Q 01/05

Which toxic alcohol, once known as wood alcohol, can cause blindness when it taints bootleg spirits?

A) Methanol

B) Isopropanol

C) Butanol

D) Propanol

Answer · why

A) Methanol

Methanol is turned by the body into formic acid, which attacks the optic nerve; oddly, one antidote doctors can give is ordinary drinking alcohol.

Q 02/05

Which French scientist showed in the 1850s that living yeast, not chemistry alone, turns sugar into alcohol?

A) Louis Pasteur

B) Antoine Lavoisier

C) Marie Curie

D) Claude Bernard

Answer · why

A) Louis Pasteur

Louis Pasteur went on to patent a way of gently heating wine to kill the microbes that spoiled it; pasteurisation was only later extended to milk.

Q 03/05

A regular beer such as a standard lager is roughly what strength in alcohol by volume?

A) 0.5%

B) 5%

C) 15%

D) 45%

Answer · why

B) 5%

5% is the usual benchmark, which is why US health guidance counts a 12-ounce beer, a 5-ounce glass of wine and a 1.5-ounce shot of spirits as the same...

Q 04/05

Which simple cocktail is nothing more than vodka topped up with orange juice?

A) Greyhound

B) Screwdriver

C) Cape Codder

D) Sea Breeze

Answer · why

B) Screwdriver

The Screwdriver's name first turned up among Americans in wartime Turkey; the popular but unproven story is that, lacking a spoon, they stirred the dr...

Q 05/05

What US term equals twice the percentage of alcohol by volume in a distilled spirit?

A) Brix

B) Purity

C) Proof

D) Density

Answer · why

C) Proof

Proof doubles the percentage, so an 80-proof spirit is 40% ABV. The word goes back to tests that 'proved' a spirit's strength for the taxman, such as ...