Re: Of DOT3, alcohol antifreeze, vinegar and other alchemy
Posted by Rusty O\'Toole On 2010/5/21 1:40:23
Quote:
PackardV8 wrote:
Is there a way to determine the percentage of alcohol in a mixture????? A way that can be done in the home shop???
I'll get to the point. I have a batch of wine that has completed fermentation and would like to determine the alcohol percentage.
The current method used is to use a wine hydrometer and measure the specific gravity of the slurry just minutes or a few hours after slurry is mixed and created (i.e. BEFORE fermnetation starts).
I've already done all of the googling and asked the wine store experts. I just don't believe that the alcohol content can be determined before the alcohol is produced by fermentation. Or can it??? I've wondered about this for decades.
Your hydrometer will allow you to determine the percentage of alcohol after fermentation.
To determine the percentage before fermentation you need to do a Brix test.
See this link for a tester and how it is used.
http://www.leevalley.com/en/garden/page.aspx?cat=2,2120&p=46784
Once you determine the sugar content you can easily calculate the potential alcohol content. To increase it you can add sugar, to reduce it you can stop fermentation early to get a sweeter wine that is lower in alcohol.
There is a limit to the percentage of alcohol that can be achieved by fermentation. The alcohol kills the yeast eventually.
All this should be covered in a good book on home wine making.
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