How We Use Water
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Without water, life as we know it would not flourish. Water is part of our make-up; 55 to 60 percent of the average adult’s body is water.
It is one of the most vital elements in many of the things we produce – including making some of our favorite alcoholic drinks. Let us take a look at the role water plays in making vodka and the cocktails we we make with vodka.
As well as being an ingredient, water is used in a number of steps during the distillation process. At the beginning, it is added to the wheat to make a malt. After soaking, the wort (liquid only) is drained from the malt. The wort is then fermented.
At the fermentation stage, water is used for cooling the alcohol. And at the end, water is used to reduce the alcohol when the vodka is being bottled.
Water plays a very important role in the making of vodka. It is even responsible for giving the drink its name (‘vodka’ stems from ‘voda’, the Russian word for water).
Water is immensely important in vodka, which is approximately 60 percent water. Water is used to lower the alcohol by volume level in vodka during the bottling process. The alcohol by volume of distilled vodka can be as high as 73%; adding water reduces this to between 40% and 50%.
Ideally, vodka should be completely odorless and colorless, just like water. We use the purest water available to get the Vulcanica crystal clear. It helps the process if the water you use is naturally free from impurities.
IN COCKTAILS
In drinks, where dilution from ice often makes up a quarter of each drink, a number of detail-oriented bartenders are making sure the water meets the same exacting standards they hold every other element of their craft to.
For most purposes, water is divided into two categories: hard and soft. Hard water contains minerals like magnesium, calcium and sulfur—acquired while passing through underground rock deposits—and is generally thought of as better tasting. Many major bottled water brands, like Poland Spring and Evian, fall in the hard spectrum. Soft water, usually derived from lakes and rivers, has very low mineral content—less than one grain per gallon.
In our sophisticated mixological age, improving drinks has become a matter of degrees, eliminating flaws that the average palate may not even detect. Can customers taste whether the lime juice was squeezed à la minute or bottled at the beginning of the shift? Will the couple on their first date really be paying attention to the fact that their hand-carved ice was made with carefully filtered water?
