Alcohol dilution calculator, recipes and tools
The terms that turn up in the calculator, the recipes and the guides — explained without assuming you know any chemistry. Every entry has its own page.
ABV, % vol., degrees Gay-Lussac, proof
The share of pure ethanol in the volume of a drink, referred in Europe to 20°C.
OIML R 22, density tables, TTB gauging tables
Official tables linking the density of an ethanol-water mixture to its strength at 20°C.
azeotropic mixture, constant-boiling mixture
A mixture whose vapour has the same composition as the liquid — for ethanol and water it falls at 95.6%.
Liebig condenser, worm condenser, chłodnica
The part where vapour turns back into liquid, cooled by water running counter to the vapour.
methylated spirits, surgical spirit, denaturat, Brennspiritus
Ethanol deliberately contaminated so it cannot be drunk — the denaturants cannot be removed at home.
reflux condenser, deflegmator
A condenser above the column that condenses heavier fractions and sends them back down.
destylacja, Destillation
Separating liquids by evaporating and recondensing them, using the difference in boiling points.
VE, excess molar volume, objętość nadmiarowa
The difference between the real volume of a mixture and the sum of its components.
alcoholic fermentation, fermentacja
The anaerobic conversion of sugar into ethanol and carbon dioxide, taking days to three weeks.
higher alcohols, fusel alcohols, fuzle
Alcohols with larger molecules than ethanol, responsible for a heavy smell and a hangover.
foreshots, fractions, przedgon, serce, pogon
A distillate divides into heads, hearts and tails — the first and last are discarded.
alcoholmeter, spirit hydrometer, areometer
A glass float that measures density, with a scale already converted into percent.
wash, zacier, Maische
A fermented mixture of water, sugar and yeast, from which the alcohol is distilled.
fractional distillation, rektyfikacja
Distillation repeated many times inside a column, so one pass reaches a high strength.
95% spirit, neutral spirit, Everclear, spirytus rektyfikowany
Ethanol purified by rectification to 95-96% — the azeotrope allows no higher.
negative excess volume, Mendeleev effect, kontrakcja objętości
Mixing spirit with water gives less liquid than the sum of the volumes — around 3.6% is lost at 50%.
turbo yeast, wine yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Fungi that turn sugar into ethanol; strains differ in how much alcohol they tolerate.