How to properly dilute pure alcohol. How to dilute alcohol with water to make good quality vodka

To prepare most alcoholic drinks at home, you do not need pure alcohol (96%), but diluted. Therefore, the question of how to dilute alcohol correctly is especially relevant today. In addition, 40% vodka is not always suitable for creating homemade tinctures, as many believe.

Alcohol has always been considered an excellent solvent, and the more it is in a particular liquid, the better it will draw the right substances from products (usually essential oils). Therefore, in the question of how to properly dilute alcohol, it is better to take a product of at least 45% as a basis, or even use its pure version if it is necessary for tincture of a certain drink that requires a given strength according to the recipe.

The procedure for diluting alcohol with water is called the "cold" method of production, and is often used even in distilleries. For home use, properly diluting alcohol with water is the ideal way to achieve the desired strength of the solution.

The procedure itself is not difficult, but it is still important to familiarize yourself and subsequently follow a certain technology in order to get vodka or another alcoholic drink.

Everyone knows that strong drinks have been revered in Rus' since ancient times, where Russian vodka is considered one of the favorites. In this regard, modern industrial production produces a variety of products. But why is it better to cook it yourself at home?

The answer is obvious - homemade drink is much better. At the same time, it is known what and in what proportions it was used for its manufacture. For this, you need to know how to properly dilute alcohol at home.

This cooking process consists of the following steps:

As a rule, alcohol is sold with a strength of 96%, and vodka has a lower strength - 40%. Accordingly, in order to get an alcoholic drink from the first, it is diluted with plain water. However, water should be taken only clean, for example, passed through a filter or spring.
To know how to properly dilute alcohol to 40 degrees, you need to remember and observe a strict proportion - 2 parts of alcohol and 3 parts of water. Thus, to obtain 1.25 liters of vodka, it is necessary to dilute 0.5 liters of alcohol with 0.75 liters of water.
If the purpose of breeding is not getting a strong drink, then at this stage you can stop. However, since alcohol is used for drinking, in order to get a home-made strong drink, it should still be ennobled. To do this, add 1 tsp to 1 liter of the diluted product. honey liquid consistency, 1 tsp. sugar and a pinch of citric acid. Then you need to shake well and leave to infuse in a bottle for 3 days. As a result, vodka comes out especially tasty and soft.
If it so happened that flakes formed in the drink, then the water used contained a lot of moles. To eliminate the trouble, you need to add 6 tablets of activated charcoal to a bottle of vodka, and after 3 hours strain everything with filtered paper.
To dilute alcohol correctly at a strength of 70%, other proportions should be followed - 100 ml of alcohol is diluted with 78 ml of water.

To properly dilute alcohol with water in order to get a drink of non-standard strength, a table will help, which shows the desired proportions.

It is strictly forbidden to dilute technical ethyl alcohol with water, because it contains many different impurities, which is fraught with adverse consequences for the body. For consumption, you need to use only medical alcohol at home.

Several tincture recipes

Tincture is a drink with a strength of up to 60%, which can be obtained by infusing an alcohol-water solution with fruits, berries, herbs and various spices. Also, the recipe includes sugar or syrup based on it and some other ingredients. Of course, the procedure is more complicated than just dilution of alcohol with the addition of other ingredients. The tincture must be allowed to brew for a minimum of 21-50 days, and a maximum of 60-180 days, so you should be patient.

Consider a few simple recipes for different tinctures, from which you can choose the most suitable option.

To prepare cherry bitters, you will need the following products:

cherry - 2 kg;
water;
alcohol.

Initially, it is necessary to slightly dry the cherry in the oven at minimum heat and dilute it with a little water. After that, the cherry should be placed in a bottle and poured with a hot liquid.

After the tincture period, the drink will need to be diluted with water.

The next recipe is a spicy cinnamon tincture. To prepare it, you need to add 4 tbsp to undiluted 1 liter of alcohol. l. dried blueberries, 2 tbsp. l. grated almonds and 1 tsp. ground cinnamon and cloves. According to this recipe, the tincture should be infused for 14 days.

And one more recipe by which you can make sweet Voronets at home.

For cooking you will need the following ingredients:

alcohol or vodka - 1 l;
sugar syrup or honey - 180-250 g;
ground cinnamon - 1 tsp;
cardamom - 0.5 tsp;
nutmeg and cloves - 1/4 tsp each

All components should be added to the alcohol, after which the mixture should be put in the oven, heated to 50 °, for 6 hours. Upon completion, the drink is filtered and placed in a cool, dark place.

Summing up, I would like to note that knowing how to properly dilute alcohol at home, you can prepare not only high-quality vodka, but also a delicious tincture.

At the same time, alcohol in the house is always useful, because it is used not only for culinary purposes. It is an almost universal product.

I make extracts and tinctures...

cold way

This is the process of mixing water and alcohol in certain proportions, depending on what strength we need to get vodka.

Only soft water is needed to make high-quality vodka. It is best to use spring water, in extreme cases, boiled water is suitable, which must be quickly cooled. Distilled water improves the taste of the drink.

In the preparation of vodkas, the optimal ratio between the components is 3: 2, where 2 parts of alcohol are taken for 3 parts of water. To accurately determine the amount of solutions, special volumetric utensils are used.

When making vodka in this way, it is necessary to fulfill a number of requirements for the quality of the finished drink:

1. Alcohol is poured into water (but in no case vice versa!) And the resulting solution is thoroughly mixed. If the container in which the solution is located is tightly closed, then shake it well.

In the event that you do the opposite, the alcohol will change its color.

From a transparent color, it will turn into a white, slightly milky color. And the alcohol will be spoiled.

For example, we need to get 70% alcohol from pure 96% alcohol, which is used to make medicinal tinctures. You need to do the following.

To obtain 100 g of 70% alcohol, 23 g of water and 77 g of pure alcohol are taken. To correctly measure the liquid, use a medical beaker. First, 23 g of water are measured and poured into a vessel, then 77 g of alcohol and placed in the same vessel. The resulting liquid will have a 70 ° fortress (you can check with an alcohol meter).

2. While mixing, an aqueous solution of honey (prepared in a ratio of honey and water 1: 1) or sugar syrup, prepared from 3 teaspoons of sugar per 1 liter of solution, is added to the solution.

In order to give ordinary vodka or alcohol purchased in a distribution network an original aroma and taste, several "ennobling" methods are used, which include tinting and sweetening.

Preparation of syrup for sweetening vodka. A syrup is prepared for sweetening: the constituent components, and these are sugar syrup and water, are taken in a ratio of 1: 1, that is, 1 liter of water is used for 1 kg of sugar.

Sugar and water are placed in a separate pan and boiled over low heat. In this case, it is necessary to constantly remove the foam that forms on the surface. The syrup will be ready only when the "unwanted" foam stops appearing. After that, remove from the fire and cool. Then the syrup is insisted for 14 days, after which it is finally ready.

To sweeten vodka with the resulting syrup, take 0.5 syrup per 1 liter of water. But in general, the amount of sugar present in vodka depends on your taste - if you wish, you can add either less or more.

When alcohol and syrup (or honey) are mixed, a chemical reaction occurs, gases are released and the solution is heated.

As soon as the evolution of gases stops, this means that the reaction has already ended, the solution has mixed and now has a homogeneous mass.

Adhering to the classical technology, the resulting solution is passed through an activated charcoal column, but at home you can do the following: put a few tablets of activated charcoal into a vessel with raw vodka and shake thoroughly.

The resulting solution is infused for 2 hours in a warm place (enough room temperature) and filtered through a dense cloth. Vodka is almost ready. It is bottled, corked tightly and placed in a cool place where the temperature does not exceed 3-4 "C. Only under such conditions does the prepared drink acquire a pleasant taste, and the taste of alcohol practically disappears.

Fans of aromatic drinks, along with honey, add a small amount of herbal infusion to vodka (it can be mint, St. John's wort, etc.). If desired, the drink is given any color.

P.s.
bought medical alcohol and alcohol-mer
measured - shows 75 degrees ...
who is lying? manufacturer or alcohol-mer?
viburnum and cranberries are waiting...

Even when treating the skin with undiluted alcohol, burns can occur. It is strictly forbidden to take such alcohol inside, you will burn the mucous membrane of the larynx. It must be diluted with water before use. In this article we will tell you how to do it correctly, what kind of water is needed and in what proportions to mix.

About Ingredients

Alcohol

According to the composition and degree of purification, alcohol is divided into the following types:

from 96.3% - extra, luxury, alpha;
from 96.0% - basis;
from 96.0% - the highest purification;
first grade.

Alcohol of the first grade is unsuitable for the preparation of alcoholic beverages. Cheap vodka is made from the highest purity alcohols. Luxe and extra spirits are acceptable and are made from a combination of grains and potatoes. Moreover, the content of potato starch in the wort should be no more than 35%. Alpha alcohol is considered the best. It is prepared only from grain crops.

Water

Tap water will not work. Some recommend spring water, melted water or just pure bottled water. Spring water can be too hard, melt water is generally not safe in our environment, and the quality of bottled water is questionable. In these cases, we do not guarantee you a positive mixing result.

Filtered or distilled water works well for mixing. Moreover, when mixed with filtered water, the result is also difficult to predict. It depends on the mineral composition and hardness of the water. Distilled water would be ideal. It is free of salts and impurities and has no taste, color or smell.

In summary: mixing success is only guaranteed with distilled water. It is sold in a pharmacy.

Proportions, mixing process and cleaning

How to dilute alcohol with water? The optimal mixing formula was developed by D.I. Mendeleev: 2 to 3. Roughly speaking, the resulting liquid should contain 40% alcohol and 60% water. If you find it difficult to navigate, to get 40% vodka from 96% alcohol, pour 1 liter of alcohol into 1.4 liters of water. The extended formula for obtaining the amount of water needed to dilute alcohol looks like this:

X=V*(N/M-1)

X is the volume of water in ml;
V is the volume of alcohol in ml;
N is the initial alcohol strength;
M is the desired alcohol strength.

The formula is designed for alcohol with a strength of 96%. If the strength of the original alcohol is lower, use the Fertman table, where the columns indicate the strength of the original alcohol, and the rows indicate the strength you want to get. At the intersection of these parameters you will find the amount of water to breed. Water is indicated in ml and is calculated for a volume of alcohol of 100 ml.

Before mixing, heat the ingredients to 20°C. This is necessary to achieve an accurate indicator of the strength of the drink. If the ingredients are at a different temperature, deviations in strength by one or more degrees per unit of temperature are possible.
Pour alcohol into water, not vice versa. Add alcohol little by little, controlling its content with a hydrometer (alcohol meter). Remember, if you pour in more alcohol than necessary, you can no longer add water to this mixture.

After mixing, let the liquid stand a little warm for 2-4 hours and clean. Before settling, you can throw activated charcoal into the solution (several tablets). Then strain the liquid through a paper filter or a thick cloth.

Additives

To soften and improve the taste of the drink, you can add:

Glucose (not more than 40 ml per 1 liter of alcohol);
Honey (honey content should not exceed 10% of finished vodka);
Citric or acetic acid (no more than one 1 tablespoon).

Concerning additives opinions of experts are divided. Some suggest mixing first, and then adding. Others - first prepare the water with additives, and then mix it with alcohol.

settling

After mixing, let the alcohol sit for at least two days. But it is better to defend it for a week to give time for the completion of all chemical processes. Settling takes place in a dark and cold place at a temperature of 4 ° C.

After settling, the alcohol is ready for use. Don't be surprised if it gets smaller. It's just that some of the substances reacted and turned into other compounds, so the final volume of vodka decreased slightly.

You can continue to dilute it further according to the table below if you need a smaller fortress. When bottling for long-term storage, it is important to seal them tightly. Otherwise, the alcohol will evaporate, and the vodka will "run out of steam", that is, it will lose its strength.

It would seem that it could be easier than to make a drinkable liquid from alcohol. That is, dilute to the 40 degrees recommended by the Ministry of Health.
Although there are individuals who can absorb alcohol in its pure form, we are not one of them, so we will dilute it.

How to properly dilute alcohol with water to get a ready-to-drink drink? First we need:

Food or medical alcohol, a fortress of 96%. We take, of course, ethyl alcohol, which is suitable for ingestion. As you know, there is also methyl (technical) alcohol, which is a poison. He has completely different tasks and it is not necessary to take him. Even as a gift.
There are, of course, methods that allow you to distinguish ethyl alcohol from technical (methyl), but all of them do not give a 100% guarantee, so the most reliable thing is to buy (take) alcohol in a safe place.
Purified water, can be bottled, but better distilled. Tap water, like boiled water, is not suitable, as it is hard, that is, it has a lot of dissolved salts. This will affect the taste of our drink and, moreover, such water may become cloudy during the preparation of vodka.
Measuring container

Preparation of pure vodka with a strength of 40 degrees without additives.

Take for example 500 ml 96% alcohol. This amount needs 700 ml. water. If you have a different amount of alcohol, then we take less or more water, respectively, so that the proportion would be observed.
If you want to get vodka of a different strength, or if your alcohol is not standard 96%, then you need to use special online calculators or relevant tables to calculate the required proportions.

Table of the ratio of alcohol and water in the preparation of vodka.
The amount of water is indicated per 100 parts of alcohol. For example, to prepare a 40 degree drink from 95% alcohol, you need to take 144.4 ml of water and 100 ml of alcohol.

First, pour water into a container in which we will dilute our magic solution. The water should not be warm. It is best if it is not just at room temperature, but chilled.
Important: it is necessary to pour alcohol into water, and not vice versa. Otherwise, you risk getting a cloudy solution that looks a little like real vodka.
Then stir or shake.
Pour into a storage container and close tightly.
Let's stand for a few days. (or at least a few hours).

All pure vodka without additives is ready. But to make drinking more pleasant and tastier, certain ingredients are used that are added at the mixing stage.
Therefore, the second recipe:

Preparation of vodka, as in a store, and even better with a strength of 40 degrees

In this case, we will need:

Alcohol and water, as in the previous case
Glucose (can be bought at a pharmacy)
Honey, citric acid, lemon or orange juice - optional and optional
Activated charcoal, 10 tablets.

Again, we will proceed from the fact that we have available for this case 500 ml 96% alcohol

The order of preparation is as follows.

Pour into container 700 ml. water and add about 20 ml. glucose, honey, orange juice, as they say "to taste." Yes, you can experiment with the amount of glucose.
Mix everything thoroughly and then add alcohol. Do not forget that water and other ingredients must be cooled to at least room temperature.
Add activated charcoal (it is better to crush the tablets into powder), mix and let stand from several hours to a day (the more, the better).
After that, we filter through gauze with cotton wool or cotton wool inserted into a watering can. In any way, so that the output is a clean, transparent liquid.
Pour into a container for storage at the very neck and tightly close.
Let's stand for a few days.
All! After that, you can use, observing the measure and decency.

The recipes for making cold vodka are simple, but the finished product will be of high quality if there are good ingredients and the exact proportions are observed. Fans of home-made spirits like to dilute alcohol with water to make vodka. This is the most common drink in the world, and foreigners consider it a Russian attribute. Therefore, who, if not the Russians, should know how to make high-quality vodka at home, so that it smells good, is easy to drink and warms the soul.

If you make vodka yourself, you can be sure that it does not contain harmful additives.

The main principle of making homemade alcohol is mixing alcohol with water in the required proportions. The process is simple, but requires accuracy in the calculations. It is difficult to predict in advance what strength alcohol will be purchased, and in order not to calculate each time, it is better to stock up on recommendations for different options. Or you will have to look for a table with proportions at the last moment and randomly select products to soften the taste.

Preparation of ingredients

It is required to prepare good components, because this is the only way to get a quality product. You can argue for a long time which alcohol is better - medical, extra or the highest degree of purification. But manufacturers of home-made alcohol have little choice, most often medical alcohol is purchased or otherwise obtained. Therefore, you need to use what is, and try to bring the final product to perfection. The main thing is to know exactly the degree of the available raw materials, because the dilution proportions depend on this.

You need to stock up:

alcohol;
spring water;
alcoholometer;
measuring glass;
sugar;
citric acid;
natural additives to soften the drink.

It is easy to dilute alcohol for consumption, it is more difficult to find good ingredients. It should be borne in mind that the taste and properties of the resulting alcohol will depend not only on the quality of the alcohol, but also on the purity and mineral composition of the water.

Water treatment

The softer the water, which is always more in vodka than alcohol, the softer the finished drink will be. Spring is considered the best, and tap water is not suitable due to the large amount of impurities. Therefore, knowing how to properly dilute alcohol with water is not enough. It is also necessary to prepare the liquid, while simply boiling or distilling tap water will not be enough.

Thermal preparation "kills" water, an alcoholic drink based on it will have a sharp taste, so it must be "live", from natural sources. If it is not possible to dilute alcohol with water from a spring, it is permissible to use tap water, passed through a filter and frozen. When freezing, you should wait until about ¾ of the original volume turns into ice, pour out the excess, defrost the ice and use this liquid for dilution.

Dilution of alcohol with water calculator

In order for home-made alcohol to have the desired degree, you should know in what proportions it is bred. Without taking this into account, it rarely turns out that vodka of the desired strength is obtained. Therefore, when diluting alcohol, it is required to use a special calculator that helps to make the correct calculation even for a person who does not know how to determine percentages, correlate them with degrees and operate with fractions.

With such an assistant, knowing the strength of the available alcohol, you can easily calculate how much liquid you need to stock up before starting the dilution procedure.

Preparation of pure vodka with a strength of 40 degrees without additives

The strength of alcohol is a mysterious category, because in the range of 40-48% vol. for some reason, the drinker does not feel the difference. Given this information, it is not advisable to make vodka stronger than 40% vol., so as not to waste excess alcohol. After carelessly diluted strong alcohol, a feeling of dryness and an unpleasant aftertaste remains in the mouth, so you want the alcohol not only to correspond to the desired degree, but also to drink easily, without requiring an immediate snack or drink.

Knowing how to properly dilute alcohol, you can make high-quality alcohol in a cold way without even leaving your home. The only condition is that the stock should have good raw materials and water close in quality to spring water. And then it's a matter of technology. You need to calculate the proportions and mix the ingredients correctly.

There is a common method of mixing alcohol with water up to 40 degrees: 1 liter of 96% raw material is added to 1.4 liters of liquid, resulting in 40-degree vodka. With a different strength of the feedstock, you will have to recalculate the proportions or use ready-made data.

The table below shows the different volumes of spring water that must be mixed with 1 liter of alcohol to make an alcoholic drink with a strength of 40% vol.:

To prevent the alcohol from becoming cloudy when mixed, it must be poured into chilled water. If you pour in the opposite way and at the same time take warm water, chemical compounds are formed that fix the taste and smell characteristic of alcohol in the resulting drink.

The volume of the container should be chosen so that the resulting drink fills it up to the very neck.
The more oxygen remains in the tank, the longer the oxidation reaction will take and the top layer will turn into acetic acid.
The container is placed in a dark place with a temperature above + 4 ° C, and there it should be at least 2 days, but the optimal holding period until the end of all chemical reactions is 7 days.

How to dilute a liter of 96 alcohol

Calculating how to dilute alcohol with water is not only for making vodka. Not so strong alcohol may be required. It is recommended to find ready-made tables that offer solutions for mixing and obtaining liquids of the desired degree.

If the desired value does not fall within the proposed ready-made range, the calculation is made independently, using a special formula that helps you find out how much water you need to add to 100 ml of 96% alcohol in order to get the composition of the desired degree:

water volume \u003d 9600 / TK - 96, where

TK is the required strength of the solution in degrees.

In order not to have to make calculations every time, the results can be calculated and compiled into a table showing how much water needs to be added so that the diluted 96% alcohol reaches the desired concentration:

Flavor softening ingredients

After the procedure for mixing alcohol and water has gone well, it is time to add components that soften the taste of the liquid - the residual sensation in the mouth immediately after swallowing. Vodka gourmets reasonably claim that vodkas differ in smell, taste and sensations during the ingestion of the drink and immediately after.

To improve the taste, additives are used that interrupt the sharp sensations during drinking and give natural flavors. When using unfamiliar ingredients, it is recommended to experiment with small amounts of alcohol. You can soften the taste of homemade vodka by slightly acidifying or sweetening it with glucose, sucrose, citric acid:

Citric acid is used in its pure form (2 g per 1 liter of alcohol) or is replaced by the juice of a small lemon.
Ascorbic acid is highly soluble in alcohol, therefore it is used to soften any alcoholic beverages. For 1 liter of alcoholic drink add 3-5 g of ascorbic acid.
Glucose is added at the rate of 5 g of powder or 25 ml of a 40% solution per 1 liter of vodka.
Sugar is used only well-refined, otherwise the drink may become cloudy. Powdered sugar will dissolve the fastest. Standard serving - 1 tbsp. l. without a slide for 1 liter of 40-degree vodka. You should know that sugar in vodka is not sugar in tea, sweetness is felt stronger in vodka. To color the drink, part of the white sugar can be replaced with 1 tsp. burnt.
Fructose is 2 times sweeter than sugar, so for 1 liter of drink take ½ tbsp. l.
Honey is used liquid or pre-melted in a water bath. The proportions are the same as for fructose - ½ tbsp. l. for 1 liter of drink.

There is no consensus on the sequence of preparation of soft vodka. A number of sources recommend mixing alcohol and water first, then adding emollients. But there are also recommendations to first add emollient ingredients to the water, wait for dissolution and only then increase the degree.