How can the same amount of beer and hard liquor have such different alcohol %. What exactly is different?
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Beer is the byproduct of the fermentation process. Grains are inoculated with yeast, which eats the sugars and converts the sugars to alcohol. When the beer reaches the desired ABV (alcohol by volume) the process is halted. Wine is produced the same way, they just use grape juice rather than grain.
There is a maximum ABV that can be achieved via this process. Eventually, the amount of alcohol in the beer becomes toxic to the yeast, and they die off.
To get a higher ABV – like whiskey – you take the fermented solution and distill it. Alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water, so by separating off the first substance that boils out of the liquid, you can get a **much** higher ABV in the distillate. Depending on what the distiller wants in the final product, they will then water down the distillate to the desired ABV and/or age it in barrels to get the desired end liquor.
TLDR: Whiskey is distilled, beer isn’t.
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