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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org


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Contents:
  Re: Measuring alcohol (bill keiser)
  Alcohol Tables ("A.J deLange")
  MCAB XIII finals - Call for judges and stewards (Kyle Jones)


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Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2010 08:51:59 -0500
From: bill keiser <sharpstik at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: Measuring alcohol

 >  you have basically three choices for determining the density of

>  the water/alcohol solution

  The refractometer and hydrometer method seem fairly easy to me. I've 
tried it a couple times.
http://www.makewine.com/winemaking/methods/alcohol/
http://www.musther.net/vinocalc.html#alcoholcalculation
bill keiser


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Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2010 13:21:59 -0500
From: "A.J deLange" <ajdel at cox.net>
Subject: Alcohol Tables

For Will:

It is not surprising that your attempt to apply tables or formulas for  
alcohol content based on SG difference between an ethanol solution off  
from which the alcohol has been boiled and the pre boil gravity gave  
erroneous results. The tables and formula you referenced are based on  
the Balling formula which estimate the amount of alcohol produced by  
fermentation. It is assumed that 2.0665 grams of extract produce 1  
gram or ethanol, 0.9565 g CO2 and 0.11 g yeast biomass.  The alcohol  
is proportional to the extract consumed. In your test with vodka there  
is no original extract and no terminal extract - you have just pure  
alcohol and so the principal upon which the Balling formula works does  
not apply. Besides that the factor by which the difference in extracts  
should be multiplied is wrong in the Monash website. The factor varies  
depending upon the original extract of the beer/must and so no single  
value can be given. For wort originally at 12 P the difference between  
the apparent specific gravity of the fermented product and the  
specific gravity of the residue should be multiplied by approximately  
0.733 (or divided by 1.365) as is confirmed by the Valley Vintner pdf.

As noted above having the correct factor does not solve the problem of  
trying to measure ethanol solutions using this technique. You took,  
presumably, 80 proof vodka and diluted it 2:1 with DI water. This  
gives a solution which is 40/3 = 13.333% ABV. Such a solution has  
(20/20) apparent specific gravity of  0.982597. The specific gravity  
of water (vodka mix which has been boiled) is 1.00000. Thus the  
difference between post and preboil is 0.0174. Inserting this in the  
Valley table gives about 13.6% ABV which is close to the actual 13.333  
%. However if you try the same technique with 1:1 dilution you will  
estimate 22.5% when the actual strength would be 20%. While the  
Balling model deals with reduction in extract it also incorporates  
Tabarie's principle and that's doubtless why the agreement is as good  
as it is.

This does not mean that this method isn't valid for determining,  
roughly, the ABV of beer or wine if done properly. The problem with  
the Monash fomula (apart from having the wrong divisor) is that it  
does not allow for the variation in factor as a function of original  
gravity. If the OG, Residue and AE are all in Plato the multiplicative  
factor for (Residue - AE) varies from 2.20 to 2.25 and can be  
calculated from  f = 2.1996 + 0.0013168*OG + 5.5782E-5*OG*OG. This,  
multiplied by (Residue - AE), also in Plato, give the ABW which is  
converted to ABV by multiplying by the AE of the finished product and  
dividing by the specific gravity of ethanol which is 0.791 (20/20).  
The Valley table tries to take this into account.

Note that all the numbers I have used here are as determined for beer  
(they can all be found in Vol II of DeClerck. Other models may better  
describe wine and others still mead and Sake.



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Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2010 14:04:45 -0600
From: Kyle Jones <akylejones at gmail.com>
Subject: MCAB XIII finals - Call for judges and stewards

The finals of the 2010 calendar year of the Masters Championship of
Amateur Brewing (MCAB XIII) will be held on Sunday, January 23, 2011
at Saint Arnold brewing company in Houston, TX.  MCAB XIII finals are
hosted by the Foam Rangers homebrewing club.  Judging will begin
promptly at 9 am, doors will open at 8 am for a light breakfast.

January is a lovely time to visit Houston, and the MCAB finals present
an opportunity to judge some of the finest beers made by homebrewers.
We will be holding several events along with the judging.  On
Saturday, join us for a tour and tasting at the Saint Arnold brewing
company, Texas' oldest craft brewery, in their new facility near
downtown Houston.  Also on Saturday, we will host a session on beer
defects and their detection, and we hope to have Brock Wagner, the
owner and co-founder of Saint Arnold, talk to us about brewhouse
quality control.  Saturday evening we will visit a few local
establishments to find some other beers from the area.

Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) is a short drive from downtown
Houston, as is Hobby Airport (HOU), and ample lodging is available in
and around downtown Houston.

Judges are asked to register in advance on the MCAB XIII finals
website at http://mcab.crunchyfrog.net, and more information on the
MCAB XIII finals, including the address of Saint Arnold, can be found
at http://www.masterhomebrewer.org/.  We strongly suggest judges and
stewards register in advance to be guaranteed consideration in the
seating of flights, as flight assignment will be completed in advance
of the competition.  Those wishing to attend the events on Saturday
should plan to arrive early Saturday morning or on Friday evening,
those wishing only to judge should plan on arriving Saturday evening.

We hope you can come and and join us for this fun and educational event.


Kyle Jones
Grand Wazoo, Foam Rangers
Competition Director, MCAB XIII Finals


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