Microbes especially yeasts have been used from time immemorial for the production of beverages like wine, beer, whisky, brandy or rum. For this purpose the same yeast saccharomyces cerevisiae used for bread making.

This is commonly called brewer's yeast, is used for fermenting malted cereals and fruit juices to produce ethanol.

Depending on the type of the raw material used for fermentation and the type of processing (with or without distillation) different types of alcoholic drinks are obtained.

Wine and beer are produced without distillation whereas whisky, brandy and rum are produced by distillation of the fermented broth.