We know that.
That’s friggin’ methanol.
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I’m not a chemist, but there’s also some stuff called fusel oil:
I first heard that word years and years ago from my dad, and because it was my dad’s word, I thought it must be some kind of old-timer slang. I finally got around to looking it up a few years back. Dad was right!
I’m pretty sure the aging process is for getting rid of that (and maybe for getting rid of other stuff).
One day a long time ago I was sitting in a bar in Baton Rouge, and my favorite bartender (RIP) set a glass down in front of me–a glass of stuff that looked like whiskey, but it had black specks in it–and said, “I went to a lot of trouble to get this, so don’t gulp it down.” I made several goofy guesses about what it was, and he finally told me that it was charred moonshine–I guess that meant moonshine that was aged by charring the inside of the barrel. I guess the charcoal gets rid of (absorbs? filters?) some or all of the fusel oil, and maybe some other stuff, too.
Kaoliang is sorghum.
Kaoliang Liquor is made from Kaoliang.
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Nice pics!
In the summer of 1969, I worked on a farm near St. Francisville, Louisiana (only for about half the summer, but I got there as soon as I could 
). The farm alternated between growing cotton and growing soybeans, and it also raised hogs, apparently on contract with the Frey meat packing company in Lafayette. That company seemed to have certain standards about the hogs that it would accept for slaughter, and one of the standards was that the hogs had to be grain-fed. Apparently that standard could be met by feeding them soy beans, but the farmer added sorghum to the soy meal, I think to make it more appetizing to the hogs.
Back around 1999, I got this crazy notion to go wander around on the North Louisiana property that had once been owned by my maternal grandfather (1882-1942). Now, please don’t try this at home; I was trespassing, and I could have got arrested. Anyway, among the things that I saw growing on my grandfather’s former property were plants that looked like the plants in your picture. I’m no farmer, but I guessed that sorghum was being grown on that land.
(It also looked like rice was being grown there, which I found strange, because this was North Louisiana, and I’d always associated rice cultivation with South Louisiana. But like I said, I’m no farmer.)
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Is there not a way in Mandarin to disambiguate that it is the grain as opposed to the drink?
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There is. 高粱酒&高粱米. It’s just that the latter isn’t even remotely as common as the liquor so we don’t usually specify which kaoliang we’re talking about.
At least in Taiwan.
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Well, the foreshot will be methanol. The tails will just taste nasty. In general.
But Explant’s comment certainly explains why gaoliang is one of the vilest distilled spirits I’ve ever tasted.
The current discussion got me to do some Googling about whether the U. S. had anything like kaoliang, and I found out that some kind of sorghum rum used to be produced in the U. S. in the nineteenth century (maybe even earlier, but I’m not sure). But I doubt there’s much of it being produced now. I also saw at least one ad, apparently in the U. S., for “sorghum whiskey.” whatever that might be
Edited to add: Please disregard the stricken portions above, because some concerns in the U. S. seem to be making liquor from sorghum:
And here’s some of the aforementioned sorghum whiskey:
Correct, and ither distilation impurities.
Thats why i.dont drink kaoliang…its dirty alcohol.
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Yes, i typed it above 
You could also mention seed rathe than.fruit at the end. The truth is, not everyone is fluent in their native tongue, and these words arent all that common for everyone. Same with english. So dont take it personal if locals dont understand your mandarin. Often they dont understand euther…
If someone started talking computer parts with me in English i would also look dumb as all hell.
I’d be more curious why Taiwanese don’t refer to it at Baijiu (白酒) as they would in China.
Kinmen Kaoliang company was started in 1952 and most likely had a lot of influence from the Chinese Nationalists. Not sure if many Chinese would know what Kaoliang liquor 高粱酒 is?
Either in Taiwan or China, 白酒 refers to a catogory of alcoholic beverages, not a specific drink.
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Chinese people do know kaoliang. But depends on the regent, in some places it’s not as popular.
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Ditto.
Plus.
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Taiwan is WAY better at marketing than china.
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Taiwan knows better than to downgrade their brands reputation by copying a chinese name.
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As such, taiwan gets the Chinese to do all the hard work (farming the grains) and taiwan does all the technical work and markets it better as a MIT specialty product.
Profit!