Percentage by volume

[Ali00525]

Please  help me with this matter. I have extacted 1liter of thanol from suger and yeast. I don't have access to alcoholmeter to know the purity of ethanol and its percentage. I know the weight of my ethanol which is 850 g for 1 liter. Is there any way that i can measure the ethanol percentage for the extracted ehanol? 

 

 

Many thanks for your help. 

[Bufofrog]

Just looking at the density and assuming that the mixture is just water and ethyl alcohol and if the temperature is 20C, then the concentration is 77.3%.

Here is a calculator for you.

Since you obviously distilled this, I have a couple of watchouts.

1.  If this is being distilled for consumption and you do not have a license then you are breaking the law.

2.  If you collect the alcohol before the proper distillation temperature is reached then you will have contaminated your ethyl alcohol with poisonous methyl alcohol.

Be careful!

 

[Sensei]

The basic alcoholmeter is just measuring density of liquid. It costs less than 10 usd on e.g. ebay.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrometer

You can easily convert saccharometer to alcoholmeter. Get reference 96% ethanol in the shop and add precisely measured amount of water. Record equivalent saccharometer readings. Repeat.

[John Cuthber]

21 hours ago, Bufofrog said:

Since you obviously distilled this

That isn't obvious at all. It's quite possibly not even true.

4 hours ago, Sensei said:

The basic alcoholmeter is just measuring density of liquid

Unless it isn't. The term is also used for these

http://www.hambletonbard.com/how-to-make-wine-beer-moonshine-alcohol/wine-alcohol-meter-homebrew-vinometer.html

 

4 hours ago, Sensei said:

You can easily convert saccharometer to alcoholmeter. Get reference 96% ethanol in the shop and add precisely measured amount of water. Record equivalent saccharometer readings. Repeat.

Except it won't work very well.
A saccharometer will be designed to measure densities above that of water. 
Solutions of alcohol will be less dense than water.

 

To use a hydrometer to get anything like an accurate measurement of alcohol concentration of wine or beer, you need to know the density before and after fermentation. Otherwise the other components of the mixture  will influence the density and thus the apparent alcohol concentration. 

In the absence of better data, about half the weight of sugar becomes alcohol.

 

 

[Bufofrog]

2 hours ago, John Cuthber said:

That isn't obvious at all. It's quite possibly not even true.

Well distillation is the only reasonable way to get to 70% alcohol that I know of.  Ethyl alcohol % from fermentation is going to max out at in the high teens.

[John Cuthber]

5 hours ago, Bufofrog said:

Well distillation is the only reasonable way to get to 70% alcohol that I know of.  Ethyl alcohol % from fermentation is going to max out at in the high teens.

Could have been  freezing.

[Bufofrog]

1 hour ago, John Cuthber said:

Could have been  freezing.

I was not aware of that method but it definitely makes sense.

[HallsofIvy]

When I was in college (in Cambridge, Mass. where it get cold in the winter!) I heard about (but never knew anyone who actually did it) putting fermented liquor in a plastic bottle and leaving it out over night.  Since alcohol freezes at a much lower temperature than water (114 degrees C lower) in the morning you would have a block of ice with a liquid center.  Use an ice pick (does any body have one of those any more?) to punch a hole to that liquid center and pour the high alcohol center into a container. 

[swansont]

It's a way to make e.g. applejack. Freeze distillation, which John alluded to

http://www.distillingliquor.com/2015/02/13/how-to-make-applejack-freeze-distillation/