"Droopy" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> there are 3 phases to a alcohol distillation, the first part, called
> the heads (some people further divide this up into two more categories,
> but we will not get into that) contains most of the methanol and ethyl
> acetate. Every distilliation gets rid of that fraction, because it
> will make you sicker than sick
>
> The next part to come off the still is the ethanol fraction This is
> for the most part pure ethanol and water. This is what is kept for the
> largest proportion of all distillations.
>
>
> That last bit is the tails. The tails contain things like isopropanol
> (rubbing alcohol) and other fuesel alcohols that are part of the
> certain fermentation and are dependant on the starting material.
> Different whiskeys keep a differnt proportion of these to give the
> whiskey flavor. That is why scotch still retains some of the smoked
> malt character, and burbon keeps the corn character and why neither
> tastes like canadian whiskey which does not keep any of the tails and
> has no character of the starting material. That is also why Rum and
> tequilla have their specific flavcors and why none of them taste like
> vodka. Vodka is basically a neutral spirit. you can make vodka from
> anything because you do not keep any of the tails involved with them.
> Canadian whiskey keeps very little of the tails and then ages it in
> charred oak for some flavor and color.

Maybe that is why I like Canadian Whiskey the best of all.
>