# alcohol % ???



## Moonshae (Jun 7, 2007)

If you didn't measure the sg in the beginning, you're pretty much stuck. Not knowing where you started, knowing where you are won't help. It's like being at mile marker 335 on the highway...if you don't know the mile marker where you got on the highway, you can't tell how far you've traveled.


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## Ben Brewcat (Oct 27, 2004)

Do you have the recipe? We can figure out the original fermentables from that, and then from the final gravity do the math.


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## Ben Brewcat (Oct 27, 2004)

Oh, or if it's a dry mead you could certainly use a proof hydrometer or a winemaker's thingie. I forget the name, but it's basically a pipette with a graduated scale; capillary action of ethanol compared to water is how it works. But for both, you need a dry mead because sugar interferes. Vinometer!


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## BjornBee (Feb 7, 2003)

Send me some. I'll "ballpark" it for you....


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## Aspera (Aug 1, 2005)

Bjorn's method is unreliable.....You better send some to me to confirm his findings.


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## BjornBee (Feb 7, 2003)

Send me some, send Aspera some, then send some extra. We'll need to compare notes over a few drinks to get it right. You do want it right don't ya?


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## AndrewSchwab (Dec 9, 2005)

Stop By And I Will Share With All, Maybe Not All Its A Small House.

The Problem Is There Is Fruit In Most Of These. I Know The 1lb Honey = 1% Booze, Abouts, But When The Fruit Is Tossed In That Changes Everything.

I Live In The Middle Of Oregon Wine Country, There Is A Lab The Next Town Over, Wondering What The Cost Would Be To Test Samples And Get The Proof That Way. 

How Do They Get The % For Wines? Since It Has To Be On The Label I Assume It Is Pretty Accurate


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## Ben Brewcat (Oct 27, 2004)

They get it the same way we do; before and after gravity readings. Fruit doesn't change the equation too crazily. A lab analysis if I recall goes around $20 to $40 depending on what you want analyzed. But that was a long time ago and for only one lab (Siebel).


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## Fuzzy (Aug 4, 2005)

Alcohol boils off at 78c (about 173 F).

Take a known quantity (100ml) of mead, raise the temp to about 180F/81c, and hold it there for 20 minutes or so. Let the solution cool and measure the remaining volume. 
You can then compute the % by volume (original volume - final volume)/original volume.

Haven't tried it, but science says it should be accurate.

Fuzzy


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## nsmith1957 (Sep 7, 2006)

Man ya let the best part evaporate off. What a shame. lol


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## Fuzzy (Aug 4, 2005)

Nsmith, I suppose that you could connect a condenser coil and harvest the runoff. But then you would be guilty of running an illegal still.

Fuzzy


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## AndrewSchwab (Dec 9, 2005)

*thanks fuzzy*

I may give that a try, illegal still don't get me started 

HOME OF THE FREE???


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## Ben Brewcat (Oct 27, 2004)

Seen on a T-shirt:


America: Land of the Free*
*Void where prohibited, some restrictions apply


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## kc in wv (Feb 1, 2006)

Fuzzy said:


> Alcohol boils off at 78c (about 173 F).
> 
> Take a known quantity (100ml) of mead, raise the temp to about 180F/81c, and hold it there for 20 minutes or so. Let the solution cool and measure the remaining volume.
> You can then compute the % by volume (original volume - final volume)/original volume.
> ...


We did something like that in high school chemistry. I don't remember the details though. That was ?? years ago.


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