217 Fun Facts About Alcohol

What is the primary alcohol found in alcoholic beverages?

Ethanol is a central nervous system depressant and, after caffeine, the second most consumed drug on the planet; methanol and isopropanol are toxic.

Which process turns sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide in every alcoholic drink?

Fermentation is the step every alcoholic drink shares: yeast consumes sugars and gives off ethanol and carbon dioxide. Distillation only concentrates alcohol that fermentation has already made.

Most standard beers fall into which range of alcohol by volume, a fraction of wine's strength?

4-6% is typical for beer, against 12-15% for most wines; stronger beers exist, but anything over 10% is a specialty rather than a standard.

Which clear spirit is traditionally made from fermented potatoes or grains?

Vodka is a distilled beverage composed primarily of water and ethanol, often produced by the distillation of fermented grains or potatoes.

What US term equals twice the percentage of alcohol by volume in a distilled spirit?

An 80-proof spirit is 40% ABV. The US system dates from around 1848; the older British system was based on whether gunpowder soaked in the spirit would still ignite.

What are the fermentation byproducts, other than ethanol, that shape a drink's taste and can worsen hangovers?

Congeners are biologically active chemicals, other than ethanol, produced during fermentation and aging. They contribute significantly to the flavor, aroma, and color of alcoholic beverages and are thought to exacerbate hangover symptoms.

Which enzyme in the liver is primarily responsible for breaking down alcohol (ethanol) into acetaldehyde?

The liver is the main organ for alcohol metabolism, where the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) converts ethanol into acetaldehyde, a toxic compound.

What cocktail technique gently presses herbs or fruit in a glass to extract their flavours and oils?

The muddler works like a small pestle; the Mojito and the Old Fashioned both start with it.

Which of these is a key ingredient in a classic Manhattan cocktail?

A Manhattan is whiskey (traditionally rye), sweet vermouth and Angostura bitters, stirred and garnished with a cherry; gin, white rum and tequila have no place in it.

What refreshing cocktail typically combines white rum, lime juice, fresh mint, sugar, and soda water?

The Mojito is Cuba's signature highball of white rum, lime, mint, sugar and soda water, made famous at Havana's La Bodeguita del Medio.

Which cocktail traditionally features tequila, lime juice, and an orange-flavored liqueur?

A Margarita is a popular tequila-based cocktail made with tequila, orange liqueur (like Cointreau or Triple Sec), and lime juice. It is often served with salt on the rim.

Which New Orleans cocktail combines rye or cognac, Peychaud's Bitters, sugar and an absinthe rinse?

The Sazerac is New Orleans' signature: the glass gets an absinthe (or local Herbsaint) rinse with the excess discarded, then rye or cognac, sugar and Peychaud's Bitters.

Which process turns a fermented liquid into a higher-proof spirit by heating it so the alcohol boils off first?

Distillation works because alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water, so its vapour comes off first and is condensed; nothing chemical changes, it is just separation.

Port, Sherry and Madeira belong to which wine category, strengthened with a distilled spirit?

Fortified wines get a dose of grape spirit: added mid-fermentation it leaves Port sweet, added afterwards it keeps Fino sherry dry, and the extra strength originally helped wine survive long sea voyages.

Which type of beer uses top-fermenting yeast at warmer temperatures, giving fruity flavors?

Ale yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, clumps and rises to the surface at 15-25 °C, throwing off fruity esters; lager yeast works cold and sinks.

What is the base ingredient for rum?

Rum is distilled from sugarcane: most of it from molasses left over after sugar refining, while rhum agricole from Martinique uses fresh-pressed cane juice.

Sake, brewed from polished rice with koji mould, is the traditional drink of which country?

Japan's sake is brewed more like beer than wine: koji mould turns the rice starch to sugar before yeast ferments it, though 'rice wine' is the nickname.

What type of grape is primarily used to produce true Champagne?

Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, both black grapes, make up the rest of most blends; a Champagne made only from Chardonnay is labelled blanc de blancs.

Which juniper-flavoured spirit originated in the Netherlands and became widely popular in England?

The Dutch spirit jenever crossed to England and was shortened to 'gin'; the 18th-century 'Gin Craze' followed.

What is the traditional base ingredient for Tequila?

Blue Agave, Agave tequilana, takes around seven years to mature before its piña is harvested and cooked; mezcal can use many other agaves.

Which of these cocktails typically includes vodka, tomato juice, and various spices and flavorings?

The Bloody Mary is vodka and tomato juice seasoned with Worcestershire, Tabasco, salt and pepper; the Virgin Mary drops the vodka and Canada's Bloody Caesar swaps in clamato juice.

What is the wine steward of a fine restaurant called?

The French title originally meant a court official in charge of transporting supplies; the Court of Master Sommeliers has awarded its top diploma to only a few hundred people.

The earliest evidence of winemaking, from around 6000 BCE, was found in which present-day country?

Georgia holds the oldest evidence: 8,000-year-old clay jars from Gadachrili Gora, near Tbilisi, carried residues of grape wine, and the country's buried-qvevri winemaking is on UNESCO's heritage list.

What is the general term for alcoholic beverages that have been distilled, such as whiskey, rum, or gin?

Distillation concentrates the alcohol of an already-fermented base; liqueurs are spirits that have then been sweetened and flavoured.

Which of these spirits is typically aged in wooden barrels, giving it color and flavor?

Charred white oak is the usual cask; casks that previously held port, rum or sherry are also used to add colour and flavour.

Besides whiskey and sugar, which ingredient is muddled into an Old Fashioned?

The recipe matches the very first printed definition of a 'cocktail', from an 1806 New York newspaper: spirits, bitters, water and sugar.

What French term sums up the soil, climate and topography that shape a wine?

Terroir, from terre ('land'), covers the soil, climate and aspect of a site; the idea is applied well beyond wine, to cheese, coffee, chocolate and single malt whisky.

Which anise-flavoured spirit, Greece's national drink, turns milky when water is added?

Ouzo is Greece's anise spirit; it turns milky white with water because anethole, the anise oil, dissolves in alcohol but not in water, an effect called the louche.

What term describes a wine produced from grapes harvested in a single, specific year?

Non-vintage Champagne and most sherry are deliberately blended across years to keep a house style consistent.

The Cuba Libre highball mixes cola and lime with which spirit?

Rum and Coke got its name, 'Free Cuba', from the island's independence slogan; a light rum such as Bacardi is traditional.

A drink shaken or stirred with ice, then strained into a stemmed glass, is served how?

'Up' means shaken or stirred with ice, then strained into a stemmed coupe or martini glass, so the drink arrives chilled but with no ice in it.

Which term describes a single unmixed liquor served unchilled, with no ice, water or mixer?

Neat pours usually go in a rocks glass, snifter or Glencairn glass; high-quality aged whisky is most often drunk this way.

Most liqueurs fall into which alcohol-by-volume range?

Most liqueurs land at 15–30% ABV: they are sweetened, flavoured spirits, so they sit well below the 40% typical of straight spirits, though a few such as green Chartreuse reach 55%.

Which Scotch category must come from malted barley made at one distillery?

Single malt Scotch is made only from malted barley, water and yeast, in pot stills, at one distillery; a blended malt mixes single malts from several distilleries.

Which classic cocktail shakes bourbon with lemon juice, sugar and often egg white?

A Whiskey Sour is bourbon, fresh lemon juice and sugar shaken hard, often with egg white for a silky foam; the New York Sour adds a float of red wine on top.

What is deliberately burning high-proof alcohol on top of a cocktail or shot called?

Overproof rum or 151-proof spirit is the usual fuel; a flaming Sambuca is traditionally served with three coffee beans.

Which region of France is world-renowned for its brandy, typically distilled from grapes?

Cognac must be distilled twice in copper pot stills and aged at least two years in French oak; Ugni Blanc supplies most of the grapes.

What is the primary grain used in the production of Bourbon whiskey?

Bourbon must be at least 51% corn and aged in new charred oak; the rest of the mash bill is usually rye or wheat plus malted barley.

What is the term for a wine that is noticeably lacking in sweetness?

By the EU definition a dry wine has no more than about 4 grams of residual sugar per litre; most reds and many whites qualify.

Which brunch cocktail mixes Champagne with orange juice?

A Mimosa is equal parts Champagne and orange juice, named after the yellow mimosa flower; it is said to date from the Ritz Paris in 1925, and London's Buck's Fizz of 1921 is its near twin.

What type of alcoholic beverage is typically enjoyed before a meal to stimulate the appetite?

Apéritifs are usually dry rather than sweet: vermouth, Campari and dry sparkling wine are classic choices; a digestif comes after the meal.

Which portion of a pot-still run is kept and casked as the spirit?

The hearts, or middle cut, are the clean spirit the stillman keeps; the foreshots that run first and the feints that run last carry methanol and heavy oils and go back for redistillation.

Which cocktail of gin and dry vermouth, garnished with an olive or lemon twist, becomes a Gibson with an onion?

A Martini goes 'dirty' with olive brine and becomes a Gibson with a cocktail onion; the vodka version is often called a vodkatini.

What spirit, distilled from fresh sugarcane juice, goes into the Caipirinha, Brazil's national cocktail?

Cachaça is made from fresh cane juice rather than molasses, which is what separates it from most rum; swap in vodka and the drink is a caipiroska.

Which Italian bitter aperitif joins gin and sweet vermouth in equal parts in a Negroni?

Campari was already in Count Camillo Negroni's Americano around 1919 in Florence; the count asked for gin in place of the soda water, and the Negroni was born.

Which of these whiskeys is customarily triple-distilled for extra smoothness?

Triple distillation is a custom rather than a legal requirement; Irish whiskey also lacks the peat-smoke character of most Scotch, because the malt is not usually dried over peat.

Which wine region is famous for producing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes, especially in France?

Burgundy's vineyards are famously fragmented into tiny climats, and its Grand Cru plots such as Romanée-Conti yield some of the world's most expensive bottles.

How is a drink described when the liquor is poured over ice cubes in the glass, rather than strained?

Rocks drinks go in a short, wide rocks glass, a taller highball or a Collins glass; the ice chills and slowly dilutes the drink.

Which of these liqueurs is coffee-flavored, as used in the Black Russian?

Kahlúa is made in Veracruz, Mexico from rum, sugar and arabica coffee; the Black Russian is simply vodka and Kahlúa over ice.

Which constitutional amendment introduced nationwide Prohibition in the United States?

The Eighteenth Amendment was ratified on January 16, 1919, and the country went dry a year later; the Volstead Act supplied the enforcement rules.

On what date did the Twenty-first Amendment repeal Prohibition?

Utah became the 36th state to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment on December 5, 1933, ending national Prohibition; the Cullen-Harrison Act had already allowed low-alcohol beer that spring.

Which organisation coordinated the US Prohibition campaign after 1900?

The Anti-Saloon League, founded in Ohio in 1893, ran the single-issue pressure campaign that pushed the Eighteenth Amendment through, eclipsing the older Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

The Cullen-Harrison Act of March 1933 legalised beer of what alcohol content by weight?

The Cullen-Harrison Act allowed beer of 3.2% alcohol by weight, about 4% by volume; Franklin Roosevelt signed it on March 22, 1933, reportedly remarking it was a good time for a beer.

Which president's veto of the Volstead Act did Congress override?

Woodrow Wilson vetoed the Volstead Act on October 27, 1919, and Congress overrode him the next day; the act defined 'intoxicating' as anything over 0.5% alcohol.

Who conceived and drafted the Volstead Act for the dry lobby?

Wayne Wheeler, the Anti-Saloon League's chief lobbyist, wrote the bill; it carries the name of Andrew Volstead, the House Judiciary Committee chairman who steered it through.

How many gallons of 'non-intoxicating' cider and juice could a home legally make yearly under Volstead?

The Volstead Act let a household make up to 200 gallons of 'non-intoxicating' cider and fruit juice a year, roughly 1,000 bottles of 750 ml, a loophole home winemakers exploited.

A saloon owner in which Pennsylvania town is credited with the term 'speakeasy' in the 1880s?

Kate Hester ran a saloon in McKeesport, near Pittsburgh, and supposedly told rowdy customers to 'speak easy' so police would not notice her unlicensed bar.

Which of these was another 19th-century American term for an illicit bar?

'Blind tiger' was a 19th-century name for an illicit bar, from the dodge of charging admission to see a 'blind tiger' and handing over a free drink; 'blind pig' was the same trick.

The 1516 Bavarian Reinheitsgebot permitted which three beer ingredients?

The Reinheitsgebot named only water, barley and hops; yeast was not yet understood, though brewers relied on it, and it was written into the rules centuries later.

The Reinheitsgebot was adopted across all of Bavaria on which date?

Duke Wilhelm IV proclaimed the Reinheitsgebot for all of Bavaria at Ingolstadt on 23 April 1516; a Munich-only predecessor law dates from 1487.

How long was the lease Arthur Guinness signed for St. James's Gate in 1759?

The rent was £45 per annum.

The Guinness logo is modelled on which instrument?

Guinness adopted the Trinity College harp, a medieval instrument kept in Trinity College Dublin, in 1862 and trademarked it in 1876; the Irish state's harp faces the other way to avoid the trademark.

Which two companies merged in 1997 to form Diageo?

Guinness plc and Grand Metropolitan merged in December 1997 to create Diageo, the London-based group, bringing together brands such as Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff and Baileys.

Guinness's creamy draught head comes from mixing the beer with carbon dioxide and which gas?

Draught Guinness is pushed with a roughly 75/25 nitrogen–carbon dioxide mix; nitrogen's tiny, poorly soluble bubbles give the tight creamy head, a system Guinness introduced in 1959.

Gerard Adriaan Heineken bought which Amsterdam brewery in 1864 to start his company?

De Hooiberg ('The Haystack'), an Amsterdam brewery trading since 1592, was bought by the 22-year-old Gerard Heineken in 1864; by 1873 he had switched it to Bavarian-style lager.

In 1975 Heineken opened its largest brewery in which Dutch town?

Heineken opened its Zoeterwoude brewery, near Leiden, in 1975 and it became the company's biggest plant; the old Amsterdam brewery closed in 1988 and reopened as the Heineken Experience.

Adolphus Busch and which friend developed Budweiser in 1876?

Carl Conrad, a St. Louis wine and liquor importer, created Budweiser with Adolphus Busch in 1876 after a trip to Bohemia; Conrad held the trademark until his bankruptcy in 1883.

In most of the EU, the American Budweiser must be sold under what name?

Anheuser-Busch sells its beer as 'Bud' in most of the EU because the Czech brewer Budweiser Budvar holds the Budweiser name there, the result of a century-long trademark fight.

The Lincoln County Process used for Jack Daniel's filters whiskey through what?

The Lincoln County Process drips new whiskey through about ten feet of sugar maple charcoal before barrelling; Jack Daniel learned it from Nearest Green, the enslaved distiller who taught him.

Johnnie Walker was founded as a grocery shop in 1820 in which Scottish town?

John Walker opened his grocery in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, in 1820; the town's Hill Street bottling plant, once the world's largest, closed in 2012 when Diageo moved production elsewhere.

In which year did Alexander Walker introduce Johnnie Walker's signature square bottle?

Alexander Walker introduced the square bottle in 1860 so more fitted in a shipping case and fewer broke in transit; the railway then helped the whisky reach merchant ships bound overseas.

Pyotr Smirnov pioneered which vodka technique in the 1870s?

Pyotr Smirnov pioneered charcoal filtration of vodka in the 1870s, which became the Smirnoff signature; he had opened his Moscow distillery in 1864.

Which American liquor distributor revived the Smirnoff brand in the 1930s?

Heublein of Hartford, Connecticut bought the struggling US Smirnoff business from Rudolph Kunett in 1939 and built it into the world's best-selling vodka, helped by the Moscow Mule of the 1940s.

Bacardi Limited moved its headquarters to which city in 1965?

Bacardi moved its headquarters to Hamilton, Bermuda in 1965, five years after Castro's government seized its Cuban assets; the company remained family-owned.

Bacardi's 'Cathedral of Rum', the largest rum distillery in the world, is where?

It makes 85% of Bacardi rum worldwide.

Facundo Bacardí Massó, who founded Bacardi in Cuba in 1862, was born in which Spanish town?

Facundo Bacardí Massó was born in Sitges, on the Catalan coast south of Barcelona, in 1814, and emigrated to Santiago de Cuba in 1830, where he bought a small distillery in 1862.

Which Spanish king granted the Cuervo family a permit to produce tequila commercially in 1795?

King Carlos IV granted José María Guadalupe de Cuervo the first licence to make tequila commercially in 1795, the year Jose Cuervo cites as its founding.

Moët & Chandon was established in 1743 by which Épernay wine trader?

Claude Moët, an Épernay wine trader, founded the house in 1743; his grandson Jean-Remy Moët expanded it, and the Chandon name was added in 1833 after Pierre-Gabriel Chandon married into the family.

Moët & Chandon's best-selling brand, introduced in the 1860s, is called what?

The company took the Chandon name in 1833.

Dom Pérignon was a monk of which religious order?

Dom Pierre Pérignon was a Benedictine monk and cellarer at the abbey of Hautvillers near Épernay from 1668 until his death in 1715; tales wrongly credit him with inventing sparkling Champagne.

Which English scientist documented adding sugar for a second fermentation in 1662, before Dom Pérignon?

Christopher Merret presented a paper to the Royal Society in December 1662 describing how adding sugar and molasses made wine sparkle, six years before Dom Pérignon took up his post at Hautvillers.

Under which 1891 international agreement is the name Champagne legally protected?

Protection was reaffirmed in the Treaty of Versailles after World War I.

Mead flavoured with spices is called what?

Metheglin is mead flavoured with spices or herbs, from Welsh meddyglyn, 'healing liquor'; melomel is mead with fruit, cyser with apples and braggot with malt.

In Norse mythology, the Mead of Poetry was crafted from the blood of whom?

Kvasir, the wisest of beings, was killed by the dwarfs Fjalar and Galar, who mixed his blood with honey to brew the Mead of Poetry; drinking it made anyone a poet or scholar.

Which region has the world's highest per-capita cider consumption?

The British Isles lead the world in cider drinking; the UK alone has accounted for roughly half of global cider consumption and hosts the biggest producers, including Strongbow's owner Heineken.

What is the rough, cloudy farmhouse cider of England's West Country called?

Scrumpy is the West Country's rough farmhouse cider, usually uncarbonated, cloudy and strong; perry is the pear equivalent and lambswool a hot spiced ale with baked apples.

Soju was traditionally made from which grain?

Soju was traditionally distilled from rice; the technique arrived with the Mongols in the 13th century, and from 1965 to 1999 a rice shortage forced makers onto sweet potato and tapioca.

Chinese baijiu is usually distilled from which fermented grain?

Sorghum is the usual base for baijiu; the grain is fermented solid-state with a qu starter and distilled, as at Moutai and Wuliangye, while some southeastern styles use rice.

Pisco was developed by 16th-century Spanish settlers as an alternative to which imported brandy?

Orujo, the grape-skin brandy shipped from Spain, was the costly import that Peru's settlers replaced with pisco, distilled from their own grape wine around the port of Pisco and the Ica valley.

Ouzo has its roots in tsipouro, said to be the work of 14th-century monks where?

Tradition credits 14th-century monks on Mount Athos with first distilling tsipouro from grape pomace; ouzo grew out of it, and its makers settled on distillation in copper pot stills in 1932.

Grappa is made from what leftover of winemaking?

Grappa is distilled from pomace, the skins, seeds and stems left after grapes are pressed; in Italy it is served mainly as a digestivo.

Under EU rules, akvavit's dominant flavour must come from caraway and/or which seed?

EU spirit rules define akvavit by a distillate flavoured with caraway and/or dill seed; the name is a Scandinavian form of the Latin aqua vitae.

Pulque is made by fermenting the sap of which plant?

Pulque is the fermented sap (aguamiel) of the maguey agave, a milky, slightly viscous drink that predates the Spanish conquest and was sacred to the Aztecs.

Modern vermouth was first produced in the 18th century in which Italian city?

Antonio Benedetto Carpano produced the first modern vermouth in Turin in 1786, and the city's fashionable cafés served it round the clock; Martini & Rossi and Cinzano both grew up nearby.

Angostura bitters are produced by the House of Angostura in which country?

The House of Angostura makes the bitters in Laventille, Trinidad and Tobago; Dr Johann Siegert first made them in 1824 in Angostura, Venezuela (renamed Ciudad Bolívar), and they contain no angostura bark.

What is the distinctive feature of the Angostura bitters bottle?

An oversized label that spills over the bottle's shoulders, plus a yellow cap; legend says the brothers who ran the firm each assumed the other had sized it.

What does 'piña colada' literally mean in Spanish?

Piña colada means 'strained pineapple': piña is pineapple and colada comes from colar, to strain; the drink was born in Puerto Rico.

Which hotel claims bartender Ramón 'Monchito' Marrero created the piña colada in 1954?

The Caribe Hilton in San Juan says Ramón 'Monchito' Marrero first mixed the piña colada at its Beachcomber Bar in 1954; the Barrachina restaurant claims a 1963 invention by Ramón Portas Mingot.

Historians credit the daiquiri to which American mining engineer in Cuba around 1898?

Jennings Cox, an American engineer at the iron mines near Daiquirí, east of Santiago de Cuba, mixed rum, lime and sugar around 1898, and the drink took the village's name.

Which cocktail expert popularised citrus vodka in the Cosmopolitan in the mid-1990s?

Dale DeGroff served the Cosmopolitan with Absolut Citron and a flamed orange peel at New York's Rainbow Room in the mid-1990s, the version Sex and the City went on to make famous.

A Moscow mule is properly served in what?

The Moscow Mule of vodka, ginger beer and lime is served in a copper mug, a 1941 Hollywood marketing pairing between Smirnoff's John Martin and Cock 'n' Bull ginger beer's Jack Morgan.

Which rum brand holds a trademark on the Dark 'n' Stormy cocktail?

Gosling's of Bermuda holds a trademark on the Dark 'n' Stormy, one of very few trademarked cocktails; by the registration it must be made with Gosling's Black Seal rum, ginger beer and lime.

Trader Vic claimed to invent the Mai Tai in 1944 at his restaurant in which city?

Victor 'Trader Vic' Bergeron said he mixed the first Mai Tai in 1944 at his Oakland restaurant for friends visiting from Tahiti; rival Donn Beach claimed a 1933 original.

The Mai Tai's name is said to come from a Tahitian word meaning what?

Maita'i is Tahitian for 'good'; the story goes that a Tahitian guest tasting the rum, curaçao, orgeat and lime mix exclaimed 'Maita'i roa ae!', meaning 'very good'.

The Singapore Sling was reputedly created in 1915 by which Raffles Hotel bartender?

Ngiam Tong Boon, a Hainanese bartender at Raffles Hotel's Long Bar, is credited with the Singapore Sling around 1915; the gin, cherry brandy and pineapple drink was first called the gin sling.

Giuseppe Cipriani named his peach-and-Prosecco cocktail after a painting by which artist?

The Bellini's pink glow reminded Giuseppe Cipriani of the robes in Giovanni Bellini's 15th-century Venetian paintings; he launched the drink at Harry's Bar in Venice in 1948.

Aperol was created in 1919 in which Italian city?

The Barbieri brothers launched Aperol in Padua in 1919; the orange bitter aperitivo became the base of the Aperol Spritz, a drink that grew out of Veneto's Habsburg-era habit of diluting wine with soda.

Robert 'Rosebud' Butt claims to have invented the Long Island iced tea in 1972 while working where?

Robert 'Rosebud' Butt says he created the Long Island iced tea at the Oak Beach Inn on Long Island in 1972, as his entry in a contest to invent a drink using triple sec.

Which American bartender is credited with inventing the pisco sour in Lima in the early 1920s?

Victor Vaughen Morris, an American from Utah, opened Morris' Bar in Lima in 1916 and is credited with the pisco sour there in the early 1920s; his bartender Mario Bruiget later added bitters and egg white.

The espresso martini is commonly attributed to which London bartender in the 1980s?

Dick Bradsell reportedly mixed the first espresso martini at London's Soho Brasserie around 1983 for a customer who wanted a drink to wake her up; it was first called the Vodka Espresso.

Alcoholics Anonymous traces its origin to a 1935 meeting in which US state?

Bill Wilson and Dr Bob Smith met in Akron, Ohio, in May 1935 through the Oxford Group; AA dates its founding to June 10, 1935, the day of Dr Bob's last drink.

What is the nickname of the AA text that introduced the Twelve Steps in 1939?

'The Big Book' is the nickname of Alcoholics Anonymous, the 1939 text that set out the Twelve Steps; the name came from the thick paper used in the first printing.

The 1984 National Minimum Drinking Age Act cut what from states allowing under-21 purchases?

States that allowed under-21 purchases stood to lose 10% of their federal highway funds; Ronald Reagan signed the act on July 17, 1984, and every state had complied by 1988.

Which 1987 Supreme Court case upheld the National Minimum Drinking Age Act?

In South Dakota v. Dole (1987) the Supreme Court ruled 7–2 that Congress could tie highway funds to a 21 drinking age; the act bans purchase and public possession, not drinking itself.

The first Oktoberfest in 1810 celebrated whose wedding?

The site was named Theresienwiese, 'Therese's Meadow', the following year.

Oktoberfest is held on which Munich site?

Theresienwiese, 'Therese's Meadow', was named for the bride at the 1810 royal wedding that started the festival; Munich locals call the fair itself 'the Wiesn'.

Beaujolais nouveau is made from which grape?

Beaujolais nouveau is made from Gamay, the grape of the whole Beaujolais region, fermented quickly by carbonic maceration for a light, fruity wine sold within weeks of harvest.

On which day is Beaujolais nouveau released under French law?

Since 1985 French rules have released Beaujolais nouveau at 00:01 on the third Thursday of November; from 1951 until then the date was fixed at 15 November.

The 1976 Judgment of Paris wine tasting was organised by which British wine merchant?

Steven Spurrier, a British wine merchant in Paris, staged the blind tasting on 24 May 1976 to mark the US Bicentennial; Stag's Leap and Chateau Montelena from California beat the French entries.

Which emperor requested the 1855 Bordeaux wine classification for the Exposition Universelle?

Only Château Haut-Brion from Graves made the red list outside the Médoc.

Which is the only red wine estate in the 1855 classification not from the Médoc?

Château Haut-Brion, a first growth from Pessac in Graves, was the only red estate outside the Médoc in the 1855 list; every other classified red was a Médoc château.

Phylloxera is controlled by grafting vines onto rootstock native to which continent?

Rootstocks from North America, such as Vitis riparia and Vitis rupestris, evolved alongside the phylloxera louse and resist it; European Vitis vinifera vines are grafted onto them.

The first written mention of Scotch whisky appears in which 1494 record?

The Exchequer Rolls of Scotland for 1494 record 'eight bolls of malt to Friar John Cor wherewith to make aqua vitae', the earliest written reference to Scotch whisky.

How many categories is Scotch whisky officially divided into?

The 2009 Scotch Whisky Regulations define five categories: single malt, single grain, blended malt, blended grain and blended Scotch whisky.

In what year did the US Congress recognise bourbon as a 'distinctive product of the United States'?

A 1964 concurrent resolution of Congress declared bourbon a 'distinctive product of the United States'; the rules require at least 51% corn and ageing in new charred oak.

Which Baptist minister is often credited (probably wrongly) with inventing bourbon?

Elijah Craig, a Baptist minister in Georgetown, Kentucky, is often credited with inventing bourbon by charring barrels, a legend historians doubt; Heaven Hill's Elijah Craig brand honours him.

The Mexican government declared 'tequila' its intellectual property in which year?

A 2006 norm added the extra añejo class, aged at least three years.

Who was the first to export tequila to the United States?

Don Cenobio Sauza founded his distillery, La Perseverancia, in 1873 and that year sent the first tequila across the border to the United States; he served as municipal president of Tequila in 1884–85.

Which mould is used as kōji to make sake?

Aspergillus oryzae, the kōji mould, breaks rice starch into sugar while yeast ferments it at the same time, the 'multiple parallel fermentation' unique to sake; Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the yeast, not the mould.

Which London brewer was among the first known to export beer to India?

George Hodgson's Bow Brewery, two miles up the River Lea from the East India Docks, shipped heavily hopped pale ale to India from the 1780s, the beer that became known as India pale ale.

Which Trappist beer is brewed at Scourmont Abbey near Belgium's French border?

Chimay is brewed at Scourmont Abbey, founded in 1850 near the French border; its Blue (Grande Réserve), Red and White (Cinq Cents) are among the best-known Trappist beers.

Which Trappist brewery lost its recognition in 2021 because it no longer had monks?

Achel lost the Authentic Trappist Product label in January 2021 after its last two monks moved to Westmalle, leaving none on site; the International Trappist Association was founded in 1997 by eight abbeys.

Which Bavarian brewmaster produced the first batch of Pilsner Urquell in 1842?

Josef Groll, a brewer from Vilshofen in Bavaria, made the first Pilsner Urquell in Plzeň on 5 October 1842, the world's first pale lager; Dreher and Sedlmayr pioneered the Vienna and Munich lager styles.

Which Japanese brewer bought Pilsner Urquell in 2017?

Asahi bought Pilsner Urquell and other Central European brands from AB InBev in 2017, a disposal regulators required for the SABMiller takeover.

Absinthe was created in the late 18th century in which Swiss canton?

Absinthe emerged in the Val-de-Travers, in the canton of Neuchâtel, in the 1790s; legend credits the French physician Pierre Ordinaire, and the Pernod firm was founded just over the border in 1805.

Which compound in absinthe was blamed for its supposed harmful effects?

Thujone, a compound in grand wormwood, was blamed for absinthe's supposed madness-inducing effects; by 1915 the drink was banned in the United States and much of Europe, though the amounts were tiny.

Absinthe's historic nickname 'la fée verte' translates as what?

'La fée verte' means 'the green fairy', a nickname from absinthe's colour, which comes from the herbs steeped after distillation; the spirit is flavoured with grand wormwood, anise and fennel.

The Breathalyzer brand was developed in the 1950s by which Indiana State Police captain?

Robert Borkenstein, an Indiana State Police captain who later became a professor, invented the Breathalyzer in 1954; it measured breath alcohol by the colour change of a potassium dichromate solution.

What was the first practical roadside breath-testing device, developed in 1931?

Rolla Neil Harger of Indiana University developed the Drunkometer in 1931; the subject blew into a balloon and the breath passed through a chemical solution that changed colour with alcohol.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving was founded in 1980 by whom?

Candace Lightner founded MADD in California in 1980 after her 13-year-old daughter Cari was killed by a repeat drunk driver; the group helped push the 1984 national drinking-age law.

Temperance radical Carrie Nation famously attacked taverns with what?

She called herself 'a bulldog running along at the feet of Jesus'.

Which Irish priest founded the Teetotal Abstinence Society in 1838?

Father Theobald Mathew, a Capuchin friar in Cork, founded the Teetotal Abstinence Society in April 1838 and enrolled millions of pledge-takers within two years, launching the Catholic temperance movement.

Which 1791 US tax law sparked an armed rebellion in western Pennsylvania?

The Excise Whiskey Tax of 1791, Alexander Hamilton's levy on domestic spirits, provoked the Whiskey Rebellion among western Pennsylvania farmers, put down by federal militia in 1794; it was repealed in 1802.

Which William Hogarth print shows a drunken mother letting her baby fall down a stairway?

Gin Lane shows the mother dropping her baby, a pawnbroker thriving and a coffin-maker busy, Hogarth's attack on cheap spirits; he paired it with the prosperous, healthy Beer Street.

Which Gin Act finally caused the Gin Craze to diminish?

The Gin Act 1751 forced distillers to sell only to licensed retailers and raised licence fees, and consumption fell sharply; the acts of 1729, 1736 and 1743 had been evaded or repealed.

Bass Brewery's red triangle holds what distinction in Britain?

Bass's red triangle became the United Kingdom's first registered trade mark, number 1, on 1 January 1876 when the Trade Mark Registration Act took effect; William Bass had founded the Burton brewery in 1777.

Which Carlsberg logo was dropped in the 1930s due to Nazi associations?

Carlsberg used the swastika as a good-luck symbol from 1881 and dropped it in the 1930s once the Nazis had adopted it; the brewery's 1901 Elephant Gate bears four in carved stone.

The 'angels' share' of a maturing spirit refers to what?

The angels' share is the volume lost to evaporation through the cask, around 2% a year in Scotland and more in hot climates; the dark fungus Baudoinia compniacensis feeds on the escaping vapours.

Which is the only Tennessee whiskey producer exempt from the Lincoln County Process?

Benjamin Prichard's, in Kelso, Tennessee, was written out of the state's 2013 law that otherwise requires Tennessee whiskey to pass through the maple-charcoal Lincoln County Process.

Which two companies dominate Japanese whisky production and exports?

Suntory and Nikka dominate Japanese whisky; Masataka Taketsuru, who studied distilling in Scotland in 1918–20, built Suntory's first distillery before leaving to found Nikka in 1934.

Masataka Taketsuru chose which Hokkaido site for a distillery because it resembled Scotland?

Taketsuru chose Yoichi, on Hokkaido's west coast, for its cool, damp, Scotland-like climate and opened the distillery in 1934 after leaving Suntory, whose founder had insisted on Yamazaki near Osaka.

The 1608 date on Bushmills labels refers to a licence granted by which king?

King James I granted Sir Thomas Phillips a licence to distil in the area in 1608, the date Bushmills prints on its labels; the Old Bushmills Distillery company itself was registered in 1784.

Absolut Vodka was established in 1879 by which Swede?

Lars Olsson Smith, 'the King of Vodka', launched Absolut Rent Brännvin ('absolutely pure vodka') in 1879 using continuous distillation; the modern Absolut brand followed a century later in 1979.

The Royal Navy's daily rum ration was abolished on Black Tot Day in which year?

Black Tot Day was 31 July 1970, when the Royal Navy issued its last daily rum ration; the Admiralty argued that sailors handling complex machinery should not be drinking on duty.

Mount Gay, the world's oldest commercial rum distillery, is on which island?

Mount Gay sits in the north of Barbados; a deed of 1703 shows the estate already had distilling equipment, which the company cites as making it the oldest commercial rum distillery in the world.

Stella Artois branding features which year, when brewing was established in Leuven?

Stella Artois labels carry 'Anno 1366', the first record of the Den Hoorn brewery in Leuven; Stella itself was launched as a Christmas beer in 1926, 'stella' being Latin for star.

Sébastien Artois purchased the Leuven brewery that bears his name in which year?

Sébastien Artois, the brewery's master brewer from 1708, bought Den Hoorn in 1717 and gave it his name; the Artois family ran it for generations before the 1987 Interbrew merger.

Corona beer was officially introduced in which year?

Corona was launched in 1925, the year Cervecería Modelo opened in Mexico City; the clear bottle and the lime wedge became its trademarks as it grew into Mexico's best-known export beer.

Which brewery, at a former abbey site since at least 1040, claims to be the world's oldest continuously operating?

Weihenstephan, in Freising north of Munich, dates its brewing licence to 1040 and claims to be the world's oldest working brewery; Weltenburg Abbey, brewing since 1050, claims the oldest monastery brewery.

Port wine is produced in which Portuguese valley?

Port comes from the Douro valley in northern Portugal, a demarcated wine region since 1756, and is shipped from Vila Nova de Gaia across the river from Porto; the main red styles are Ruby and Tawny.

Sherry is made primarily from which white grape?

Palomino is the grape behind nearly all dry sherry, grown on the chalky albariza soils around Jerez; the sweet styles use Pedro Ximénez or Moscatel.

Sherry was previously known in English by what name?

'Sack' was the Elizabethan name for sherry and similar fortified wines, probably from the Spanish saca, 'extraction' from the solera; Shakespeare's Falstaff drank sherris sack.

Which grape accounts for about 60% of Tokaji's vineyard area?

Furmint covers roughly 60% of Tokaj's vineyards; its thin skin is prone to botrytis, the 'noble rot' that shrivels the grapes for aszú wine, and Hárslevelű is the main supporting variety.

Grapes for icewine must be picked at what temperature or below?

Canadian rules require icewine grapes to be picked frozen on the vine at −8 °C or colder (Germany's limit is −7 °C), concentrating the sugars in the tiny amount of juice pressed.

Which Canadian province produces over 90% of the country's icewine?

Ontario, chiefly the Niagara Peninsula, makes over 90% of Canadian icewine, with British Columbia's Okanagan most of the rest; Canada as a whole outproduces Germany, the next biggest maker.

The Prosecco grape was officially renamed what in Italy in 2009?

The grape was renamed Glera in 2009 so that 'Prosecco' could be protected as a place name, after the village near Trieste; the DOC and DOCG zones were fixed at the same time.

About 95% of cava is produced in which Catalan area?

Penedès, south-west of Barcelona, makes about 95% of all cava; the town of Sant Sadurní d'Anoia is home to Freixenet and Codorníu, the two biggest houses.

What is the dimple at the bottom of a wine bottle called?

The punt, also called a kick-up, is the indentation moulded into the base; it strengthens the bottle and collects sediment, a relic of glassblowers pushing the seam up so bottles stood flat.

In what year did the US adopt the 750 ml standard wine bottle?

US rules made 750 ml the standard wine bottle from 1 January 1979, replacing the four-fifths-quart 'fifth'; distilled spirits switched to metric sizes a year later.

Which country's cork-oak forests produce about half the world's cork?

Portugal's montado, the cork-oak savannah of the Alentejo, yields about half the world's cork; Corticeira Amorim, the industry's largest producer, is Portuguese.

Once a cork oak reaches about 25, how often is its bark traditionally stripped?

Cork oak bark is stripped every nine years by Portuguese law, starting when the tree is about 25; the first two harvests give rough 'virgin' cork, and only the third is good enough for wine stoppers.

Which Swedish professor developed the 1920s model for estimating blood alcohol content?

Erik Widmark, a professor at Lund, devised the formula that estimates blood alcohol from dose, body weight and a distribution factor, which became the basis of forensic BAC calculation.

'Asian flush' is caused by a deficiency of which enzyme?

An inactive variant of aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) lets acetaldehyde build up, causing the flushing, nausea and racing heart; roughly 30 to 50% of people of Chinese, Japanese and Korean descent carry it.

Acetaldehyde, the first by-product of ethanol, is roughly how much more toxic than alcohol itself?

Acetaldehyde is reckoned 10 to 30 times more toxic than ethanol and is a known carcinogen; it can stay elevated for hours after drinking before enzymes convert it to harmless acetate.

Residue of 13,000-year-old beer was found in a cave near which modern city?

Raqefet Cave, on Mount Carmel near Haifa, held 13,000-year-old traces of wheat and barley brewing in stone mortars; the Natufians may have brewed for ritual feasts honouring the dead.

How much pure ethanol is one UK 'unit' of alcohol?

A UK unit is 10 ml (8 grams) of pure ethanol, so a pint of 4% beer holds about 2.3 units; a US 'standard drink' is larger, at 14 grams.

Which Sumerian goddess of beer is honoured in an ancient hymn that doubles as a recipe?

The Hymn to Ninkasi, from about 1800 BCE, praises the Sumerian beer goddess while walking through the brewing steps, from bappir bread to filtering the beer into a vat.

The oldest known winery, dating to about 4100 BCE, is Areni-1 in which country?

Areni-1 cave in Armenia's Vayots Dzor province held a wine press, fermentation vats and grape seeds from about 4100 BCE, the oldest known winery; older wine residues, but no winery, come from Georgia.

What does the Gaelic 'uisce beatha', the origin of 'whisky', mean?

Uisce beatha means 'water of life', a direct translation of the Latin aqua vitae that medieval monks used for distilled spirits; English speakers wore 'uisce' down to 'whisky'.

The earliest mention of whiskey in Ireland records a chieftain's death from aqua vitae in what year?

The Annals of Clonmacnoise record that in 1405 the chieftain Richard Magranell died 'of a surfeit of aqua vitae' at Christmas, the earliest Irish reference to whiskey.

The word 'vodka' translates literally from Russian as what?

Vodka is the diminutive of voda, 'water', so it literally means 'little water'; the first written 'wódka' appeared in Polish court records in 1405.

Which Polish palatinate's 1405 court records contain the first written mention of 'wódka'?

The 1405 Akta Grodzkie court records of the Palatinate of Sandomierz contain the first written 'wódka'; the Russian word was first recorded in 1533, meaning a medicinal tincture.

The first printed definition of a 'cocktail' appeared in 1806 in which New York publication?

The Balance and Columbian Repository of Hudson, New York, defined a cocktail on 13 May 1806 as spirits, sugar, water and bitters, 'a bittered sling' and 'an excellent electioneering potion'.

Who published the first bartenders' guide with cocktail recipes in 1862?

Jerry Thomas published How to Mix Drinks; or, The Bon Vivant's Companion in 1862, the first bartenders' guide with cocktail recipes; he was famous for the flaming Blue Blazer.

How many herbs and spices are in Jägermeister's recipe?

Jägermeister's secret recipe uses 56 herbs, fruits, roots and spices, including star anise, ginger and saffron; Curt Mast developed it in Wolfenbüttel in 1934.

Baileys Irish Cream was commissioned in the early 1970s by which drinks company?

Gilbeys of Ireland, the Dublin arm of International Distillers & Vintners, commissioned Baileys, which went on sale in 1974 as the first Irish cream liqueur, blending Irish whiskey, cream and cocoa.

Grand Marnier Cordon Rouge blends cognac with the essence of what?

Bitter orange essence gives Grand Marnier its flavour; the cognac base is what separates it from Cointreau, which is built on neutral spirit. Alexandre Marnier-Lapostolle created it in 1880.

Drambuie legend links its recipe to which fugitive sheltered on Skye in 1746?

Drambuie's story says Bonnie Prince Charlie, Prince Charles Edward Stuart, gave the recipe to Captain John MacKinnon of Skye, who sheltered him after Culloden in 1746; the MacKinnons began selling it in 1909.

Hennessy, the world's largest cognac producer, was founded in 1765 by a man of what nationality?

Richard Hennessy, an Irish officer from County Cork who had served in Louis XV's army, founded the house at Cognac in 1765; it grew into the largest cognac producer in the world.

Emmanuel Courvoisier started his wine and spirit company in 1796 in which Parisian suburb?

Napoleon visited Bercy in 1811.

Which French brandy is considered the oldest still produced by distillation?

Armagnac, from Gascony, is the oldest French brandy: Cardinal Vital du Four listed its 40 virtues in 1310, centuries before cognac distillation was recorded.

Calvados is a brandy from Normandy made from which fruits?

Calvados is distilled from cider made of Normandy apples, with perry pears allowed in the blend; the first record of Norman cider distillation dates to 1553.

Which oyster-bar owner first produced his namesake fruit cup in 1823?

James Pimm, who ran an oyster bar in the City of London, began selling his gin-based No. 1 Cup as a digestive in 1823; Diageo acquired the brand in 1997.

Mint juleps are traditionally served in cups made of which metals?

Mint juleps go in silver or pewter cups, held by the base and rim so the outside frosts over; Churchill Downs serves tens of thousands at the Kentucky Derby each May.

Irish coffee is attributed to Joe Sheridan, a chef at which flying-boat terminal?

Joe Sheridan first served Irish coffee in 1943 at the flying-boat terminal at Foynes, on the Shannon estuary, to warm passengers from a turned-back flight; Stanton Delaplane took it to San Francisco's Buena Vista Cafe in 1952.

Under EU regulations, only which two countries may label their product 'Sangria'?

Since 2014 EU rules allow only drinks made in Spain or Portugal to be sold as 'Sangria'; elsewhere in the EU the red-wine-and-fruit punch must be labelled an 'aromatised wine-based drink'.

According to the OED, 'nog' in eggnog was a kind of strong beer brewed where?

The OED traces 'nog' to a strong beer brewed in East Anglia, particularly Norfolk, from the late 17th century; a rival theory links the drink's name to 'noggin', a small wooden mug.

Kvass is traditionally made from a mash of which bread?

Kvass is brewed from stale rye bread steeped in water and fermented briefly with yeast, giving a slightly sour drink of around 1% alcohol, popular across Russia, Ukraine and the Baltics.

Chicha de jora, the most common form of chicha, is a beer made from what?

Chicha de jora is a maize beer: the corn is malted (jora), boiled and fermented, and it was drunk at Inca ceremonies and offered to the gods.

Retsina's flavour comes from the ancient practice of sealing amphorae with which resin?

Retsina gets its flavour from Aleppo pine resin, a survival of the ancient habit of sealing amphorae with it; the style has been made in Greece for at least 2,000 years.

Which Liverpool merchant probably first popularised Marsala wine outside Sicily?

John Woodhouse, a Liverpool merchant, shipped the fortified wine of Marsala to England from 1773 and set up production there in 1796; Ingham and Whitaker followed, and Nelson's fleet was a customer.

Madeira's unique winemaking process oxidises the wine through what?

Madeira is deliberately heated, in estufagem tanks or, for finer wines, in warm canteiro lofts for years; the heat and ageing oxidise it so thoroughly that an opened bottle keeps for months.

Where must a beer be brewed to carry the Authentic Trappist Product label?

The Authentic Trappist Product label, created by the International Trappist Association in 1997, requires beer brewed within the monastery's walls under the monks' supervision, with profits going to the community and charity.

Which Havana bar did Ernest Hemingway make famous for its frozen daiquiris?

El Floridita in Havana, where Constante Ribalaigua perfected the frozen daiquiri, was Hemingway's regular haunt; his sugar-free double measure became known as the Papa Doble.

Roughly what share of Mexico's mezcal comes from Oaxaca, the southern state synonymous with the spirit?

90% of mezcal is Oaxacan; tequila is technically a mezcal made from a single agave species, while mezcal proper can use many.

In which South Korean region are most brands of soju traditionally produced?

Soju is usually drunk neat and ranges from 12.5% to 53% ABV; low-alcohol versions under 20% have been the norm since 2007.

Turkey's anise-flavoured national drink rakı is made by twice-distilling what?

Rakı is made by distilling grape pomace (or raisins) twice and flavouring the second run with aniseed; it turns cloudy with water, earning the nickname 'lion's milk'.

Limoncello is traditionally made from the zest of which lemon variety?

Production centres on the Gulf of Naples, the Amalfi Coast, Sicily and Gargano, and several Amalfi villages and islands claim to have invented it.

Which monastic order has made the herbal liqueur Chartreuse since 1737?

Carthusians still make it from a 1605 manuscript recipe of 130 herbs that only two monks know in full; the colour chartreuse is named after the drink, not the other way round.

Who first commercialised pastis, the anise-flavoured spirit of southern France, in 1932?

Paul Ricard launched 'Ricard, le vrai pastis de Marseille' in 1932, the first drink sold under the pastis name after absinthe's ban; his company merged with rival Pernod in 1975.

The name of the Italian liqueur sambuca derives from a Latin word for which plant?

Sambuca takes its name from the Latin sambucus, the elderberry, though its flavour comes mainly from star anise oils; it is bottled at a minimum 38% alcohol, and clear 'white' sambuca is the most common.

Which French agronomist brought the first Malbec vines to Argentina in the mid-19th century?

Michel Aimé Pouget, a French agronomist hired by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, brought Malbec cuttings to Mendoza in 1853; the grape went on to become Argentina's signature red.

Nebbiolo, the Barolo grape harvested late in October, is thought to take its name from the Italian word for what?

Fog, nebbia, settles over Piedmont's vineyards in the late-October harvest, and the grapes themselves carry a foggy-looking bloom on the skin.

The Sangiovese grape's name comes from a Latin phrase meaning the blood of which god?

Sangiovese is thought to come from sanguis Jovis, 'the blood of Jupiter'; the Sangiovese Grosso clone makes powerful, slow-maturing reds such as Brunello di Montalcino.

The Spanish grape Tempranillo takes its name from the word temprano, meaning what?

Tempranillo means 'little early one': it ripens several weeks earlier than most Spanish red grapes and is the backbone of Rioja and Ribera del Duero.

DNA testing in 2001 matched Zinfandel to Crljenak Kaštelanski, a grape from which country?

The same grape is called Primitivo in Italy and Kratošija in Montenegro; the Croatian discovery was made in Kaštela.

Malbec became less common in Bordeaux after a frost in which year killed 75% of the crop?

The severe frost of February 1956 killed three-quarters of Bordeaux's Malbec and growers replanted with Merlot and Cabernet; Cahors, hit by the same frost, replanted Malbec, which must make up at least 70% of its wines.