On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 1437

water to the desired final alcohol content, in
theneighborhoodof40%.Smallquantitiesof
other ingredients may be added to fine-tune
the flavor and color; these include caramel
coloring, sugar, a water extract made by
boiling wood chips (theboisé of Cognac and
Armagnac),andwineorsherry(blendedU.S.
andCanadianwhiskeys).
Chill-FilteringManyspiritsarechill-filtered:
chilled to below the freezing point of water,
and then filtered to remove the cloudy
materialthatforms.Thesubstancesthatform
the cloud are poorly soluble fusel oils and
volatile fatty acids from the original spirits,
and a variety of similar substances extracted
from the barrel. Their removal prevents the
spirits from clouding when the drinker chills
them or dilutes them with water, but it also
removes some flavor and body, so some
producers choose not to chill-filter. Clouding
doesnotoccurinspiritswithmorethanabout


46% alcohol, so such undiluted “caskstrength” spirits are often not chill-filtered.
(Somespiritscloudspectacularly;seep.771).
ServingandEnjoyingSpirits

CrystalDecantersCanBeHazardousHighalcoholspiritsarebiologicallyandchemically
stableandcanbekeptforyearswithout
spoiling.Onetraditionalanddecorativeway
ofstoringthemhasbeenthedecantermadeof

glasscrystal,whichderivesitsweightand
appearancefromtheelementlead.
Unfortunately,leadispowerfullytoxictothe
nervoussystem,andreadilyleachesfrom
crystalintospiritsandotheracidicliquids.
Olddecantersthathavebeenusedmanytimes
havebeenpreextractedandaresafetouse;
newonesshouldeitherbepretreatedto
removeleadfromtheinnersurfaces,oronly
usedforserving,notstoring.