| Description | Ethanol (EtOH), also called ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid. It is a versatile solvent, miscible with water and with many organic solvents, including acetic acid, acetone, benzene, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, diethyl ether, ethylene glycol, glycerol, nitromethane, pyridine, and toluene. In chemistry, ethanol is both an essential solvent and a feedstock for the synthesis of other products. It has a long history as a fuel for heat and light, and more recently as a fuel for internal combustion engines. Ethanol can be prepared either by industrial fermentation from yeast or by conversion by from ethylene. Ethanol is the primary alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. It is also used in scents, flavorings, colorings, and medicines.
Alcoholic beverages such as wine, beer, or distilled spirits all use yeast at some stage of their production. Alcoholic beverages vary considerably in ethanol content and in foodstuffs they are produced from. Most alcoholic beverages can be broadly classified as fermented beverages, beverages made by the action of yeast on sugary foodstuffs, or distilled beverages, beverages whose preparation involves concentrating the ethanol in fermented beverages by distillation. The ethanol content of a beverage is usually measured in terms of the volume fraction of ethanol in the beverage, expressed either as a percentage (~5% for beers, ~12% for wines) or in alcoholic proof units (40-80 proof for many spirits). Fermented beverages can be broadly classified by the grains, fruits or vegetables they are fermented from. Beers are made from cereal grains or other starchy materials, wines and ciders from fruit juices, and meads from honey. Distilled beverages are made by distilling fermented beverages. Broad categories of distilled beverages include whiskeys, distilled from fermented cereal grains; brandies, distilled from fermented fruit juices; and rum, distilled from fermented molasses or sugarcane juice. Vodka and similar neutral grain spirits can be distilled from any fermented material (grain or potatoes are most common); these spirits are so thoroughly distilled that no tastes from the particular starting material remain. Numerous other spirits and liqueurs are prepared by infusing flavors from fruits, herbs, and spices into distilled spirits. A traditional example is gin, which is created by infusing juniper berries into a neutral grain alcohol. Alcoholic beverages can also be made into culinary/household vinegar: Wine and cider vinegar are both named for their respective source alcohols, whereas malt vinegar is derived from beer.
Ethanol is also a psychoactive drug and one of the oldest known recreational drugs. Ethanol binds to acetylcholine, GABA, serotonin, and NMDA receptors with depressant effects on the central nervous system. |
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