An alcoholic beverage is a beverage or drink that contains ethanol, a type of alcohol produced by fermentation of grains, fruits, or other sources of sugar that acts like a drug. 

The consumption of alcohol plays an important social role in many cultures. Most countries have laws regulating the production, sale, and consumption of alcoholic beverages. Regulations may require the labeling of the percentage of alcohol content (as ABV or proof) and the use of a warning label. And some countries ban such activities entirely, but alcoholic drinks are legal in most parts of the world. The global alcoholic drink industry exceeded $1 trillion in 2018.

Alcohol is a depressant, which in low doses causes euphoria, reduces anxiety, and increases sociability. In higher doses, it causes drunkenness, stupor, unconsciousness, or death. Long-term use can lead to an alcohol use disorder, an increased risk of developing several types of cancer, and physical dependence.

Alcohol is one of the most widely used recreational drugs in the world, and about 33% of all humans currently drink alcohol. Someone typically divides alcoholic drinks into three classes - beers, wines, and spirits - and typically their alcohol content is between 3% and 50%.

The Discovery of late Stone Age jugs suggests that intentionally fermented drinks existed at least as early as the Neolithic period (c. 10,000 BC). Several animals (but not all) get affected by alcohol similarly to humans and, once they consume it, will consume it again if given the opportunity, though humans are the only species known to produce alcoholic drinks intentionally.

Fermented Drinks
Beer: Beer is a beverage fermented by grain mash. It's made from barley or a blend of several grains and flavored with hops. Someone naturally carbonated most beer as part of the fermentation process. If the fermented mash is distilled, then the drink becomes a spirit. In the Andean region, the most common beer is chicha, made from grain or fruits. Beer is the most consumed alcoholic beverage in the world.

Wine: Wine is a fermented beverage produced from grapes and, sometimes, other fruits. Wine involves a longer fermentation process than beer and a long aging process (months or years), resulting in an alcohol content of 9% - 16% ABV.

Cider: Cider is a fermented alcoholic drink made from any fruit juice like apple, peaches, and pears, etc. Cider alcohol content varies from 1.2% ABV to 8.5% ABV or more in traditional English ciders. In some regions, cider may be called "apple wine".

Mead: Mead is an alcoholic drink made by fermenting honey with water, sometimes with various fruits, spices, grains, or hops. The alcoholic content may range from as low as 3% ABV to over 20% ABV. The defining characteristic of mead is that most of the drink's fermentable sugar is derived from honey. We can also refer Mead to as "honey wine".

Pulque: Pulque is the Mesoamerican fermented drink made from the "honey water" of maguey, Agave Americana. The drink distilled from pulque is tequila or mescal Mezcal.

Rice Wine: Sake, huangjiu, mijiu, and cheongju are popular examples of East Asian rice wine.

Others: Fruit wines are made from fruits other than grapes, such as plums, cherries, or apples. Sparkling wine like French Champagne, Catalan Cava, or Italian Prosecco can be made by secondary fermentation.

Distilled Drinks
Liquors (or spirits) are alcoholic drinks produced by distilling (i.e., concentrating by distillation) ethanol produced by fermenting grain, fruit, or vegetables. Unsweetened, distilled, alcoholic drinks that have an alcohol content of at least 20% ABV are called spirits. 

For the most common distilled drinks, such as whiskey and vodka, the alcohol content is around 40%. We used the term hard liquor in North America to distinguish distilled drinks from undistilled ones (implicitly weaker). Vodka, gin, baijiu, soju, tequila, whiskey, brandy, and rum are examples of distilled drinks.

Distilling concentrates the alcohol and eliminates some congeners. Freeze distillation concentrates ethanol along with methanol and fusel alcohols (fermentation by-products partially removed by distillation) in applejack.

Fortified wine is wine, such as port or sherry, to which a distilled beverage (usual brandy) has been added. Fortified wine is distinguished from spirits made from wine in that spirits are produced by distillation, while fortified wine is simply wine that has had a spirit added to it. Many different styles of fortified wine have been developed, including Port, Sherry, Madeira, Commandaria, and the aromatized wine Vermouth.

Rectified Spirit
Rectified spirit, also called "neutral grain spirit", is alcohol that has been purified by "rectification" (i.e., repeated distillation). The term neutral refers to the spirit's lack of the flavor that would have been present if the mash ingredients had been distilled to a lower level of alcoholic purity. Rectified spirit also lacks any flavoring added to it after distillation (as is done, for example, with gin). Other kinds of spirit, such as whiskey, are distilled to a lower alcohol percentage to preserve the flavor of the mash. 

Rectified spirit is a clear, colorless, flammable liquid that may contain as much as 95% ABV. It is often used for medicinal purposes. It may be a grain spirit or it may be made from other plants. It is used in mixed drinks, liqueurs, and tinctures, and also as a household solvent.

Congeners
In the alcoholic drinks industry, congeners are substances produced during fermentation. These substances include small amounts of chemicals such as occasionally desired other alcohols, like propanol and 3-methyl-1-butanol, but also compounds that are never desired such as acetone, acetaldehyde, and glycols. Congeners handle most of the taste and aroma of distilled alcoholic drinks and contribute to the taste of non-distilled drinks. Some suggest that these substances contribute to the symptoms of a hangover. Tannins are congeners found in wine in the presence of phenolic compounds. Wine tannins add bitterness, have a drying sensation, taste herbaceous, and are often described as astringent. Wine tannins add balance, complexity, structure and make the wine last longer, so they play an important role in the aging of wine.

Food Energy
Alcoholic drinks are a source of food energy. The USDA uses a figure of 6.93 Kilocalories (29.0 KJ) per gram of alcohol (5.47 kcal or 22.9 kJ per ml) for calculating food energy. Besides alcohol, many alcoholic drinks contain carbohydrates. For Example, in 12 US fl oz (355 ml) of 5% ABV beer, along with approximately 18 ml of alcohol (96 kilocalories or 400 kilojoules), there are usually 10-15g of carbohydrates (about 40-60 kcal or 170 - 250 kJ).

Excessive daily calorie intake may contribute to an increase in body weight and "beer belly". Besides the direct effect of its caloric content, it also known alcohol to potentiate the insulin response of the human body to glucose, which "instructs" the body to convert consumed carbohydrates into fat and to suppress carbohydrate and fat oxidation. Ethanol is directly processed in the liver to acetyl CoA, the same intermediate product as in glucose metabolism. Because ethanol is mostly metabolized and consumed by the liver, chronic excessive use can lead to fatty liver. This leads to a chronic inflammation of the liver and, eventually alcoholic liver disease.

Reasons for use
Aperitifs and digestifs
An apertif is any alcoholic beverage usually served before a meal to stimulate the appetite, while a digestif is any alcoholic beverage served after a meal for improving digestion. 

Fortified wine, liqueurs, and dry Champagne are common aperitifs. Because aperitifs are served before dining, they are usually dry rather than sweet. One example is Cinzano, a brand of vermouth. Digestifs include brandy, fortified wines and herb-infused spirits (Drambuie).

Flavoring
Pure ethanol tastes bitter to humans; some people also describe it as sweet. However, ethanol is also a moderately good solvent for many fatty substances and essential oils. This facilitates the use of flavoring and coloring compounds in alcoholic drinks as a taste mask, especially in distilled drinks. Some flavors may be naturally present in the beverage's raw material. Beer and wine got by allowing the beverage to stand for months or years in oak barrels, usually made of American or French Oak. A few brands of spirits may also have fruit or herbs inserted into the bottle at the time of bottling.

Wine is important in cuisine not just for its value as an accompanying beverage, but as a flavor agent, primarily in stocks and braising, since its acidity lends back to rich savory dishes. Wine sauce is an example of a culinary sauce that uses wine as a primary ingredient. Natural wines may exhibit a broad range of alcohol content, from below 9% to above 16% ABV, with most wines being in the 12.5 - 14.5% range. Fortified wines (usually with brandy) may contain 20% alcohol or more.

Alcohol Measurement
Alcohol Concentration
The concentration of alcohol in a beverage is usually stated as the percentage of alcohol by volume (ABV, the number of millilitres (ml) of pure ethanol in 100 ml of beverage) or as proof. Normally proof is twice the percentage of alcohol by volume at 60 degrees Fahrenheit (e.g., 80 proof = 40% ABV).

Degrees proof was formerly used in the United Kingdom, where 100 degrees proof was equivalent to 57.1% ABV. Historically, this was the most dilute spirit that would sustain the combustion of gunpowder.

Ordinary distillation cannot produce alcohol of over 95.6% by weight, which is about 97.2% ABV (194.4 proof) because at that point alcohol is an azeotrope with water. A spirit which contains a top level of alcohol and does not contain any added flavoring is commonly called a neutral spirit. Any distilled alcoholic beverage of 170 US proof or higher is considered being a neutral spirit.

Most yeasts cannot reproduce when the concentration of alcohol is higher than about 18%, so that is the practical limit for the strength of fermented drinks such as wine, beer, and sake. However, some strains of yeast have been developed that can reproduce in solutions of up to 25% ABV.

References;
1. Alcoholic Drinks