Calculating liquor ratios?

[Spriit Tisler]

So if we were to make certain liquor drinks that should have for example 40abv alcohol content with 260g/L of sugar and flavor additives, what would be the easiest way to determine the mixing ratios when the basic starting ingredients would be 95abv spirit, table sugar (invert sugar would also work for better solubility) and additional flavoring ingredients? Apparently just diluting the spirit to 40abv and adding sugar would reduce lower than 40abv.

So is my math all rusty, or should I dissolve 260g (160ml) of sugar in 420ml of water, dissolve(or invert it) for solubility and then add 420ml of 95abv alcohol to total of 1L? Flavoring agents would be concentrated form and they would consist max of milliliters, which could be taken off from the water mixed with sugar if absolute balance would be required.

Is invert sugar used in flavoring of sweet liquors instead of dissolved sugar?

[sweeps]

How good is your French?

http://fairesagnole.eu/page4/page28/diluer.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[Spriit Tisler]

Don't speak a word of it, but google translate makes it translitterable. The table appears to confirm my calculations. Sugar should be converted to volume from grams (one ml of sugar is 1.59g) and then the ratios are easy to calculate: 42:42:16.

[Danespirit]

Well, the parent site offers a bunch of calculators too.
http://homedistiller.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Look at the calcs section at the top of the site.

[zapata]

I use an app for simple dilutions(spirit calc?), though it can be done by hand. If doing by hand make sure you understand how to calculate shrinkage (100ml h2o+100ml etoh does NOT = 200 ml).

But the sugar would throw off my hand calcs, the home page calc, and my app. How close do you NEED to be? I often find close enough is close enough. I do final adjustments by taste anyway and don't care if that is nest at 39% or 42%.

[Spriit Tisler]

HD home appears to have various calculators but none of them seem to concern the blending ratios of other constitutes than water and alcohol.

And no, it really doesn't need to be that accurate, I find my tolerance to sit within few %, on practice how precise a kitchen measures and scales can do, and that sits around few 10's of ml's and grams. What I usually do is to figure out as much detail as I can pull from commercial product (like peppermint or liquorice liquor) and make the first test batch in small scale to taste it out, and adjust if necessary. For making punches I add ingredients for taste, but I usually try to settle the abv between 8 and 12 to make it as enjoyable as possible. Last time it had about 15abv of all-bran&oatmeal vodka which was exceptionally smooth for my and my friends' taste and it literally had no taste or feel of alcohol in it. Prior I had issues with sugar burn and sharp taste but now it's all gone.

[Kareltje]

I made a calculation for Ouzo in Excel, neglecting the contraction of alcohol and water.