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How can you measure the proof after adding a simple sugar syrup mix? I've been making a bunch of different flavors of my shine but I'm only able to measure the proof by taste and guess what it is. Once you add sugar your hydrometer (proof) meter is rendered usless. reads zero.
So how can I actually measure it?

Refractometer?

About all you can do is mix by liquid volumes using the product dilute calculations from the parent site .

Once you add something to a spirit. You no longer can measure proof. It will need to be calculated from the volumes used.

There are processes but they destroy the product...proofing and gauging after blending are a nightmare.

Take a quart of your finished product and distill the alcohol off it never letting the temp get over 212 deg F. Measure the volumes.

Best to keep track of what you're blending/mixing as your doing it.

DAD300 wrote:There are processes but they destroy the product...proofing and gauging after blending are a nightmare.

Take a quart of your finished product and distill the alcohol off it never letting the temp get over 212 deg F. Measure the volumes.

Best to keep track of what you're blending/mixing as your doing it.

Agreed, a huge pain to do.

Just a clarification on what DAD300 said, you don't actually need to collect the alcohol that you distill off. Take a known volume and measure the Specific Gravity. Heat the product to drive as much alcohol as possible. Make up the volume back to the original starting volume using pure water. Measure the SG again. You can use the ratio of SG's, called 'spirit indication' to calculate the alcohol in the original sample. If you Google 'spirit indication' you'll find more detailed methods and calculation tables.