Distilled alcohol products

The second way to make an alcohol beverage is through distillation.
As with fermentation, yeasts are added to foods to make alcohol from sugars. But yeasts can’t thrive in a place where the concentration of alcohol is higher than 20 percent. To concentrate the alcohol and separate it from the rest of the ingredients in the fermented liquid, distillers pour the fermented liquid into a still, a large vat with a wide column-like tube on top. The still is heated so that the alcohol, which boils at a lower temperature than everything else in the vat, turns to vapor, which rises through the column on top of the still, to be collected in containers where it condenses back into a liquid. This alcohol, called neutral spirits, is the base for the alcohol beverages called spirits or distilled spirits: gin, rum, tequila, whiskey, and vodka. Brandy is a special product, a spirit distilled from wine. Fortified wines such as Port and Sherry are wines with spirits added.