Alcohol

The word alcohol derives from the Arabic “kohl”, meaning “any fine powder produced in a number of ways, including the process of heating a substance to a gaseous state and then recooling it”. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/alcohol6 In present day, alcohol refers to any of a number of colorless liquids. Chemically, alcohol is any organic compound in which a hydroxyl functional group (-OH) is bound to a carbon atom, usually connected to other carbon or hydrogen atoms.http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/alcohol A common alcohol is ethanol, which is used as an industrial solvent, car fuel, and raw material in the chemical industry.

Alcohol can also refer to alcoholic beverages, which may be divided into three categories: Wines, Beer, and Spirits. Each is made through the fermentation of various ingredients.

While alcohol by itself cannot used for medicinal purposes, it can be combined with other ingredients to create useful medicine such as cough syrups or elixirs. It can also be used as an antiseptic to disinfect the skin before an injection (often with iodine).

Wine is a type of alcoholic drink made from the fermentation of grapes. For many centuries, wine has been made from two ingredients, grape juice and yeast. During the fermentation process, the yeast feeds off of the sugars in the grape juice. Yeast spores are reproduced until the sugars of the grape juice have all been consumed. During this process, the sugars are converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The yeast will then fall to the bottom of the container. At this time, the wine is removed and transferred to another container to be bottled and packaged.

The taste of wine is based on various factors:

• strain of yeast
• temperature during fermentation
• variety of grape
• soil and climate where grapes were grownhttp://www.2basnob.com/wine-introduction.html

After water and tea, beer is the most consumed beverage in the world. The world's strongest beer is "Samuel Adams" Triple Bokhttp://www.comedy-zone.net/triviazone/humans/page3.htmBeer is produced by the fermentation of starches, mostly derived from cereal grains. Beer is mostly produced in breweries, but many people prefer to make their own beer at home.

Spirits are defined as unsweetened, distilled, alcoholic beverages with an alcohol content of at least 20%. They are produced by the distillation of a fermentated base product.