· Blenders International · Water Science
A zero-alcohol spirit is about 98% water — so what does the water have to do once the alcohol is gone?
In a whisky, water is the ingredient that has to disappear behind 40% ABV. In a 0.0% spirit there is nothing to disappear behind — no ethanol to carry aroma, no ethanol to suppress microbes, and in India a regulatory regime that swaps the distillery rulebook for the packaged-drinking-water one. This is what changes in the water specification when a distillery launches a no-alcohol expression.