Spirits

Spirits are distilled alcohol, produced in an Alembic from wine or beer. There are several different varieties of spirits, as well as different purity levels.

Classification of Spirits

There are ten types of spirits: Rock, Wood, Worm, Grain, Grass, Fruit, Vegetable, Mineral, Fish, and Grey. The type corresponds to the temperature range at which it is extracted from alcohol in an Alembic, and the temperature at which it burns when used to make Essences. Rock Spirits have the lowest temperature, and Grey Spirits the highest (although Grey Spirits can't be extracted from an Alembic by type; only by quality).

Spirits are then further categorized by purity level, with the most pure referred to as Spirits of Ra, followed by Spirits of Life, Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. Spirits below Earth quality are classified as Grey Spirits. Thus, for example, a request for "Worm Spirits of Fire or better" is fulfillable by Worm Spirits of Fire, Air, Life, or Ra.

Note that Grey is considered both a type and a quality. Spirits of type Grey are always of quality Grey, and vice-versa.

Starting Beverages

Wines with high Residual Sugar are used to make Vegetable, Mineral, and Fish Spirits.
Wines with high Tannin are used to make Wood, Worm, and Grain Spirits.
Beer is used to make Rock Spirits, and can also be used to make Wood, Worm and Grain Spirits.

Fruit and Grass spirits can be made by carefully mixing the top end of the low-temperature (tannin) wine range with the bottom end of the high-temperature (sugar) wine range. The spirits will most likely be of Earth quality, although spirits of Water may be possible under ideal circumstances (Fruit Spirits of Water have been observed).

• Note from Hekatef: Fruit Spirits of Earth are possible, through patient distilling of beer and wine simultaneously. I did it by taking 1 unit of Grain Spirits from beer, then adding wine and carefully distilling from the Vegetable range. This yields Grey Spirits at first, but as more Vegetable Spirits are added to the mix, the purity improves again. It took a lot of time, a few tries and several wines, but I was able to distill Fruit Spirits of Earth from Vegetable and a little bit of Grain. Don't know yet whether Grass Spirits can be synthesized in a similar fashion, but I'll update if I am successful.