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In chemistry, a congener is a substance that is similar to the desired substance, produced at the same time as the desired substance by the process that is being used to make the target substance. In the alcoholic beverages industry, congeners are substances, other than the desired type of alcohol, ethanol, produced during fermentation. The chemical factories in yeast are not perfect in ethanol production and will produce these other alcohol-class substances, typically in much smaller quantities than ethanol, however. These other substances include chemicals such as methanol and other alcohols (known as fusel alcohols), acetone, acetaldehyde, esters, tannins, and aldehydes (e.g. furfural). Congeners are responsible for most of the taste and aroma of distilled (unflavored) alcoholic beverages, and contribute to the taste of non-distilled drinks. It has been suggested that these substances contribute to the symptoms of a hangover. Congeners are also used by forensic toxicologists to determine what a person drank in a sub-discipline called alcohol congener analysis.

During distillation, congeners are found in all cuts of the distillate, and each congener will vary in proportion in each cut according to the volatility of each congener.

A slobber box is a simple moonshiners method of reducing congeners.