alcohometer went from 40 to 10 after infusion

[noobybooby]

I put 750 ml of ~40% neutral in a jar with 1/2 pineapple cut in slices. After 4 days I filtered it and now the alcoholmeter is reading 10%.
Any idea why? It doesn't taste like 10%, and it seems impossible anyway.

[kiwistiller]

alcometers only work in a mixture of ethanol and water. your pineapple will have put a lot of sugar into the mix and raised the specific gravity of the shine.

KS

[olddog]

What was the product temperature when first distilled, and what was the product temperature on the final test

[Husker]

With an alcoholometer, you can only measure pure distilled spirits. Once you add flavorings, glycerin, or worse yet sugar, the SG can not be computed right with this tool, and the reading you get will be bogus.

The way I 'measure' a final ABV, is to first determine the exact amount of ethanol you have to start. If you start with .80L of 50%, then you have exactly .40L of 'pure 100%' ethanol. Then, when you are done, say you have 1L, and I will 'assume' that all ethanol you started with is in there (this assumption may or may not be right). If all ethanol is in the final product, you STILL have .4L ethanol in that 1L batch. Thus, at the finishing time, you have 1L of 40% ABV.

NOTE, if you infuse fruit, you do lose 'some' ethanol in the fruit 'waste'. How much is hard to say, so if you use what I have done above, then you will have to realize that the final ABV will be a little lower than what you would compute.

If you are making a LARGER amount, and wanted to know for sure, you could take a fixed amount (say 1 liter), distill that out carefully in a leak free still (say distill out 75% of the volume, if you started with about a 40% abv), water up what was distilled out, back to 1 liter, and measure the ABV of that 1 liter. To measure like this, you pretty much need lab grade stuff, so that you are working with small batch stills, that are outputting ALL of what you expect them to. I think distilleries use this form of 'proofing' for sugary booze. Produce a 500K gallon batch, re-distill test 1 gallon, and the whole 500k batches proof can be set.

But for home, using the known start volume of ethanol, to known volume of unknown ABV final product, is the easiest way.

H.

[noobybooby]

thanks, I thought it might be a problem with the fruit sugars. The pineapple definitely absorbed some alcohol, I think I could get drunk just eating the pineapple slices. I did end up with a little less volume than what I started with, I'll assume that is what is now in the pineapple. I wonder if the pineapple absorb just the ethanol from the 40% ABV I started with, and not any of the water. If they only absorb the ethanol, my ABV will now be a little lower, like you said.
That is very interesting to know how a big distillery figures the ABV in a flavored liquor; I would of thought they'd have an easier measurement tool. I don't think I will be redistilling my stuff, it's enough to know it tastes good! Thanks for the info Husker.

[Husker]

That is very interesting to know how a big distillery figures the ABV in a flavored liquor; I would of thought they'd have an easier measurement tool. I don't think I will be redistilling my stuff, it's enough to know it tastes good! Thanks for the info Husker.

Some 'might'. You could easily 'make' a hydrometer that works fine in a 'known' strength flavored drink. However, the big boys have to have these 'certified' so the govt gets their proper greedy cut of the booty.

A hydro simply has to be properly 'scaled' for the expected material. The normal dirt cheap alcoholometers are simply scaled to work in pure water/ethanol mix. Just like a beer hydro, is scaled to work in water/sugar solution.

If a company always made a cheap fake pepperment schnapps that was about 70 proof, and had the same amount of sugar and other additives, then they could easily fabricate a hydro which could be scaled to the 1/10 of a proof from 66 go 74 proof, and then use that to get the batch 'right'. But for the final gubberment proofing, they would probably be forced to pull a small sample, redistill, and prove that it is a certain proof. But going 'into' the test, the company would know they are close enough. But that same tool would not work right, if they had a run of blackberry brandy, which had a different strength of sugar content. Each recipe would have to have it's own 'special' hydro scaled properly.

Thus, it is still easiest to know your ethanol going into flavoring, and know the volume coming out (and making allowances for any 'lost' in the flavoring process). Knowing that you can compute the ending ABV yourself. We are hobbyists here. Knowing the 'exact' proof is not really important. If you have 98 proof, or 101 proof, it really does not matter. To the greedy gobberment, that is a HUGE issue. They want exactness, so they get their graft in proper proportions.

H.

[noobybooby]

I made some more pineapple infused vodka. Tasted great. I didn't trust my accuracy to determine the alcohol %. So out of curiosity I sent a sample to a wine analysis lab; they tested it for $24; a gas chromatography test. Lo and behold, it was 23% ethanol, down from 40%. holy smokes. This is in a 1 liter batch made with 1.5 lbs pineapple. That is a greater reduction than for diluting with just water.

I questioned the accuracy of the results, and the technician said it could be inaccurate--but only about 1/10 of a %. He only tested for ethanol, not any other alcohols, but since I started with 95% before diluting I don't think there was much else in there. He suggested there was something to do with osmotic pressure going on, swapping the water in the pineapple (which can be as much as 87% water) with ethanol in the vodka. Makes sense, I guess.
So if you make infusions with fruit and they taste soooo smooth, it's probably because the alcohol % is very diluted.

I suppose I can smush the pineapple to try to release the alcohol after the infusion is finished, then mix that liquid in.

[Husker]

Put the pineapple in a glass jar, and cover it with sugar. You will end up with a thick syrup, which contains quite a lot of ethanol. Pour off this syrup, and add more sugar. Do this until the fruit releases no more syrup. You can then add this sugar to other products.

See the 'pantie dropper' recipe for more information on reclaiming the ethanol out of the fruit.

H.

[noobybooby]

I will give the sugar alcohol extraction a try, thanks.