Have you ever wondered what the difference is between white wines and red wines? To make white wines, grapes are fermented without their skins, whereas red wines are made from grapes fermented with their skins.  Yeast is added to the juice of crushed grapes or other fruits.  This conversion of sugar into alcohol is called fermentation.  In the mid-1800s, Louis Pasteur (the scientist who created pasteurization) studied fermentation.  A few decades later, Eduard Buechner’s experiments with fermentation earned him a Nobel Prize and helped usher in the era of biochemistry.  But even before these 19^th century scientists researched fermentation, wine and other alcohol was produced since ancient times.  There is evidence of an ancient Chinese recipe for fermented rice and honey.  By the end of the first century B.C.E., wine had spread commercially across the Roman empire.  Up until the mid-20^th century, fermentation was done using naturally-occurring yeasts.  This led to inconsistency and sometimes spoilage.  Commercial wineries now use brewer’s yeast (a pure starter strain of a Mediterranean yeast), which results in quality wine production.  Temperature influences how quickly and efficiently yeast changes sugar into alcohol, therefore, chillers are necessary for accurate temperature control.  To help with your wine-making process, BV Thermal has portable chillers that are easy-to-use.  For more information on our portable chillers, go to https://bvthermal.com/wineries/

To learn more fun facts about which plants produce different types of alcohol, read below, courtesy of https://www.thoughtco.com/where-does-alcohol-come-from-3975928

Ale: fermented from malt with hops

Beer: brewed and fermented from malted cereal grain (as barley), flavored with hops

Bourbon: whiskey distilled from a mash of not less than 51 percent corn and aged in new charred oak barrels for a minimum of two years

Brandy: distilled from wine or fermented fruit juice

Cognac: a brandy distilled from white wine from a specific region of France

Gin: distilled or redistilled neutral grain spirits from a variety of sources, flavored with juniper berries and other aromatics

Rum: distilled from a sugarcane product such as molasses or sugarcane juice

Sake: produced by a brewing process using rice

Tequila: a Mexican liquor distilled from blue agave

Vodka: distilled from a mash as of potatoes, rye or wheat

Whiskey: distilled from mash of grain such as rye, corn, or barley

Scotch: whiskey distilled in Scotland typically from malted barley

Wine: fermented juice of fresh grapes and/or other fruit (e.g., blackberry wine)