Is there a big difference between poverty vodka and fine vodka?

[WelshBloke]

Well its not that too significant to me. I would say go try some Vodka made from grapes then try some from grains.

Wouldn't vodka made from grapes be brandy?

 

[Kneedragger]

Wouldn't vodka made from grapes be brandy?

I wouldn't know. I don't drink Brandy or make any alcohol.

 

[destrekor]

Wouldn't vodka made from grapes be brandy?

Nope - not if you produce it like vodka or "neutral grain spirit" for the sole purpose of producing ethanol.

There is more involved in producing brandy or wines.

What allows fruit like grapes to be used to produce vodka is the same principal that allows grains, potatoes, or even straight up sugar or the left-over material from sugar producers, which is the leafy and reedy sugar cane plant material.

The end goal is really just to produce a mash or high-carbohydrate mixture that easily ferments and produces ethanol (among other chemicals). That's then ran through stills so that they only collect the resulting ethanol.

 

[norseamd]

you can make other alcohol from grapes also like grappa

 

[Aharami]

The difference is filtration. That is pretty much it. If you sent cheap ass vodka through a carbon filter a few times, the taste is exactly the same as expensive stuff.

I recall seeing a youtube video a few years ago about this specifically. Couple of college students ran some cheap vodka thru a brita filter 4 times and had some professional blind taste test their filtered cheap vodka and some expensive ones. IIRC the pro couldn't tell the difference.

 

[WelshBloke]

you can make other alcohol from grapes also like grappa

Grappa is made from the left over grape pulp after the juice has been extracted for wine making isn't it?

Same as French marcs

 

[norseamd]

go to wikipedia

 

[WelshBloke]

Nope - not if you produce it like vodka or "neutral grain spirit" for the sole purpose of producing ethanol.

There is more involved in producing brandy or wines.

What allows fruit like grapes to be used to produce vodka is the same principal that allows grains, potatoes, or even straight up sugar or the left-over material from sugar producers, which is the leafy and reedy sugar cane plant material.

The end goal is really just to produce a mash or high-carbohydrate mixture that easily ferments and produces ethanol (among other chemicals). That's then ran through stills so that they only collect the resulting ethanol.

I don't know the process of making grape vodka but grape based Brandy is just fermented grapes that are distilled. Which seems to line up with your last paragraph.

 

[destrekor]

I don't know the process of making grape vodka but grape based Brandy is just fermented grapes that are distilled. Which seems to line up with your last paragraph.

Well from my quick reading, it seems the main difference is the vodka is distilled to a higher purity of ethanol, which probably helps naturally remove much of the additional flavoring and characteristics that other products would have.
That, and there is also a tendency to still filter or otherwise treat the vodka so that it no longer has any discernible taste, color, or scent.


In the end, I imagine that the fermented fruit alcohol product is greatly changed simply by running it through a still to the point that it has a higher proof. If it's at 95%ish (190 proof), like vodka much reach before final dilution, much of what makes a brandy a brandy is likely no longer present - the still simply strips it out by that point.
That's my guess, at least. In the end, most alcohol follows a similar procedure, sometimes with aging added at the edge. There are so many variable ways to start and to undergo distillation that the same ingredients can be used to create multiple different classes of liquor.

 

[WelshBloke]

Well from my quick reading, it seems the main difference is the vodka is distilled to a higher purity of ethanol, which probably helps naturally remove much of the additional flavoring and characteristics that other products would have.
That, and there is also a tendency to still filter or otherwise treat the vodka so that it no longer has any discernible taste, color, or scent.


In the end, I imagine that the fermented fruit alcohol product is greatly changed simply by running it through a still to the point that it has a higher proof. If it's at 95%ish (190 proof), like vodka much reach before final dilution, much of what makes a brandy a brandy is likely no longer present - the still simply strips it out by that point.
That's my guess, at least. In the end, most alcohol follows a similar procedure, sometimes with aging added at the edge. There are so many variable ways to start and to undergo distillation that the same ingredients can be used to create multiple different classes of liquor.

That makes sense, it does beg the question...

Why would the source of the fermented sugar (grape, grain or whatever) make a difference to the final product then?

 

[AznAnarchy99]

The hangover.

 

[Exterous]

I drank a lot of this vodka years ago because it was cheap but boy I had a rock-em-sock-em hangover the next day..

Mohawk will always have a special place in my heart as that was the first night I ever prayed to the porcelain god.

 

[OCGuy]

Why do people still feed this asshole

 

[Linux23]

I like vodka that's made from bananas. Everything else is shite.

 

[angminas]

I can EASILY tell the difference, and I neither drink a lot of vodka nor have the greatest sense of taste in the world. If I tried, I'm sure I could tell several brands by taste, because each one I've tried has tasted characteristically different to me.

Pinnacle is very smooth.

 

[CrackRabbit]

agreed. i drink both. i can get a handle of Sobieski around here for $19. Still the Kirkland American 6x distilled vodka at $14 is better quality, just more inconvenient for me to get to Costco.

It is kind of astounding how good the Kirkland branded liquors are.
I haven't had the vodka, but the rum and whiskey are amazing for the price they sell them at.

 

[smackababy]

That makes sense, it does beg the question...

Why would the source of the fermented sugar (grape, grain or whatever) make a difference to the final product then?

It shouldn't. Vodka is supposed to be ethanol and water. The source of the ethanol shouldn't matter, if it is pure. If there is some left over impurities, it will effect it. The same goes for the water as well. Also, the distilling process can effect is as well. If you could buy a 60/40 mix of pure H2O and pure ethanol in a container that introduced no additional contaminants, you'd have the perfect Vodka, but I imagine that is extremely difficult, or at least, not cost efficient.

With that said, Tito's is the best bang for your buck IMO. It is fairly good and costs less than many inferior "top shelf" products. Ciroc, IMO, is also just designer bottom shelf vodka. They charge a lot because rappers talk about it and they put a high price tag on it.

 

[Linflas]

Vodka Nation How the flavorless, colorless, odorless spirit became a billion-dollar business

 

[BurnItDwn]

Vodka is yucky.

 

[Aharami]

Vodka Nation How the flavorless, colorless, odorless spirit became a billion-dollar business

good read!

 

[Thump553]

Like most aspects of hard liquor or audiophile equipment, there is a surplus of bogus science and BS involved. As mentioned a few posts above vodka is supposed to be ethanol and water ONLY.

I used to work in the quality control section of a vodka bottler. The cheap and premium brands were made from the exact same batches of grain alcohol. The only difference was in the filtering process and the lables put on the bottles.

Production costs are pretty irrelevant. The real costs in liquor is the taxes added on. We literally would waste hundreds of gallons of liquor at a time and as long as it happpened before the tax stamps went on the bottle, no one cared. The actual production costs are only a tiny fraction of the ultimate retail price.

 

[Jaepheth]

+1 for Tito's

 

[fire400]

no it all tastes like rubbing alcohol

lol!!

 

[alkemyst]

No different than bringing a rich girl vs a ghetto one home.

Both may look alike, but the former would not have cleaned out your shit in the morning.

 

[Linux23]

some rich girls are klepto's though, but let's lump all da hood rats in one bunch.