Ingredients, drinking too much will be extremely harmful to the body (the five lungs and six internal organs will be damaged)