What makes vodka more alcoholic than beer or wine?

Answer 1

Before Vodka becomes Vodka, it's actually about the same alcoholic content as wine. It has been through the same primary/secondary ferment stages that beer and wine go through. At that point, it's at about 16-17%. Wine is around 12-14%. But it isn't Vodka, yet. It has to go through a distillation stage. The mash is heated, and the resulting steam is allowed to escape through copper tubing. Toward the end of the tube, the tubing is bent to form a coil, which is kept cool with a refrigerant. When the steam reaches the coil, alcohol and some of the liquids condense, and drip out the tube. This liquid is collected into vats. Remaining liquids and impurities escape into the air as steam. No formal ceremonies are held mourning their escape. Anyhow, I'm not sure if Vodka is aged at this point. But other spirits (Bourbon, Scotch, etc) are. They are placed in oak barrels and stored for several years. And the Vodka, which was once potatoes and yeast, is now truly Vodka. The distilling process has concentrated the taste and alcohol, which is why Vodka is about 40-50% alcohol (80-100 proof). Btw, if you distill wine, you get brandy (and yes it is stored). If you distill brandy another time or two, you get cognac (also stored). If you distill beer, you will become an outcast of society forever, because nobody would have any beer to drink while they're doing all that distilling.

Answer 2

It's the percentage of alcohol which vodka or any 'hard' liquor carries. At 80 proof, it is 40% alcohol, at 100 proof, 50% alcohol, etc. Beers tend not to be over around 6% alcohol, and wines, anywhere from 7% to 16% alcohol.

Funny thing, though--a couple of large vodka drinks don't affect me like just one 12-oz beer does, or one small serving of 14% alcohol wine does. So much for the 'theory', that 1 hard liquor drink = 1 beer = 1 glass of wine. The effect seems to vary a lot among people.

Answer 3

Beer and wine are fermented. They mix the grain, or fruit or whatever with yeast, seal it in a cask, and basically let it "rot" for a while. The yeast is a living organism, which eats the food, and produces alcohol.

Vodka is fermented too, but then it is distilled. Alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water, so they set up a fancy container called a "still," where they heat the stuff to a particular temperature which boils most of the alcohol, and not much of the water. The fumes are trapped, and cooled, and they trickle down into another container, where there is a good deal of alcohol, because that boils at a low temperature, and not much water, because that was only evaporating a little in the lower temperature.

Answer 4

Clyde P and Rich B are both wrong, sorry. The way vodka is made, something that will produce starch like grains or potatoes is cooked with enzymes to extract the starch and convert it into sugar. Then yeast is added to ferment the liquid. The yeast critters eat the sugar and turn it into alcohol.

If you do that with malted barley, what you get at this step is beer.

In fact, this intermediate step is called beer by vodka makers too.

NOW comes the step that concentrates the alcohol. The beer is put into a tank and heated. Since alcohol vaporizes at a lower temperature than water, it evaporates first (Hey, who knew chemistry class could actually be useful!).

The alcohol vapors go into a tube that has a water jacket on the outside to cool it, and they condense and run off into a holding tank. This is now raw vodka. After filtering, perhaps blending with other batches, and perhaps adjusting the alcohol content with some water, you have vodka ready to ship.

What you start with determines what liquor you get. Start with barley and you get whisky; start with grapes you get brandy. Vodka was traditionally made with potatoes in Eastern Europe, but most of it is made from whatever grain is cheapest these days.

Answer 5

in vodka you start out with a fermented grain or potato mash around 10-15% alcohol (the same as beer or wine) then through distilling you separate the alcohol from the water through evaporation resulting in pure alcohol 70-80% this is then watered down to about 40-50% end result vodka

Answer 6

Beer and Wine are merely fermented. Then there is a process to STOP the fermentation. In some cases, it's chilled, and in others, they add something to stop it.

But Vodka and other liquors are then distilled. This means that water is removed from it, to raise the alcohol content. Distilling is a cooking process, where the distillate drips from a condenser as a much higher alcohol. 151 proof is just over 75 percent.

Answer 7

the % and proof (the amount), look at the bottles, beer and wine have like 3-8% alcohol and vodka and most liqours have like 30-50%

Answer 8

Alcohol by volume is no higher in vodka than the others . It can be higher in certain spirits (vodka included) do to the distilling proccess.

Answer 9

The purity of the alcohol. Wine and beer have more OTHER indgredients that give it their flavour, and water down the alcohol

Answer 10

the difference of ingredients, thus vodka has more alcohol because the ingredients, vodka goes good with sprite