The making of distilled spirits begins with the mashes of grains, fruits, or other ingredients. The resultant fermented liquid is heated until the alcohol and flavourings vaporize and can be drawn off, cooled, and condensed back into a liquid. Water remains behind and is discarded. The concentrated liquid, called a distilled beverage, includes such liquors as whiskey, gin, vodka, rum, brandy, and liqueurs, or cordials. They range in alcoholic content usually from 40 to 50 percent, though higher or lower concentrations are found.
In the ingestion of an alcoholic beverage, the alcohol is rapidly absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract (stomach and intestines) because it does not undergo any digestive processes; thus, alcohol rises to high levels in the blood in a relatively short time. From the blood the alcohol is distributed to all parts of the body and has an especially pronounced effect on the brain, on which it exerts a depressant action. Under the influence of alcohol the functions of the brain are depressed in a characteristic pattern. The most complex actions of the brain—judgment, self-criticism, the inhibitions learned from earliest childhood—are depressed first, and the loss of this control results in a feeling of excitement in the early stages. For this reason, alcohol is sometimes thought of, erroneously, as a stimulant. Under the influence of increasing amounts of alcohol, the drinker gradually becomes less alert, awareness of his environment becomes dim and hazy, muscular coordination deteriorates, and sleep is facilitated