There are two main categories of alcoholic beverages: Distilled and non-distilled.

All beverages are made by fermenting sugars with yeast. Distilled beverages, commonly called spirits, are made by separating the majority of the alcohol from the majority of non-alcohol using heat, freezing, or rarely a vacuum.

Of your non-distilled beverages, the common ones are beer, wine, mead, sake, and cider.

Beer is almost exclusively a drink made by fermenting grains and flavored with hops. Most beer falls in the 3-12% ABV range with some specialty outliers.

Wine is fermented fruit, and tends to be a higher ABV than beer, 10-16%.

Mead is essentially wine made with honey. It has a similar ABV to wine, can be served cold or hot mulled with spices.

Sake is like wine made with rice. It also can be served cold or hot like mead.

Cider is more like beer in the sense it is brewed or heated during the process and has a lower ABV, but it is made from fruit, commonly apples.

Distilled beverages have two main categories: Liquor and liqueurs. Liquor is the straight distillate, perhaps watered down, lightly colored or flavored, while a liqueur has a significant amount of sugar added for flavor. Bourbon is a liquor while Jagermeister is a liqueur.

Liquors are usually named based on their main ingredient and where they come from.

Whiskey (or whisky) is probably one of the most popular liquors. Variations include Bourbon, Irish, Scotch, Canadian, and Japanese. All whiskies are made with grain, with Bourbon needing to be at least 51% corn and barrel aged for one year among other requirements. Irish and Scotch whiskies come from Ireland and Scotland respectively. Scotches commonly have a peaty flavor profile. A rye whiskey would be a whiskey made from rye grain. Whiskies are usually made in a pot still or a light reflux which allows for more flavor to come through as more of the non-alcohol ends up in the product. Most are also barrel aged in French or American oak, usually charred.

Vodkas can essentially be made with anything, but common ingredients are grain or potatoes. Vodkas are distilled either multiple times in a pot still, or heavily refluxed to strip the distillate of any coloring flavor. They are the neutral grain spirit before NGSs became a thing (US corn lobby, blah blah blah). Vodkas aren't usually aged and are more popular for mixing cocktails than sipping.

Tequila is a spirit made in Jalisco from the agave plant. It can be aged a long time, or left relatively unaged.

Brandy is an aged spirit made from wine. Cognac is brandy from France.

Gin is a vodka flavored with a blend of spiced either by a gin basket or soaking. The traditional primary flavor is juniper berries.

There are other liquors around the world, but these are the common ones you can find in bars globally.

Liqueurs are much more varried and there are a million of them. Popular ones include schnapps which are usually characterized as being higher in alcohol and flavored with one strong flavor, amaretto which is almond flavor, triple sec which is oranges, and Jager which is primarily anise.

Well, people have written books on the subject.

I guess you would break them down into

Weak Beers 2 - 5% alcohol
Strong Beers 5 - 10% alcohol

Beers are further classified into Pilsner/Lager, light in colour, Bitter or Ale, darker in colour, Stout/Porter black, IPA, bitter in taste and can be a wide range of colours

Cider 4 - 10% alcohol

White Wines 10 - 15% alcohol
Red Wines 10 - 15% alcohol
Rose (Pink) Wines 10 - 15 alcohol

Sparkling Wines 10 -15% alcohol (Champagne, Lambrusco)

Fortified Wines 15 - 25% alcohol

Liquers 20 - 50% alcohol
Spirits 30 - 50% alcohol

Then you can apply ‘sweet’ ‘dry’ and ‘bitter’ to all kinds of alcohol

And finally ‘Cocktails’ which are mixtures of alcoholic drinks and which can be very deceptive as to alcohol content - they have to be drunk with care.

The type of alcohol drunk is dependent on culture and drinking consumption.

Young or inexperienced drinkers will generally prefer sweet, fruity drinks while more experienced drinkers will prefer ‘dry’ (tasting of alcohol) and bitter. The description of ‘dry’ is almost impossible to describe to non-drinker.

The sweetness of a drink often masks alcohol content and young people often get themselves into a drunken state because they don’t know the alcohol content of what they are drinking.

Experienced drinker generally know the alcohol content of what they are drinking (they don’t want the alcohol taste disguised) and are less likely to make that mistake.

What is the purpose of this question? Do you come from a culture that does not drink alcohol regularly? It would help to clarify the question.

Beer:

• Lager: A light, crisp beer fermented at low temperatures.
• Ale: A darker, more robust beer fermented at warmer temperatures.
• Stout/Porter: Dark beers with rich flavors, often with notes of coffee or chocolate.

Wine:

• Red Wine: Made from dark grape varieties, known for its rich flavors.
• White Wine: Made from green or yellowish grapes, typically crisper and lighter.
• Rosé Wine: A blend of red and white winemaking techniques, resulting in a pink hue.
• Sparkling Wine: Carbonated wines like Champagne or Prosecco.

Spirits (Liquor):

• Vodka: A clear, neutral spirit, often distilled from grains or potatoes.
• Whiskey: A distilled spirit made from fermented grain mash; variations include Scotch, Bourbon, and Irish whiskey.
• Rum: Made from sugarcane or molasses, available in light and dark varieties.
• Gin: A spirit flavored with botanicals, primarily juniper berries.
• Tequila: Made from the blue agave plant, primarily produced in Mexico.

Liqueurs:

• Sweetened spirits infused with flavors from fruits, herbs, spices, or other botanicals (e.g., Amaretto, Baileys, Triple Sec).

Cider:

• Fermented beverage made from apple juice, available in both alcoholic and non-alcoholic forms.

Mead:

• An ancient alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey with water, sometimes flavored with fruits or spices.

Beers (including Ale) - lower alcohol beverages brewed from grains

Ciders - Lower alcohol beverages fermented from tree fruits (apples and pears)

Apple or Pear Jack - Cider with the alcohol percentage increased by freezing the water out, and draining the remaining liquid to drink.

Wines - slightly higher alcohol beverages fermented from vine fruits, and some tree fruits (cherries and elderberries) or berries.

Fortified wines - Higher alcohol beverages made by adding distilled spirits to wine.

Brandies - Distilled wines.

Liqueurs - Moderate alcohol beverages made from distilled spirits infused with herbs and spices. Originally developed for medicinal purposes, but now mostly used as mixers for cocktails

Distilled Spirits - High alcohol beverages made by fermenting grains or starch vegetables like potatoes, and usually cut with water to obtain the desired alcohol content.

Unclassified fermented beverages - Things like fermented mare's milk (Kumis) or fermented Agave sap (Pulque).

Alcoholic beverages are of two types.
1. Fermented
2.Distilled

Alcohol prepared by fermentation usually have a low strength i.e. about 15%. While distilled beverages- known as hard liquors have concentration > 15%.

1. Fermented Beverages are
   (i) Beer: The strength may be anywhere from 2% to 12% ABV (alcohol by volume - the most common way to determine the strength of alcohol). Mainly derived from malted barley,wheat, maize (corn) etc. Two main types of beer available are lager (bottom fermentation) and ale (top fermentation).
   
   (ii) Wine: Mostly made from fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. If made from other fruits, then they are named after the fruit from which they are produced (for example, apple wine or elderberry wine). The strength is 9% to 16% ABV. European wines tend to be classified by region (e.g. Bordeaux and Chianti), while non-European wines are classified by grape varieties (e.g. Pinot noir and Merlot).
2. Distilled beverages can be anywhere from 20% to 80% ABV. Produced by distilling ethanol by fermentation of grains, or vegetables. In some cases more ingredients i.e. starch and fruit are used to enhance their flavour. The popular are Whisky, Vodka, Brandy, Tequila, Rum, Gin among others.
   (i) Whiskey – This is made by fermenting a combination of different malted grains - such as barley, Rye, Corn and Wheat. Types are

Scotch whisky: Originally made from malt barley and matured for a minimum 3 years in oak cask and is it from Scotland.
Irish whiskey: Most Irish whiskeys are normally distilled three times and aged in wooden casks for a period of minimum three years.
American (Bourborn ) whiskey: produced in the United States made from corn.
Canadian whiskey: typically lighter and smoother compared to other. Rye is a standard ingredient in Canadian whisky

(ii) Vodka – Made by the distilling fermented substances such as grains, potatoes, or sometimes fruits and/or sugar with an ABV of 40%.

(iii) Rum – Popular in Latin America. Made by fermenting sugar cane juice or by molasses (byproduct of sugarcane).

(iv) Brandy – Made by distillation of wine having an ABV ranging between 30 to 60%

(v) Tequila – Prepared from Blue Agave plant and named after a city in Mexico

(vi) Gin – Type of distilled spirit - made from Juniper Berries. There are four categories in the European Union, with two of those four (Distilled Gin and Compound Gin) being officially recognized in the United States.

The highest-level categories are fermented beverages like beer and wine, and distilled beverages, like liquor. The former are made by allowing yeasts (a type of fungus) to consume sugars and excrete alcohols. There is a theoretical upper bound to the concentration of alcohol that can be produced by this process, since the yeast cannot survive in alcohol and will eventually drown in its own excrement. (Lovely image, right?) In order to produce beverages above, let's say, 15% alcohol by volume, it's necessary to distill some of the water off of a fermented beverage.

Of course, after the actual alcohol has been produced, it's possible to mix things together and add additional flavorings. There is a hybrid category of fortified wines, for instance, which are blends of fermented and distilled beverages. Gin is made by producing a distilled liquor, somewhat similar to vodka, and then infusing it with herbs. Liqueurs are made by adding flavorings and sugars to distilled liquors.

Fermented Beverages

In order to carry out fermentation, we need to feed some kind of carbohydrates to the yeasts. The choice of carbohydrates determines a great deal about the final product.

Beers are produced by fermenting grains -- usually barley, but also wheat, corn, millet, or rice. (The Japanese drink sake, while usually described as "rice wine," is essentially a beer made from rice instead of barley.)

Pictured: Hops, a flower added to beer before fermentation to impart a bitter taste.

For more on beer:

• What are the characteristics of the major types of beer?
• How many different types of craft beer brands exist in the US?
• What's a simple, one-sentence breakdown of the difference between an ale and a lager?

Wines are produced by fermenting fruits; generally, the word "wine" alone means "grape wine," while other wines will be referred to by the name of the fruit -- e.g. "plum wine," "blackberry wine," etc. [1] Grape wines come in two main types, red or white, depending on the type of grape used and whether the skin is left on. Given that more has been written about these kinds of wines than all other beverages put together, I'll refrain from going into detail about this subject.

Pictured: Amarone, a wine made from raisins.

For more on (traditional, grape-based) wines:

• What are the differences between different types of red wines?
  
• What is the best way for a beginner to learn the basics about wine?
  

These are the two most common types of fermented beverages, but there are other types of high-carbohydrate foods that can be fermented. Mead is made by fermenting honey. It was very popular in Western Europe hundreds of years ago, then fell from favor for a long time, but is currently enjoying something of a resurgence. Milk, too, can be fermented, although there is to my knowledge no common English word for this category of beverage; it's generally called something like koumiss in the local languages where it's drunk. Some tree and plant saps can be fermented as well; again, I don't know of an English word for the category, but pulque is the most prominent example.

Pictured: Pulque, a drink made by fermenting the sap of the Maguey agave plant.

Distilled beverages

We can produce higher-alcohol beverages by distilling fermented alcohols. (Distillation is the chemical name for any process that separates particular chemicals out of a mixture. In this case, we're removing water from a mixture of alcohol and water, resulting in a higher alcohol concentration). There are different kinds of distillation processes, and they do matter, but I'll skip over them for the most part here.

Usually, you do not just drink these right after distilling them -- they'll often be aged in casks made of specific types of wood (where they pull flavor from the wood), or have additional flavors added to them after fermentation. [2]

One example is brandy (short for brandywine, meaning "burnt wine"), which is made by distilling wine. Again, there are all kinds of fruits, so there are all kinds of brandies; the word "brandy" alone usually refers to brandies made from (grape) wine which have been aged in casks. Cognac and Armagnac are two types of this sort of brandy. Unaged brandies may be known as eau de vie ( "water of life" in French), generally together with the name of the fruit, e.g. "eau de vie de framboise" would be an unaged raspberry brandy. Other notable brandies include Pisco, an unaged grape brandy from South America; Calvados, a French apple brandy aged in oak casks; Kirschwasser, an unaged brandy made from cherries without the pits removed; and Grappa, an unaged brandy from Italy made from grapes with their skins and stems left intact.

Pictured: Poire William, a pear-based eau de vie. (The pear inside the bottle is primarily decorative.)

Whiskey, (or sometimes whisky), on the other hand, is essentially distilled beer, though the sort of "beer" you distill to make whiskey is a bit different from the sort of beer you would normally drink; for instance, it doesn't contain hops (a flower added to beer to give it a bitter flavor). Common types of cask-aged whiskey include Scotch (malted barley), Irish whiskey (malted barley or grain), Bourbon (corn), Rye (rye), Canadian whiskey (rye), and Tennessee whiskey (corn). [3] Of course, these styles come down to more than just the grains used. For instance, Islay Scotches -- my favorite of all alcoholic beverages -- use malt dried over a peat fire, which gives them a unique smoky taste that's not present in other whiskies, and Tennessee whiskies (of which there are exactly two, namely Jack Daniel's and George Dickel) are put through a charcoal mellowing process. The most common unaged whiskey is Corn Whiskey. I personally do not recommend drinking this.

Pictured: A peat stack, used to dry and flavor the malt used in the type of Scotch whisky made on Islay and the outer Hebrides.

Let's pause for a brief tangent about styles of whiskey. Scotch will tend to have the most complex flavors and less sweetness than other styles of whisky. There are different regions of Scotland that make different styles of whiskey. Islay (and the rest of the Hebrides), as mentioned above, make smoky-tasting malts. Highlands and Speysides seem to be a bit more beginner-friendly.

For the longest time, rye was pretty much the official whiskey of America. George Washington made his own at Mount Vernon. It's sharper and less cloying than bourbon. The Manhattan cocktail (whiskey, red vermouth, and bitters) would have originally been made with rye. Prohibition changed all that by giving America a good sock right in the sophistication. Coming out, we preferred sweeter and less subtle drinks like bourbon and Tennessee whiskey, which pretty much took rye out of the running. Fortunately, it has been seeing something of a resurgence recently.

Pictured: Rye.

More on whiskey:

• What are the differences between scotch, bourbon, and Tennessee whiskies?
  
• What is the difference between whisky and whiskey?
  

Rum is a liquor distilled from fermented sugarcane byproducts. [4] The word "rum" alone usually refers to liquors made from molasses, which is a by-product of extracting sugar from sugarcane. It can be cask-aged for varying amounts of time, resulting in light rums and dark rums. Some types of rum, like Cachaça and Rhum Agricole, are instead made from sugarcane juice. (Some people might just use "rum" to denote molasses liquors, and put the sugarcane juice liquors in their own category.)

Pictured: A Caipirinha -- the national drink of Brazil -- which is a cocktail of
Cachaça, sugar, and lime. A stick of sugarcane (for decoration or stirring) is visible in the glass.

Tequila is a liquor distilled from fermented agave hearts. (Agave is a plant in the same family as the asparagus and the yucca.) Like rum it can be aged for different amounts of time. The tequila you normally see is made from the blue agave plant; Mezcal is a tequila made from the Maguey agave.

Pictured: A blue agave plant.

Neutral spirits are a bit different. This term refers to alcohol produced by any method in such a way that any residual flavor is removed and the result is simply pure alcohol and water, or as close as can be efficiently achieved without undue burden. Neutral spirits can be used as the base for a liqueur. Some cheap gins and vodkas are also made from neutral spirits.

Vodka is traditionally made by distilling fermented potato juice. However, due to its neutral flavor, the term is also used nowadays for neutral spirits or similar products. Gin is made by adding juniper berries to neutral spirits, running some kind of "re-distillation" process that I don't even pretend to understand, and then infusing with various herbs and botanicals.

Chinese liquor, or "baijiu" in Chinese, technically belongs to the whiskey family, as it's made by distilling fermented sorghum. (Sorghum is a type of grain grown in China.) Most westerners are not used to the flavor of sorghum, and when I've taken my white friends to Chinese bars in SF they often aren't able to stomach these, but I've developed a taste for at least some of them. This is a very wide category, but I don't know anywhere near enough about it to do it justice. The ones I've tried are Erguotou, an inexpensive, clear liquor, and Maotai, which is what they serve the President of the United States at formal dinners when he visits China. [5]

Pictured: Maotai, a sorghum-based liquor of the "sauce-fragrance" type.

Hybrids: Liqueurs, fortified wines, etc.

The beverages above get their flavor primarily or even exclusively from the process by which the alcohol was produced. When they do have additional flavors, they're usually in some sense a byproduct of the process used. Hops are added to beer prior to fermentation, for instance; similarly, while casked liquors do pull a considerable amount of flavor from their casks, the aging is actually required for other reasons as well.

There are many classes of alcoholic beverages, however, which do not get their signature flavors primarily from the process which produces the alcohol, or which contain several types of alcohol made by different processes giving a composite flavor. This is a very broad category and spans some of the best and worst kinds of beverage.

The oldest beverage of this type is probably fortified wine, which is made by mixing wine and liquor, possibly with additional herbs or spices infused. Originally the liquor was added as a preservative, but the style has now evolved to the point that certain fortified wines are among the most valuable wines out there. There are a few important types. Desert wines like Port, Sherry, Madeira, and Marsala are barrel aged and fortified with brandy. Vermouth is fortified with neutral grape spirits and infused with herbs and botanicals. (Sugar is often added as well.) Vermouth is extremely important in cocktails, being integral to the Martini and the Manhattan, which are two of the oldest and best cocktails.

Another important class of beverage are flavored spirits. These are made by infusing various flavors into neutral spirits (or, rarely, into other liquors). Unlike liqueurs, flavored spirits do not have added sugar or juices. Gin is probably the most important; it's made by adding juniper berries and other herbs and botanicals to neutral spirits. (Gin is short for Genever / Jennifer / Guinevere, a name derived from the Juniper plant.) Absinthe, too, was among the most important flavored spirits in its heyday, when it was roughly as popular in Paris as Coca-Cola in the U.S. today. It's made by infusing neutral spirits with anise and a number of herbals and botanicals, including grand wormwood (artemisia absinthium) from which it takes its name. Absinthe was for a long time banned in much of the world after a campaign that associated what were in retrospect effects of severe alcoholism with the wormwood in absinthe. It's now known that drinking absinthe is perfectly safe, and the drink is once again available on store shelves and in bars. [6]

Pictured: a grand wormwood plant, used in flavoring absinthe.

Liqueurs are made by adding flavorings and sugar to neutral spirit base (or, rarely, another liquor.) This is an absolutely huge category in and of itself, comprising both the relatively obvious choices like creme de menthe (mint), creme de cacao (chocolate), coffee liqueur, amaretto (bitter almond and/or apricot kernel liqueur), raspberry liqueur, and so forth, as well as aperitif and digestif bitters such as Italian amaros, Campari , Cynar, Fernet, and Suze.

Pictured: Suze, a type of bitters predominantly featuring the flavor of the gentian flower. My favorite liqueur of all.

Summary

As mentioned in Naomi P Saphra's answer , this is not a clear-cut question since there are piles of categories and subcategories, and it's not clear where to draw the lines. As a consolation prize, here's a picture of part of the tree discussed above which may also function as a handy reference.

• Fermented beverages
• Beer
• Ales
• Pale ales
• Brown ales
• Belgian-style ales
• Lagers
• Malt beverages
• Sake
• Wine
• Grape wines
• Red wine
• White wine
• Rose wine
• Sparkling wine
• Straw wine
• Ice wine
• Non-grape wines
  
• Apple cider
• Perry
• Country wines
• Mead
• Fermented milk beverages
• Fermented sap beverages
• Distilled beverages
• Brandy
• Casked grape brandies
• Eaux de vie
• Whiskey
• Casked whiskey
• Scotch
• Single-malt Scotch
• Islay
• Highland
• Speyside
• Campbelltown
• Blended Scotch
• Irish whisky
• Bourbon
• Rye
• Tennessee whiskey
• Canadian whisky
• Uncasked whiskey
• Corn whiskey
• Uncasked rye
• Baijiu
• Light fragrance
• Heavy fragrance
• Sauce fragrance
• Rum
• Molasses rums
• Sugarcane juice rums
• Tequila
• Blue agave tequila
• Mezcal
• Neutral Spirits
• (Some) vodka
• Hybrids
• Liqueurs
• Cordials
• Fruit liqueurs
• Nut liqueurs
• Amaretto
• Coffee liqueurs
• Anise-flavored liqueurs
• Anisette
• Galliano
• Sambuca
• Drambuie
• Aperitif / Digestif Bitters (may overlap other categories)
• Amer Picon
• Averna
• Amaro Montenegro
• Campari
• Cynar
• Fernet Branca
• Suze
• Unicum
• Herbal liqueurs
• Bénédictine
  
• Chartreuse
• Jägermeister
• Kümmel
  
• Metaxa
• Strega
• Fortified wines
• Desert Wines
• Port
• Sherry
• Madeira
• Marsala
• Vermouth and friends
• Red vermouth
• White vermouth
• Lillet
• Punt e mes
• "Bum wines"
• Flavored spirits
• Gin and Genever
• "X-flavored Y"
• Coconut rum
• Flavored vodkas
• Anise-flavored liquors
• Absinthe
• Arak
• Ouzo
• Akvavit
• Resinated wines

[1] "Beer" and "wine" have technical meanings, but they're not always used in this sense. In particular, since beer tends to have lower alcohol content than wine (say ~6% versus ~10% by volume), sometimes wines with low alcohol contents will be referred to as beers or vice-versa. For instance, barley wine is a type of beer with exceptionally high alcohol content, while apple cider is often considered like a beer despite essentially being a sparkling wine.

[2] You can also age liquors for a short time in non-reactive containers, say glass or steel, in which case they go through some chemical reactions but don't interact with the container. I'll call these "unaged" here for simplicity, despite the fact that it's not strictly true.

[3] Note that many of these whiskeys are made from more than one grain, e.g. bourbon may be half corn and half wheat. When I've indicated a grain I've just indicated the predominant one.

[4] Sugarcane is actually a type of non-grain-bearing grass, not a fruit, explaining why rum doesn't count a type of brandy or whiskey.

[5] If, like most of Quora, you're in the San Francisco Bay area, go to Red's Place at Jackson and Grant to try this stuff, then go a block over to Kearny where there's a Chinese liquor store to buy it. I don't know of any other U.S. importers (UPDATE: There's also one in Chicago's Chinatown called China Palace Liquor City); if you do, add a mention in the comments.

[6] The kind of wormwood used to make absinthe was correctly known to contain the extremely potent neurotoxin thujone in its essential oil. However, the amount of thujone present in absinthe is so low that you'd die of alcohol poisioning long before you could drink enough absinthe to have any effect from it. As a result of the anti-wormwood campaign of a century ago, there's been a persistent misconception that thujone can be used as a recreational drug, which is false -- it doesn't cause hallucinations or any other desirable effects; it's just a poison. (Note, by the way, that many essential oils are similarly toxic, and should be treated with extreme care. Several people have permanently damaged their health or died by drinking concentrated wintergreen oil out of the bottle while making candy. A single ounce of it contains the equivalent of 200 aspirin pills.) I am not a physician and this does not constitute medical advice of any kind.

Most definitely. In a previous answer, Brian Gupton mentioned the effects of mixers. I would add to that the fact that carbonated mixers (Coke, tonic, soda, etc) increase the speed of delivery; it's those damn bubbles. Drinks mixed with juices or water will hit you slower.
The more sugar in the liquor - which usually indicates a lower proof - the more your head's going to hurt in the morning.

Also, different liquors themselves provide different kinds of drunk. The experience varies from person to person, but most people agree that tequila will make you do things you regret and whiskey will make you more aggressive.

You have to figure it out for yourself, though.

It actually depends what you're after different sites offer different info & features

If it's tasting notes you're after then the top two sites IMHO are
* http://www.erobertparker.com/
*http://www.jancisrobinson.com/
Both paying sites but well worth the price if you're a real wine geek

For free and user generated tasting note sites check
* www.cellartracker.com
* http://www.snooth.com/

For some cool indie wine blogs & vlogs
* http://winesleuth.wordpress.com/
* http://www.wineontherocks.com/

Last but not least for info on wineries, restaurants (with the best wine lists), wine events and a vibrant blogosphere & magazine check http://haidu.net/

It is tough to answer this question because there are so many options based on what you want to do.

If you want to research prices, www.wine-searcher.com is the most complete price comparison website. If you are going to buy a lot of wine, their Professional version is definitely worth it.

If you want to track your wine collection, read user reviews, or see basic product information... www.cellartracker.com is the best site.

If you want to learn about wine, there are endless websites that could be useful. You really need to try wine to learn about. To read about wine, I read Alder Yarrow's Vinography wine blog, Tyler Colman's Dr. Vino wine blog, and a few other wine blogs.

If you want to engage with other wine enthusiasts (especially the geekier ones), check out wineberserkers.com.

For expert advice, you can go to WineSpectator.com, eRobertParker.com, jancisrobinson.com... or some of the regional specialists like RhoneReport, Burghound.

I came across this infographic while random googling and thought of sharing it here:

Around the world in 80 drinks. Cheers!

Because

1. They are flavoured after distillation
2. They are not distilled fully so retain the flavour of the mash

Many spirits you can buy are indeed made out of highly distilled grain alcohol containing just ethanol and water at about 96% by volume. This is then diluted, flavours added in the form of aromatic oils, and the result bottled.

Other, more traditional spirits are distilled two or thee times using a batch process. The product of this is perhaps 60% alcohol. This leaves a lot of the original flavour in the remaining water along with various oils. This is how whisky, brandy, grappa, Calvados and other such liquids a produced. They are then further enhanced by storing them in casks of different origin, thus breaking down some flavour compounds and adding others.

So: spirits can retain flavour through distillation. They can then be flavoured afterwards directly or through storage.

Why alcohol consumption is not a smart thing to do?

I’m 30 and I have been drinking for the past ten years (2006-2017). That’s enough time for a habit to become second nature. By 2012 (for a couple of years), it did become my second nature as I often used to drink every other day – most of the time with friends on the pretext of socializing, sometimes on my own after work to unwind after a rough day, etc. In the process, I became a self-proclaimed beer connoisseur at one point (it was really more to appear cool than anything else).

It’s a little interesting how I started drinking – one of my very good friends, Kaimal, spiked my Sprite with Vodka when I went for a washroom break (as I was opposed to alcohol for no logical reason when I was ~20 years old). When I had Vodka for the first time, I couldn’t taste anything distinct so I thought I might as well try different kinds of alcoholic beverages out there the next time we go out. Soon, I realized that alcohol was more of an acquired taste but I was willing to develop my taste buds, as it would give me a buzz/happy feeling. That’s how it all started.

My mother had been asking me to stop drinking for the better part of the past decade but I never saw a reason to stop and neither could she give me a solid reason other than some deep-rooted sentimental/superstitious reasons. It wasn’t until I got married, did I ever give it a serious thought on the whys and what-ifs of drinking. As with a lot of habits, I never questioned this habit until Shravani’s nagging. We’ve all been through it with one habit or the other. It didn’t help that I spent a better part of my adult life in the North American financial services sector (known for it’s drinking culture).

After some deep introspection over the past few months, I’ve come to a point where I don’t think drinking is the most fun/productive way of spending one’s time, money or energy. It takes a toll on you mentally, physically, and spiritually. Below, I’ll elicit a few of the reasons.

Philosophical reasons

Man’s true nature is to be happy. Motive behind man’s every single action can be classified into two broad categories – 1) to derive happiness and 2) to avoid sorrow (same as #1 in a way).

Dependent Happiness (pleasure) vs Independent Happiness

If a person chooses to be happy, he can be happy regardless of the circumstances. One shouldn’t give charge of their happiness to external things, people, situations, etc. (easier said than done). Happiness is something that comes from within (part of our mind). Let’s apply this to alcohol. If you derive happiness by drinking, you are giving alcohol the control of your happiness. You are sort of dependent on alcohol for happiness (at least at times). Whereas if you take charge of your happiness, you have control of your happiness and your happiness is not dependent on a “substance”.

Substance dependent happiness usually has a beginning and an end (also called as pleasure). Whereas, independent happiness is eternal as it doesn’t end. This perspective can truly be appreciated only if you don’t have an urge to drink (or use substances) anymore – not something that should happen overnight, usually should happen through introspection over a period of time.

A question might arise – what a mundane way of leading life! Should people really lead such a subdued life? These questions arise because one doesn’t have a higher ideal to live/aspire for. All unnecessary distractions (including drinking, fascination with a lot of unnecessary things) are due to lack of purpose or goal in one’s life. Hence, people keep trying to derive pleasure from hundred different sources (perennially changing). The more effective way would be to look at things functionally based on your life’s goal and approach every aspect of life in line with the goal.

True happiness comes/should come from within!!

Note all the views expressed in this section are based on my extensive study of eastern philosophy in the past few years.

Medical reasons

If you look at alcohol from a medical perspective, no doctor would ever recommend consuming alcohol (even in small quantities). In fact, most of the doctors would recommend avoiding alcohol while recovering from most ailments and there is a good reason for it. Our body treats alcohol like a poison – it doesn’t want it to stay in the body. Our liver and digestive system have to work extra hard to remove it from the body. So, if the body is fighting off any ailment, and if it also needs to remove alcohol from the body, it becomes taxing and the recovery becomes prolonged due to the extra burden on the body. Basically, the idea is - you never know what/when your body is fighting off against an ailment, why risk the body of taxing it with the additional load of removing alcohol from your system.

Just as an example, I’ll quote a few links which suggests avoiding alcohol for medical conditions -

http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/what-makes-colds-worse

http://www.doctorshealthpress.com/food-and-nutrition-articles/diet-for-gastritis

http://www.livestrong.com/article/434083-post-wisdom-teeth-extraction-alcohol-consumption-exercise/

I won’t even go into the obvious reasons to avoid alcohol – high and empty carbohydrate content, risk of diabetes, drinking under influence, etc. If one believes in the rationale of alcohol helping people in getting rid of kidney stones, cholesterol from heart, etc. then one should look at the impact of alcohol holistically on body instead of quoting these two studies.

In short, alcohol diminishes our body’s immunity.

Spiritual reasons

All major religions in the world insist on meditation in some form or the other. Goal of various meditative practices is to raise one’s consciousness (to put it in an extremely simplistic terms - being aware of your own awareness/thoughts at every moment). Consuming any substance or food that interacts with the central nervous system is a major drawback for meditation. If you ask me for a scientific proof of it, it’s probably not possible (given the billions of dollars spent on lobbying by both the coffee and the alcohol beverage industries). But I will tell you this – if you are open to trying it out on your own without any bias or pre-conceived notions, observe your energy levels after a few hours of consuming alcohol/high dose of caffeine. It can’t be helpful in any way for meditators – it messes with your energy levels and reduces the calmness of your mind (however small amount of alcohol it may be). This change in energy levels impacts the overall consciousness.

Moreover, meditation can give a person the same affect of consuming alcohol – relaxation, happiness, tipsy, etc. Only difference is that while meditating, you are under complete control and not dependent on a substance to induce these. And it’s a lot better experience while meditating than through substances.

Social reasons

Most people like to have a drink or two socially in North America. Trust me I’ve done it myself way too many times over the years. But it doesn’t have to be that way – lots of countries don’t have this culture. You could replace alcohol with other beverages and find alternatives to bars as places to hang out. Even if you are in a bar, it’s totally fine to not order an alcoholic beverage. You might get questioned a couple of times by your friends for your abstinence, but if your reasoning is good, people would either understand or give up bothering you soon enough.

Most people are puppets of pop culture without questioning the basis to the fullest extent. And it’s applicable to most aspects of our life. What it does is it clouds our decision making process which could harm us and harm people we care about (knowingly or unknowingly).

Moreover, every grown up adult is responsible for bringing up the next generation (whether one accepts it or not). So it becomes really important to act like a role model at all times. Children usually learn by observing things around them. Not just children, even most grown-ups follow what certain strong individuals (leaders?) do in the society. So, it’s advisable to avoid alcohol (or any useless activity as matter of fact) unless one finds a worthy cause for it.

Other obvious reasons – risk of becoming an addict, dysfunctional behavior post a binge drinking session, losing inhibitions makes you do stupid stuff (DUI, fights, beer goggles), makes one lazy, hangovers, bad sleeping aid, etc.

Economic reasons

The amount of money and time wasted in drinking is ridiculous. If you are so concerned about economics, you can use the drinking time and money to learn a new skill, read up on management/philosophy/leadership, etc. which would get one much farther in career.

One argument I’ve heard a lot and used it myself numerous times is alcohol’s assistance with networking, helps you lose your inhibitions, etc. If you really think about it, it’s a mere excuse to use it as a tool to network. People can network without drinking. In fact the best networking I’ve done is without alcohol (specially in the last 6 months or so). And even if drinking alcohol is the only reason you get hired for your next role, do you really want to be in that role/work for such a team in the long run?

Government ban

Another question worth discussing – if it’s really that bad/harmful, why doesn’t the government ban it? That’s a very naïve question J.

Alcoholic beverage industry is a large source of government’s revenue. It’s a way for businesses to make high margin profits and for government to collect taxes on them. There is a lot of lobbying involved to make this model work. You should watch the movie Thank You For Smoking for some insights into the lobbying mechanisms.

If you look at history, lot of things that were considered safe in the past have now been deemed unsafe/harmful. One example that comes to mind easily is tobacco/smoking. It wasn’t considered harmful until the 80’s or the 90’s but now government’s stance has changed on it. Government’s view on things is neither absolute nor correct at all times. Things keep evolving. What is the certainty that major governments won’t change their current stance on alcohol too?

Closing thoughts

Please bear in mind that all this is all coming from a person who used to love drinking, drank in probably 20 different countries (trying out the best each country has to offer), convinced 10-15 people to start drinking, at one point fully convinced (without any proper rationale of course) that abstaining from alcohol was for suckers, etc.

I’ve never written a blog before. So, this piece is really for people who have started drinking after getting influenced by me. I would like to urge them to think through their decision of drinking (socially, habitually, etc. doesn’t matter) again and re-evaluate their choice. And re-evaluate that choice every few years.

The ‘alcohol’ you refer to is ethyl alcohol. The stuff in beer and whisky and wine and so on.

If you drink a little of that, you might feel a bit relaxed or get a buzz. A bit more and depending on your personality you might get violent or sit in a corner smiling and wobbling a bit. A bit more and you’ll start talking utter nonsense as your filters switch off. You might later find video of yourself on YouTube dancing Gangnam style even though you don’t remember it. Always remember that everyone has a video camera in their phone now. Get drunk and it’s not just the people in your work who will talk about you.

Drink some more and maybe you’ll be sick, or just fall over and sleep.

If that doesn’t happen and you drink even more you might wake up under a hedge somewhere having soiled yourself and feeling as if the entire population of Hell decided to use your mouth as a latrine.

Keep doing this over and over and you might eventually have to face the emergency room stomach pump.

If you really persist, you might eventually die of liver failure.

The difference between ethyl alcohol and isopropyl alcohol is that ethyl alcohol can kill you if you really, really try to make it do that. It normally takes years (although there have been cases where it took hours, but these are rare).

Isopropyl alcohol will kill you right away. Guaranteed. You don’t get any of the fun parts, you don’t get to be laughed at as a silly drunk, you don’t have time for the stomach pump or the liver transplant. Drink it and you die.

No buzz. Defintiely no relaxed feeling, the symptoms are horrible and fast. Most of all, no waking up afterwards.

Ethyl alcohol can be fun if you keep it under control. Isopropyl alcohol is less fun than playing hopscotch on railway tracks. It will definitely kill you in a horrible way.

Stick with the beer.

Wine is made from grapes and fermented, naturally this tends to top out at around 14% alcohol as most yeasts used for wine making cannot tolerate any higher alcohol concentration. You can purchase “fortified wines” that have had spirit alcohol added to them to make them stronger.

A “strong drink” (IE; spirits) are fermented in the same way that a wine is (and may indeed be made from a wine base) but then distilled to extract the alcohol, leaving behind a great deal of the water, nutrients, minerals, numerous chemical compounds, and much of the flavour of the original drink it was distilled from.

These typically range from 37.5% alcohol to over 50%, although up to 90% is available, though not intended for straight drinking.

Let me tell you our story - A story of three best friends.

We three were as good as friends as anyone can be. We did everything together - from studies to pranks - everything!

Even when we got separated post high school, we still kept in touch. Two of us has to move out of our native location while one continued there. Even we two were in a very different location.

But whenever we planned to come home, we ensured that all three of us are present at that time. We had most wonderful time during festivals or holidays. Even our families were quite close. We three were much more than friends, we were practically brothers.

Before I start telling what happened, you must know that both of my friends started drinking heavily. I too drink but occasionally.

Year 2016

I was home for the festivals (Diwali) and as usual my other two friends were also there. We had a great time. The day I was returning, one of my friend was called upon by his friends as they planned a bike ride to a nearby place. My friends insisted that he should stay to see me off but I told him to go ahead with his other friends.

2 days later I got a call that my friend who went for that trip died in a bike accident. The whole group was drunk when they were returning from their trip and my friend was riding his bike, when he got into this major accident.

I don’t know for others but I had never been in such situation - the situation of losing someone close. It was one of the most difficult times for me. Same was the case for my other friend. Anyway, we two moved on.

Year 2017

Everything was normal. I was planning to visit home and was planing to call my friend about his plans.

I got a call from one of my junior that my other friend died in an accident. He went for a picnic with few of his friends near a river. He drowned. The whole group was drunk in that picnic.

I was devastated but I could do nothing about it. It’s been almost one and half years and I have not gone to my home. Why? Because I have nothing to do there. I call my parents to my home instead. It’s not that I don’t have other friends there, but it’s just that I don’t want to go to that place anymore.

You see, I lost two of my best friends to a common enemy - alcohol. Sure, it was their decision to drink. They had a bad habit. But it doesn’t change the fact that they died because of alcohol.

Drinking alcohol in moderation is alright. But it becomes a bad habit, you have to get rid of it as early as you can. If you can’t, get help.

Is drinking alcohol worth it - You tell me.

Taste, mostly.

The taste isn’t a function of the alcohol, but rather of the other compounds in the alcohol, many of which are complex organic molecules present in only small amounts. These molecules give different alcoholic drinks much different flavors.

The taste depends on a ton of complex factors, ranging from trace minerals in the soil (for things like wine) to the quality—and cost!—of the distilling process (for vodka and rum) to the length of time the distilled alcohol is aged, the type of barrel it's aged in, and even the temperature it’s aged at (for whiskey). While the basic process of making alcohol is straightforward enough that a grade-school child can do it, the flavor is determined by a bogglingly complex set of factors that require considerable skill and no small amount of artistry to control, because they’re down to complex molecules present in remarkably small quantities.

See it for yourself. Let me show you a few examples.

Rhum.

It comes from plantations of sugar cane, typical in the Caribbean area. When refining sugar cane, a byproduct of its (molasses) gets to be refined and distilled. The main compounds that make up its aroma are:

• alcohols (other than ethanol, that is). The main ones in rhum are phenethyl alcohol, isoamyl alcohol;
• esters. These are compounds that arise from alcohols and are generally fruity-like: ethyl isobutyrate, ethyl acetate, ethyl propanoate;
• flavours. In rhum, the main ones that do not belong to the aforementioned families of organic compounds are guaiacol and vanillin. They are responsible for the vanilla-like component of its flavour.

Tequila.

Obtained from fermentation of sugars retrieved from a variety of agave. Its main components are:

• terpenes. A type of unsaturated hydrocarbons, tequila contains linalool and 𝜶-terpineol;
• alcohols. In this case, the commonest ones are isoamyl alcohol, eugenol, and 2-phenyl ethanol;
• esters. Tequila contains ethyl octanoate and ethyl hexanoate;
• flavours. Tequila’s aroma gets its boost owing to lactones and vanillin.

Vodka.

Made from distillation of cereal grains, its most prominent classes of compounds are:

• alcohols like isoamyl alcohol, propanol and (alas) small quantities of methanol - apart from its typical ethanol content (40% ABV or so);
• flavours. Not too many, as vodka is a tough guy. Only coumarin, a cyclic ketone.

Cider.

It comes from fermentation of apple pulp. It contains:

• carboxylic acids like malic and lactic acid. The latter one often derives from further fermentation of the former one;
• tannins like procyanidin (the main one);
• alcohols like 2-phenyl ethanol;
• flavours like dioxane derivatives.

Whiskey.

Derived from fermentation and distillation of malt and grain. The main compounds that make up its (rich!) chemistry are:

• lactones, also known as cyclic ketones, that account for its woody scent;
• phenolic compounds like cresol. These add a “medicinal” hint;
• aldehydes like furfural and hexanal;
• esters like ethyl hexanoate and isoamyl acetate. These compounds are responsible for the fruity components;
• flavours like sulfur-containing compounds.

The list can go on and on, the main idea however remains: different alcoholic beverages are different because they are the result of the interaction of thousands of different compounds, each of which contributes with its volatility, its scent, its perception and so forth.

The chemistry of booze is a huge mess.

I’m going to guess that the OP actually meant to ask the difference between HARD alcohol (i.e. spirits or liquor), beer, and wine, since they all contain alcohol, which is a basic chemical compound. The differences between those three major categories relate to how they are made, what they are made from, and also what the final product is like. Here are the broad strokes.

Alcohol: This is a chemical compound. In the case of drinking, the specific type of alcohol is ethanol, which has a formula of C2H6O. This is the stuff in the drink that makes you intoxicated, and all alcoholic drinks have it, regardless of whether they are beer, wine, or spirit. However, I suspect the OP didn’t really mean alcohol, but spirits, or distilled alcohol, so see below for that.

Beer: Beer is an alcoholic beverage made by taking grain and water, and fermenting it. Usually this is done with cereal grains, such as malted barley, corn, wheat, or rice, with malted barley being the most common. The fermentation causes the starches in the grain to turn to alcohol. The fermentation also produces natural carbonation, though commercially produced beer is often carbonated artificially. Most beer tends to be carbonated one way or another, though this is not an absolute requirement. Most current beers also feature hops to add bitterness and other flavoring. On average, beer has the lowest alcohol content of the three types of drinks, but this is not always the case.

Wine: Wine is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting fruit, usually (but not always) grapes. Yeast is added, which consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol. Carbon dioxide is also produced, and wines may be carbonated or not. Wine typically has higher alcohol content per volume than beer, but not as much as liquor, though there are many exceptions.

Spirits/Liquor: Liquor is an alcoholic beverage that is made by taking an already fermented grain, fruit, or vegetable mash (such as beer, wine, or similar) and distilling it. The distillation both removes impurities and water, and increases the alcohol content. Liquor/spirits tend to be higher in alcohol than beer or wine, as it is essentially made from one or the other.

They don’t taste similar at all. Even within type of beverage there will be huge differences in taste. There are literally dozens of types of beer, all with different flavor profiles. Some very bitter, some sweet. There are fruit beers, smoked beers, coffee infused beers, chocolate and even banana flavored beers. That is beer alone.

Any beer will taste nothing like a whiskey. Yet within whiskey there are Scotch, Irish, bourbon, Canadian and others which taste quite different from each other. For instance I dislike pretty much all whiskey, except Irish. It is the only whiskey I can drink. Someone else may like only bourbon.

In the world of hard liquor there is also a huge range of flavors. Caraway seeds (aquavit), licorice/anise (anisette, Pernod and sambuca), almonds (amaretto), raspberry (Chambourd), coffee (Kahlua) and many, many other flavors.

Wine and brandy are both made from grapes, but taste absolutely nothing alike. Brandies are also made from apples, blueberries, apricots and other fruits and taste very much like the fruit they are made from.

This isn’t even going into the realm of mixed drinks, where the variety of drink flavors are only limited by the imagination of the mixologist.

Cocktails, established in hundreds of years of social importance, consist of ethanol got from aged sugars. Grains, natural products, or vegetables structure the base, while water, flavorings like bounces or flavors, and fluctuating liquor by volume rates add to the different universe of drinks. Balance is indispensable for capable utilization.

Cocktails have been a necessary piece of human culture for quite a long time, delighted in different structures across various social orders. Understanding what comprises a cocktail includes diving into the fundamental parts that make up these drinks. The essential fixing is, obviously, liquor, otherwise called ethanol. This psychoactive substance is delivered through the aging of sugars by yeast.

The base for cocktails frequently comes from grains, natural products, or vegetables, contingent upon the kind of drink. For instance, lager normally gets its liquor content from malted grain, while wine is produced using matured grapes. Spirits, then again, can be refined from a scope of sources, including grains, natural products, or sugarcane.

Water is one more fundamental part, utilized in the maturation cycle and some of the time added during creation to change the liquor content. Also, different enhancing specialists add to the taste profile of cocktails. Jumps are normal in brew, giving sharpness and smell, while spices, natural products, and flavors may be utilized in spirits and mixers.

Understanding the alcoholic substance of a beverage includes perceiving the level of liquor by volume (ABV). This action demonstrates the volume of unadulterated liquor in the drink. Brews for the most part have a lower ABV, going from around 4% to 6%, while wines can differ from 9% to 16% or more. Spirits, with their concentrated nature, frequently have a higher ABV, going from 40% to 60% or considerably higher.

It's critical to take note that control is key while polishing off cocktails, as over the top admission can prompt a scope of medical problems. Capable utilization requires a consciousness of one's liquor resilience, grasping the substance of the beverages, and valuing the social and social parts of liquor without compromising individual prosperity.

"Liquor" is a broad term that encompasses distilled alcoholic beverages with higher alcohol content, such as whiskey, vodka, rum, gin, and tequila. These spirits are produced through distillation, a process that concentrates alcohol by separating it from the fermented liquid.

In contrast, other types of alcoholic beverages like beer and wine are fermented, meaning their alcohol is naturally produced through the fermentation of sugars in grains, fruits, or other sources. Beer and wine generally have lower alcohol content compared to liquor.

So, the primary distinction is the production method: liquor involves distillation, while beer and wine are fermented.

I think you mean: “Why should one not mix different kinds of alcoholic beverages?”

If you mix different kinds of alcohol, it will probably kill you. The only alcohol that humans drink is ethanol (C2H5OH). Other types of alcohols, like wood alcohol, are poisonous and will kill you.

So I think you want to know about drinking different types of beverages that contain ethanol (that we find in beer, wine, whisky, etc.) The trouble can occur based on what else is in the drink other than the alcohol. Some of the other ingredients for some people can interact and make them sick. This also depends on the quantity of drinks you are consuming. For most people the more you drink and mix stuff the sicker you will end up.

Drinks labelled “grain neutral spirits” in the USA are pretty much alchohol and water, but even those might have a little bit of some other flavor.

1. Some alcoholic drinks are not distilled so far as to eliminate completely the favors of the original fermented product (called mash for whisky and some other spirits). Clearly products distilled to, say 80, proof (40% alcohol) are very different if they were distilled from beer (making whiskey) or wine (making brandy).
2. Some flavorings are added after distillation, notably the flavors (and colors) that spirits pick up from the wooden barrels in which they are aged.
3. In blind tastings, spirits distilled to high alcohol levels, unless they do have flavors added afterwards, do taste pretty much the same. People who like expensive unflavored vodka ought to try it, blind, next to cheap stuff. Nazdrovya!