| Classicwhiskey.com Did You Know ? | ||||||||||||
Each month we plan to publish a snippet of information relating to Whiskey This months selection refers to the origins of the term "Proof" |
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| "The alcohol content of spirits
is usually given in terms of "proof", an archaic term
inherited from early distillers of fermentation alcohol. In England the "proof" was to pour some of the spirit over gunpowder, and ignite the spirit; at or above a limiting concentration (eleven parts of alcohol by volume to ten parts of water) the gunpowder would explode. Inasmuch as volumes were much easier to measure accurately than weights, before the development of precise balances and scales, this cumbersome measurement of alcohol persisted, even though there is a considerable volume change on mixing ethyl alcohol (ethanol) with water. What they mean by the volume change is that if you add x ml alcohol to y ml water, the resultant mixture is NOT x+y ml. This meant that in many instances, the calculation of proof was very approximate and not very accurate, especially if they diluted the spirit at any time. Spirits on sale are usually 40% alcohol or around that area. 40% is 70 proof. In the US the proof is twice the alcohol content by volume, thus 188° proof contains 94% alcohol by volume." A simple calculation should tell you that 100 proof is around 50% alcohol - but do check that! By the way, the word alcohol is derived from Arabic |
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