Barsmarts - Module One

Front 1

When did alcohol have its genesis?

Back 1

By 4,000 BC alcohol was being consumed in the Fertile Crescent (now known as the middle east), but an exact time is not known.

Front 2

How was alcohol first created?

Back 2

Alcohol was first created as a method for farmers to preserve the nutritional value of grains (rather then allowing them to spoil) by brewing them into the worlds first beers.

Front 3

Was the creation of alcohol an accident?

Back 3

Even 6,000 years ago, in order to create alcohol from wet grains and water a brewer still had to observe cleanliness and boil the grains along with any additional ingredients such as hop flowers or tree bark to keep the brew from spoiling.

Front 4

What was the original purpose of alcohol?

Back 4

Alcohol served as a preservative. It's purpose was to keep life-sustaining materials from spoiling. Alchohol inhibits oxygenation that destroys many aromas, flavors, nutrients and vitamins in foods and medacines.

Front 5

What are some of alcohol's medicinal uses?

Back 5

Alcohol can be used topically to destroy harmful bacteria and pathogens. It can do the same internally in the case of someone ingesting spoiled food as a dosage of alcohol can help kill the dangerous bacteria ingested.

Front 6

What is one the possible reasons the consumption of water and wine are so frequently mentioned in Jedo-Christian Culture?

Back 6

Adding wine to water was not for the purposes of diluting the potency of wine. Alcohol was used to purify unsafe water, often teeming with bacteria and pathogens, for consumption.

Front 7

How does alcohol purify water?

Back 7

If you mix equal parts water with wine (of at least 12% APV) and wait at least 30 minutes the alcohol will kill the pathogens and bacteria found in the water making in drinkable. This a very needed practice in big cities and towns where healthy drinking water was not available making this a frequent practice.

Front 8

FUN FACT: Where were straws invented?

Back 8

Straws where invented by Sumerians (not Egyptians as Bar Smarts says) to assist in consuming their particularly strong brews.

The first known drinking straw was discovered in a Sumerian tomb dated 3,000 B.C.E.

Front 9

What are hops?

Back 9

Hops are one of the most common ingredients used in brewing today. Hops are flowers used in brewing. They add a bitter taste and aroma that helps balance the sweetness from malt creating a more complex and balance flavor. Additionally, the act as an antiseptic which helps prevent the beer from spoiling.

Front 10

How does alcohol content effect different alcoholic beverages?

Back 10

The higher the APV the more impervious the brew or spirit is to different bacteria, the elements, and time.

Front 11

What is distillation?

Back 11

Distillation is the process by which you separate alcohol from water. To do this, you apply intense heat to an alcohol and water compound. The alcohol then separates to alcohol vapor which is then collected, separated and cooled back down to a liquid creating a more pure spirit with a much higher APV.

Front 12

What is the science behind distillation?

Back 12

Alcohol is a lighter substance then water. Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, while alcohol begins to boils at 173 degrees Fahrenheit. So, if you heat an alcohol mixture such as beer or wine to about 173 degrees Fahrenheit the alcohol will begin to vaporize while the water content will stay in a liquid form.

Front 13

What are the basic steps of distillation?

Back 13

HEAT-VAPOR-COOLING-CONDENSATION-LIQUID.

The trick being to collect the alcohol vapor and cool it in a separate vessel then the water content.

Front 14

What are all spirits made from?

Back 14

Beer or wine.

Front 15

How does fermentation work?

Back 15

Fermentation is made possible by yeast. Yeast are small microorganisms that (to over simplify), consume sugars and expel alcohol, heat, and CO2.

Front 16

How are beers fermented?

Back 16

Beers are fermented by taking recently sprouted grains made into a soup with water and then boiled the yeasts all around us will begin to do it's work fermenting the mixture into beer.

Front 17

How is wine fermented?

Back 17

Wine is even simpler. Yeasts actually live on the grapes. The first wines where as simply as as crushing a few berries in a jar and allowing the yeast to do it's work. Give it a few days and you have the beginnings of wine.

Front 18

How did the term "spirits" originate?

Back 18

Aristotle hinted at the presence of alcohol in 327 B.C., when he referred to drinking a distilled wine or beer putting "spirits" into the drinker. Aristotle noted that these spirits left the body causing him to derive the term saying that they where temporary spirits visiting the body (referring to the time it takes one's body to process the alcohol.)

Front 19

What where the basic concept of stills throughout most of history?

Back 19

The basic concept included a fireproof pot (a.k.a. the kettle) which carried "the wash" or the fermented beverage that was too be distilled. Atop the kettle was a tight fitting cover designed to capture the alcohol vapor, give it enough time to cool and condense back into a liquid form while drawing it off into another vat.

Front 20

What are the three different basic forms of pot stills?

Back 20

The Indian, Middle Eastern, and Chinese pot stills.

Front 21

What was the Indian Pot Still?

Back 21

The Indian pot still is the oldest discovered still with archeological finds dating back to between 500 - 300 B.C.E, including discoveries of facilities that included large numbers of these set-up hinting at the first commercial scale distillation occurring in the centuries just before Christ.

Front 22

How did the Indian Pot Still work?

Back 22

Also known as the "elephant's head," it takes the form of a large pottery bulb with an opening in the bottom to fit over the mouth of the pot, and a downward-slanting tube sticking out of one side. The vapor passes up into the head and begins to cool then moves through the tube into another pot, this one most likely cooled by running water, and condenses back into liquid.

Front 23

What is the Middle Eastern Style Pot Still?

Back 23

This style of pot still is made similar to the Indian style, except that the head is big enough to allow the alcohol vapor to cool inside the head, which is then collected by an internal gutter and driven off to a separate container by way of a tube. This style was first documented in the first century A.D. among the Greeks living in Egypt.

Front 24

What was distillation used for by Arabs?

Back 24

The Middle Eastern style still was adopted by the Arabs after their conquest of Egypt in the 600s, although it was not used for the distilling of spirits as this was against the Qur'an. Nevertheless, prominent Muslim scholars Geber and Avicenna did much experimenting with distillation for medicinal purposes and wrote about it frequently in their books.

Front 25

What is the Chinese style pot still?

Back 25

The latest of the three styles of pot stills, the Chinese pot still, dates back to fifth century. In it's simplest form, it's head is a wok shaped bowl which is then filled with cold water causing condensation at the underside of the bowl, which the drips down to the lowest point of the bowl dripping down to a container usually in the pot or in then driven out of the pot into another container.

Front 26

Around what time did Europe begin using distillation?

Back 26

Around 1100s, distillation began in Europe. Although we aren't sure which still they where using it was by the 1300s that Europe was using both the Middle Eastern style pot still and an adaption that brought it closer to the Indian style.

Front 27

What was the last major pot still style to be invented?

Back 27

The all copper still, was a pot, with a bulbous head that was then connected to an outflow tube (called the "swan's neck"), that was then attached to a water-cooled copper coil to condense the vapor. This style was invented by Italians although Gebar made the first pot still out of copper. This copper still is the most common still used today although by the 1500s the Chinese style had caught on in the Philippines, and in specific areas are still used in parts of the region.

Front 28

What is column distillation (aka the patent still, column still, continuous still)?

Back 28

In the 1800s, during the time of the Industrial Revolution, distillers began looking at more efficient and less labor intensive alternatives to the pot still. With the pot still, spirit was made in batch quantities and could only be distilling to 60 - 80 APV while having to be cleaned out each time between batches.Wha