What type of alcohol is used for processing alcoholic beverages?

Answer 1

As my organic prof used to say, "To the general public there are three kinds of alcohol; the kind you drink (ethyl alcohol), the kind you drink and go blind (wood or methyl alcohol) and the kind you rub on your back (rubbing alcohol or isopropyl alcohol)." The point he was making is that there are literally thousands of alcohols but those three are the common ones that most people know about. Ethyl alcohol is the one in alcoholic beverages.