Measuring & Adjusting the Strength of Your Alcohol

An Alcometer (as apposed to a Wash, Wine & Beer Hydrometer) is used to test the strength of your spirit. Additives such as flavouring and Liquid Glucose will distort the hydrometer readings. Alcometers should only be used to test spirit in the following conditions:
• before any additives such as flavouring or liquid glucose are mixed.
• at temperature of 16 degrees C or refer to the Temperature Correction Chart below. Taking readings of warmer liquids may damage your hydrometer.
• The Alcometer is floated in the spirit to measure the alcohol content. As alcohol is thinner than water, the higher in strength the alcohol is, the further down the hydrometer floats. The reading is taken where the surface of the spirit cuts the scale of the hydrometer.



Temperature Correction for Alcometer
Temp / %V	30	40	50	60	70	80	90
10	2.47	2.39	2.20	2.07	1.91	1.75	1.47
15	0.41	0.40	0.37	0.35	0.32	0.29	0.25
20	-1.64	-1.59	-1.47	-1.38	-1.28	-1.17	-0.98
25	-3.70	-3.58	-3.30	-3.11	-2.87	-2.63	-2.21
30	-5.75	-5.57	-5.14	-4.83	-4.47	-4.09	-3.43
35	-7.81	-7.56	-6.97	-6.56	-6.06	-5.55	-4.66



Take good care of your Alcometer as it's very fragile. Wash and sterilize with cold water only.
Prior to Carbon Purifying, the spirit should be watered down in strength to 38-40% by volume prior to drinking. It is very important not to make higher strength spirit.

Calculation
Litres collected x Alcohol strength / Alcohol strength required = Total litres to be made up to. e.g 4.5 litres x 45% / 40% = 5.06 litres.
If you collect 4.5 litres of spirit and this measured 45% after carbon purifying, then multiply 4.5 x 45. Divide this by 40% and you will need to make the total spirit up to 5.06 litres with water. In other words add .56 of a litre of water. This is a rough guide only but a very good one to follow.

Watering down the spirit to 40%, or less is very important as people unused to high strength spirit can easily overdose resulting in Nausea and in extreme cases death.
LIKKER 'n' LEATHER, 9 Dutton Street Walkerston. QLD 4751,Ph 49592859

Dilution Calculators

Proof or Abv ?

In the US a very simple relationship is defined between 'proof' and % AbV. It is that proof = 2 × %AbV So, 180 proof (US) = 90 %AbV.

It the UK it was laid down by an Act of Parliament in 1816 that "a quantity of 100 proof liquor would have the same weight as 12/13 ths of the same volume of pure water at 51°F." (That is twelve thirteenths) So,
100 proof (UK) = 57.06 %AbV
200 proof (US) = 100 %AbV = 175.25 proof (UK)
100 proof (US) = 50 %AbV = 87.6 proof (UK)

To avoid confusion, most alcohol for export from the UK is labelled at AbV.

A bit of history...

What is Proof?

Proof is another (older) measure of the strength of an alcoholic liquid. It had its origins in days when a simple test was needed that the liquor did indeed contain a *correct* measure (or more) of alcohol. And it was indeed a simple test.

Some of the liquor was poured over a little gunpowder and ignited. If the alcohol content was adequate, then it would burn 'just right' with a steady blue flame and eventually ignite the gunpowder. If there was insufficient alcohol then it would fizzle out and the gunpowder would be too wet to burn. The 'just right' condition 'proved' the liquor and it was declared to be '100 proof'.

This simple test was clearly cumbersome to perform and was later replaced by using a specially graduated hydrometer to measure the specific gravity. This was far more objective and allowed precise statements to be made as to how much different it was from being 100 proof. This gave rise to "under-proof" and "over-proof" measures.

Keep your powder dry (or wet it with the right stuff!) At one time (in the days of sailing ships, cannons and gunpowder) the makers of Plymouth Gin distilled a special gin for the Royal Navy. It was 57%AbV or 100 proof. Why? In order to keep it secure it was stored in the magazine close by the gunpowder. So, even if it leaked and wetted the gunpowder, at 100% proof the gunpowder would still explode. Though that need has been long gone, they still market the stuff!