I’ve never understood what dry gin (Gordon’s), dry vermouth, or extra dry beer (Toohey’s) etc means..
Seems very counter-intuitive to me.
In: Chemistry
Dry means no residual sugar.
Alcohol is made by yeast consuming sugars and producing alcohol plus carbon dioxide. A “dry” product is one where the yeasts were allowed to consume all sugar. Semi-dry, semi-sweet or sweet are the other options, all based on the remaining sugar content. Yeasts will continue to consume sugars as long as they exist so to make a semi sweet product for example you have to either kill the yeast (arrested fermentation) or allow it to ferment to dry then remove the yeasts and then back sweeten with sugar or fruit juices.
(I work at a cidery)
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