How to dilute pure alcohol. How to dilute alcohol with water

It would seem that it could be simpler than making a liquid suitable for drinking from alcohol. That is, dilute it to 40 degrees recommended by the Ministry of Health.
Although there are individuals who can absorb alcohol in pure form, but we are not one of those people, 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 , 96% ABV. Naturally, we take ethanol, which is suitable for internal consumption. As you know, there is also methyl (technical) alcohol, which is poison. He has completely different tasks and there is no need to hire him. Even for nothing.
There are, of course, methods that allow you to distinguish ethyl alcohol from technical (methyl) alcohol, but all of them do not give a 100% guarantee, so the most reliable thing is to buy (take) alcohol from a safe place.
Purified water, can be bottled, or preferably distilled. Tap water, as well as boiled water, is not suitable, since it is hard, that is, it has a lot of dissolved salts. This will affect the taste of our drink and, in addition, such water may become cloudy during the preparation of vodka.
Measuring container

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

Let's take for example 500 ml 96% alcohol. This quantity is required 700 ml. water. If you have a different amount of alcohol, then take accordingly less or more water so that the proportion is maintained.
If you want to get vodka of a different strength or if your alcohol is not the standard 96%, then you need to use special calculators online or relevant tables to calculate the required proportions.

Table of the ratio of alcohol and water when preparing 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 the container in which we will dilute our magic solution. The water should not be warm. It's best if it's not easy 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 bears little resemblance to real vodka.
Then mix or shake.
Pour into a storage container and close tightly.
Let it sit 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 the 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 purchased at the pharmacy)
Honey, citric acid, lemon or Orange juice- optional and optional
Activated carbon, 10 tablets.

Again, we will proceed from what we have available for this matter. 500 ml 96% alcohol

The cooking procedure is as follows.

Pour into container 700 ml. water and add approx. 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 the water and other ingredients must be cooled to at least room temperature.
Add Activated carbon(it’s better to crush the tablets into powder), mix and let stand for several hours to a day (the more, the better).
After this, filter through gauze with cotton wool or cotton wool inserted into a watering can. Any way so that the output is a clean, transparent liquid.
Pour into a storage container right up to the neck and close tightly.
Let it sit for a few days.
All! After this, you can consume it in moderation and decency.

A question that concerns happy owners of alcohol: how to properly dilute alcohol with water? In its pure form it is unsuitable for drinking. But he's perfect in hiking conditions– takes up little space, is lightweight and when diluted with water increases in volume significantly. How to properly dilute ethanol?

Breeding rules

In undiluted form, it is used for external use as an antiseptic, for compresses and lotions. Only desperate sufferers and medical students drink it in its pure form as a ritual of initiation into the medical specialty. Doctors, contrary to legends, have long preferred cognac or whiskey to alcohol, since it burns the larynx quite strongly and can seriously damage health.

To prevent the burning effect, you should not drink it while exhaling, as consumers are used to. strong drinks, and on inhalation. That is, first we take air into our lungs, drink in one gulp and exhale. You cannot drink it with water or any drinks. If you are not a medical student and value your health, then it is still better to dilute alcohol.

Producing vodka by diluting alcohol is called the “cold” production method.

Simple rules How to dilute alcohol with water:

The taste of the resulting drink depends not only on the quality of the ethanol, its purity - luxury, extra, medical - but also on the quality of the water.
When diluting to obtain vodka, it is necessary to maintain a weight ratio of 2:3.
It is necessary to shake the alcohol with water in a closed container without access to air - ethanol is still a flammable substance.
Pour alcohol into water, not the other way around. When pouring water, the liquid will become very hot and may become cloudy.

Water

The taste of the resulting drink and its clarity depend primarily on the water. What kind of water should not be used to dilute alcohol? You definitely shouldn't use tap water. It is when it is used for dilution that a cloudy liquid is obtained. It's all about water hardness. Its indicators depend on the presence of salts, carbonates, calcium and magnesium in it. The hardness of tap water is 7 mEq/l and higher. At the same time, to prepare vodka, water with a hardness of no higher than 1 mEq/l should be used. Purchased bottled water meets these indicators.

Tap water can be normalized by settling to remove chlorine, boiling to remove salts, and filtering through home filters for additional purification. After these manipulations, its properties will be close to satisfactory. After preparing vodka based on tap water, it is better to pass it through a carbon filter. To do this, place activated carbon tablets from 5-10 packs into a watering can while filtering.

The quality of the water used is no less important than the quality of the alcohol.

When buying water for making vodka, you need to look not only at hardness, but also at the ionic composition. Avoid using water with a broad cationic and anionic composition. The less salts in the water, the lighter it is.

Water from springs and wells also has hardness levels not exceeding 1 mEq/l. But other properties of this water - the microbial number, the content of iron salts, carbonate hardness - are usually not at their best. The composition of this water is not constant. It depends on the time of year and the amount of precipitation.

Distilled water meets the requirements for hardness, but significantly reduces taste qualities drink, since it itself has no taste. However, if in the future you will use the diluted product to prepare liqueurs, tinctures and similar drinks, then distilled water is quite suitable.

How to dilute alcohol with water to 40 degrees?

The great scientist Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev came up with the idea of how to dilute alcohol with water to make vodka. It was he who first diluted ethanol to forty-degree strength. You can’t just mix a glass of alcohol with two glasses of water. The fact is that when mixed, the solution decreases in volume. That is, mixing a glass of ethanol with two glasses of water, the output you will get is less than three glasses. It is quite difficult to calculate the proportion to obtain a solution with a given strength. To facilitate this task, another great scientist, Fertman, compiled a table according to which you can determine how much water and ethanol you need to take to obtain a certain strength of the drink.

The main thing is to fully comply with the mixing technology

The Fertman table will help in the calculations. It will help you determine how much water you need to take per 1 liter of alcohol. In the calculations, a liquid of 95% concentration is taken. If your degree is higher, then the strength of the vodka obtained from the table will be stronger. Therefore, before starting calculations, it is better to check the strength of the available alcohol.

Pour ethanol into the water in a thin stream, while the water should be cooled. This will prevent cloudiness and make the drink taste softer.

It has been experimentally established that the ideal proportion is 2:3 (as Mendeleev himself believed)

How to quickly dilute alcohol with water at home?

Sometimes a situation arises when guests are on the doorstep, and the only alcohol in the house is alcohol. There is a need to dilute it quickly. Stock up on the juice of half a lemon or orange, two parts ethanol and three parts water. The prepared ingredients are shaken vigorously and cooled in freezer. If there ready ice, then when drinking, you can simply add ice to the drink. Citrus fruits mask the bitter taste well and contribute to an easy hangover due to the presence of vitamin C.

Drink Recipes

To prepare vodka, take:

250 ml ethanol 96% concentration;
2 liters of water;
40 ml glucose solution.

Add ascorbic acid to the tip of a knife. Add all the ingredients to the water and slowly pour in the alcohol while stirring. After preparation, cool the drink, or better yet, let it stand in a dark place under a lid for two to three days.

Honey, sugar, glucose, orange or lemon juice help soften the taste of prepared vodka.

For 0.5 liters of finished drink you will need:

250 grams of ethanol;
300 grams of water;
a teaspoon of vinegar;
one ampoule of 40% glucose solution.

The ingredients are mixed, after which the drink is filtered through activated carbon and placed in the refrigerator.

For lovers of sweet drinks, recipes for alcohol-based liqueurs may be suitable. For 1 kg of sugar and the zest of one orange, take 1 liter of water and cook for half an hour, while the white foam is removed. Cool the resulting syrup and add 750 ml of ethanol to it in a thin stream.

Raspberry liqueur can be prepared by infusing 1 kg of raspberries in 1 liter of alcohol for 15 days. After this, 1 liter of water is mixed with 1 kg of sugar and boiled, skimming off the foam for 15–20 minutes after boiling. The cooled syrup is mixed with raspberry extract.

Using the same principle, you can prepare liqueur based on any berries:

strawberries;
strawberry;
currant;
cherry.

An interesting taste is obtained when using cranberries, blueberries or blackberries. Unusual taste have chocolate and milk liqueurs based on ethanol. Cook 500 ml of milk with 100 g of cocoa powder and 2 bags of hot chocolate. After cooling, add 100 ml of alcohol and 100 ml of rum.

If you need to dilute alcohol with water at home, remember 3 key rules that must be strictly followed:

Before dilution water needs to be cooled(it is desirable that the temperature is no higher than 20 degrees Celsius)
You need to pour alcohol into the water, but in no case vice versa
The diluted alcohol must stand

Now let's talk more about the procedure itself.

Why dilute alcohol with water?

Considering that our site is dedicated to moonshine and the preparation of other alcoholic drinks, then we will consider the use of alcohol exclusively in this area.

A rare drink requires the use of 96% alcohol during its preparation. Even most tinctures are prepared with a weaker solution. Therefore, the only way to get the desired degree is to dilute the alcohol with water.

What is needed to properly dilute alcohol?

It is important to remember that the basis for obtaining a good alcoholic drink is the use quality ingredients. Therefore, the correct dilution of alcohol is the most significant moment in the overall process.

To dilute alcohol to the right degree, we will need:

Alcohol, the degree of which is precisely known.
Chilled water.
Containers for diluted alcohol - ideal glass jar or a bottle of appropriate size.

Alcohol, no matter how trivial it may sound, should be drinkable and nothing more. Without additional impurities, transparent and preferably already tested. It can also be cooled before the procedure, for example, in the freezer.

Pay special attention to the choice of water. It must be clean. Under no circumstances use tap water, including boiled water. For diluting alcohol, distilled water, water from a clean source, or water that is sold in five-liter bottles in stores is suitable (in this case, choose according to taste and hardness, since they can vary significantly depending on the brand) or delivered to order in containers volume 19 liters.

Where to get distilled water if you choose it? Buy it at the pharmacy (yes, it is not available everywhere, but it is sold, just ask the pharmacist) or prepare it yourself by distilling it in a moonshine still.

Not everyone recommends using distillate to dilute alcohol, although in practice it turns out no worse than using other water. Use distilled water if diluted alcohol is used to prepare tinctures, as it has no taste. To prepare vodka, use “tasty” water.

The best option is purchased water in 5 and 6 liter bottles or imported water in 19 liter bottles. Why? Because on such bottles, as a rule, the composition of the water is written. To dilute alcohol, it is recommended to use water with a hardness of less than 1 mEq/liter. Look for this parameter on the label.

Alcohol dilution table

To easily dilute alcohol in your kitchen, use Fertman’s table, which shows how many milliliters of water you need to pour into 100 milliliters of alcohol of a certain strength to get the desired degree.

Examples of using the Fertman table

For example, you have 90% alcohol, from which you want to make a 35% solution. In this case, 100 ml of alcohol must be poured into 163.3 ml of water. Or pour a liter of alcohol into 1 liter and 663 ml of water.

Don't forget to add alcohol to the water!

Using Fertman's table, you can reduce the degree to the desired level for any alcoholic drink.

Alcohol dilution formula

In addition to the table for diluting alcohol, you can use a special formula. It looks like this:

X=P*(N/M-1)

X– the desired value is the amount of water that will be needed to dilute the alcohol to the desired degree (in milliliters)

P– initial value – the amount of alcohol you have (in milliliters)

N– the degree of alcohol you have

M– degree to be obtained

Example: To make vodka from a liter of alcohol with a strength of 96%, you need to pour the alcohol into 1.4 liters of water.

Analysis of an example: multiply 1000 milliliters of alcohol (1 liter) by the number that is obtained by subtracting one (1) from the result of dividing 96 (the strength of your alcohol) by 40 (the strength that needs to be obtained).

1400=1000x(96/40-1)

Another example: to obtain a solution with a strength of 65° from a liter of alcohol, you need to pour the alcohol into a liter of water (998.5 milliliters).

998.5=1000x(96/65-1)

Another example: to obtain a solution with a strength of 25° from 500 milliliters of alcohol, you need to pour the alcohol into 1.1 liters of water.

1100=500x(80/25-1)

Check Fertman's chart. Based on it, 100 ml of alcohol with a strength of 80% to 25% can be diluted by pouring into 224 milliliters of water. Multiply 224 by 5 (5 times 100 milliliters) and you get 1120 - approximately 1.1 liters.

Sedimentation of diluted alcohol

The final stage of the alcohol dilution procedure is settling the finished drink. After dilution and mixing, place the tightly closed container with the resulting solution in a dark place for a week. It is important to comply temperature regime– the temperature should not be below 5 degrees Celsius.

If diluted alcohol is needed urgently, then reduce the settling time to two days.

For settling, use a container that best suits the volume of the resulting solution. Diluted alcohol should be poured right up to the neck in order to minimize the area of its interaction with oxygen. This will avoid the oxidation reaction and the formation of acetic acid.

Even when treating the skin with undiluted alcohol, burns can occur. Taking such alcohol internally is strictly prohibited; you will burn the laryngeal mucosa. Before use, you must dilute it with water. 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 the ingredients

Alcohol

Based on 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% - highest purification;
first grade.

First grade alcohol is unsuitable for preparing alcoholic beverages. Cheap vodka is made from highly purified alcohols. Luxury and extra spirits are acceptable and are made from a combination of grain and potatoes. Moreover, the content potato starch the wort should contain 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 or simply pure, sold in bottles. Spring water may be too hard, melt water is generally not safe in our environmental conditions, 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 mineral composition and water hardness. Ideal option will be distilled water. It is purified from salts and impurities and has no taste, color or smell.

To summarize: successful mixing is guaranteed only with distilled water. It is sold at the pharmacy.

Proportions, mixing process and purification

How to properly dilute alcohol with water? Optimal formula mixing 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 obtain 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 required to dilute alcohol looks like this:

X=V*(N/M-1)

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

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

Warm the ingredients to 20°C before mixing. 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, monitoring its content with a hydrometer (alcohol meter). Remember, if you add more alcohol than necessary, you can no longer add water to this mixture.

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

Supplements

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

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

Regarding supplements, expert opinions are divided. Some suggest mixing first and then adding. Others - first prepare water with additives, and then mix it with alcohol.

Advocacy

After mixing, let the alcohol sit for at least two days. But it is better to leave it for a week to give time for all chemical processes to complete. Settling occurs 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 there is less of it. 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 according to the table below if you need a lower strength. When bottling long-term storage It is important to seal them tightly. Otherwise, the alcohol will evaporate and the vodka will “fizzle out,” that is, it will lose its strength.

The process of mixing the main ingredients, of which there are only two - alcohol and vodka, is quite simple. This method of making vodka is called the “cold” method, it is used both at home and in industrial production. So that the end result does not disappoint, but pleases you with the quality and strength of the product, you need to know how to properly organize the mixing process. So, let's begin.

Alcohol requirements

Main Ingredient homemade vodka- This is purified ethyl alcohol. In its pure form, its strength can reach 96.5% (Extra class product), but it is best to use Luxury alcohol with a strength percentage of 96.3. It is also permissible to use an alcoholic alcohol-containing product of the highest purity of 96.2%, but the quality of the resulting vodka will be an order of magnitude lower.

The “right” water is important

Particular attention should be paid to water, because when making homemade vodka, a completely justified question arises: what kind of water to dilute the alcohol with?
It cannot be diluted with ordinary tap water, otherwise the alcohol will become cloudy when interacting with it. It is necessary to use special, that is, purified water, popularly called “corrected”. Basic requirements for water: it should have no color, no smell, no taste, and be crystal clear.

You can, of course, take tap water, first let it settle and purify it through a household filter. But it’s best to use distilled water, which is sold in a pharmacy, to dilute alcohol, or, alternatively, buy children’s drinking water in a supermarket.

Proportions of a quality product

In order for the final product to be good enough and meet the strength requirements, it is necessary to strictly observe the proportions when mixing the main ingredients.
In case of violation correct ratio alcohol and water, you may end up with a low-quality alcoholic product, more precisely, low-alcohol water.

Also D.I. was developed by Mendeleev perfect proportion quality vodka with an acceptable strength (40-42%) - two parts alcohol to three parts purified water. It is important that portions are measured not by volume (ml), but by weight (g), this will help to more accurately calculate the strength of the drink.

How to improve the taste of vodka
To give more good taste and smell, you can add the following components to homemade vodka:

sugar or honey;
glucose;
citric acid;
orange peels;
food essences and flavors.

Poorly diluted alcohol can be easily distinguished from vodka; after drinking it, the mouth feels dry and unpleasant. In industry, and in everyday life, to make diluted alcohol (vodka) more soft, food glycerin (5 mg per liter of product) or glucose (20 mg per liter of vodka) is used as an additive.

What you need to know

For best quality homemade vodka obtained by mixing correct proportions alcohol and water, you need to consider several important points:

alcohol is always poured into prepared water, and never vice versa. Experts in homemade alcohol preparations confirm the fact that the quality of the resulting product directly depends on the mixing process;
after dilution, be sure to shake the liquid in a closed container, turning it upside down;
the quality of the drink improves if the prepared vodka is placed in the refrigerator for a day;
When mixing 200 ml of alcohol and 300 ml of water, the final product will not have a volume of 500 ml.