How to properly dilute alcohol of different strengths at home

difference between medical alcohol and food alcohol, photo: social networks Did you know that the bill of the Ministry of Industry and Trade banned the use of food alcohol in medicine? Why such a law was adopted is obvious. The authorities have decided to fight people who illegally drink ethanol or prepare alcoholic drinks from it. Therefore, starting from 2021, alcohol jars disappeared from Russian pharmacy shelves, and alcohol wipes began to be sold for disinfection.

To understand what medical alcohol is and how it negatively affects a person’s condition, read our article. We will tell you about the dangers of adding medical ethanol to alcoholic drinks. We will voice real stories of people who were “lucky” to become hospital patients due to serious poisonings. Let's answer the questions:

• What is medical alcohol?
• How is medical alcohol obtained?
• What type of medical alcohol is there?
• What is the difference between medical alcohol and food alcohol?

Alcohol can be obtained from any fermentation product. Even a person who loves to eat fruits and dairy products generates a fermentation process within himself. We learned how to extract ethanol after the advent of a special device. He distilled fermented products. Next, they created steam and condensed it into an alcohol solution. Who exactly created such a popular product of all times is unknown. Some sources write that this is the work of Asian countries. And others are sure that the alchemists of the Middle Ages “dabbled” in this way.

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It’s not hard to guess that the name comes from Latin; alcohol is translated as soul. Well, the drink vodka got its name in Moscow at the end of the nineteenth century.

The first drinking establishment was opened by Tsar the Terrible, of course, in the modern capital. The diner didn’t take into account that there were no snacks on their menu, so the customers got drunk faster and faster. As a result: fights, theft, murders - all while drunk. After that, the authorities realized that they had committed a stupidity, and the fight against alcoholism in Russia began in 1600. First, they raised the price significantly and began to carry out the process of filtering the alcoholic drink. But, based on the statistics of alcoholics in Russia, the struggle will never fade away.

How to properly dilute ethyl alcohol with water to make vodka at home

The process of diluting alcohol with water is called the “cold” method of converting alcohol into vodka. Sometimes this method is even used in the production of alcoholic beverages. You can also get a high-quality vodka product at home, but the mixing technology must be strictly followed.

Choosing alcohol

Ethyl alcohol varies in degree of purification:

• alpha - from 96.3%, produced exclusively from quality grain: wheat, rye.
• extra - from 96.3%,
• luxury - from 96.3%.

To produce extra and luxury grades of alcohol, a mixture of grain and potatoes is used. The extra variety contains up to 35% starch.

• highest purification - from 96.2%,
• first grade - from 96.0%,
• basis - from 96.0%.

For the production of these varieties, any food raw material is used.

The basis variety contains about 60% starch. Without additional purification, the vodka made from it is not tasty. But if you add manganese to it, and after the sediment has formed, filter it through a carbon filter, the quality of the product will improve.

Alcoholic drinks are not produced from first grade alcohol.

The purer the alcohol, the more pleasant the vodka made from it

Choosing water

Much depends on the quality, taste and degree of purification of water. You should not use regular tap water that has not undergone additional purification. It contains too many different impurities and salts that will not allow you to make a tasty, high-quality drink. The best choice would be:

• tap water, after multi-stage cleaning;
• bottled water with minimal salt content. The softer the water, the softer the final product will be;
• spring water is considered an ideal option, difficult to implement in urban conditions. But spring water may be too hard.

You can use distilled water, but such water dissolves alcohol worse, and the taste is somewhat “medicinal”.

When mixing alcohol with water, a ratio of 2:3 is usually used, i.e. 2 parts alcohol diluted with 3 parts water. Even Mendeleev considered this combination to be universal.

Interesting. Sometimes it is advised to measure components not by volume, but by weight. But it is worth remembering that alcohol is lighter than water: 1 liter of ethyl alcohol weighs 790 g. That is. If you measure ingredients by weight, the strength of the final product will be higher.

For a more accurate result, you can use the formula:

where x is the amount of water required to dilute the alcohol to the required concentration, ml; M is the required strength of the alcohol solution, %; P is the volume of available alcohol, ml; N is the initial alcohol strength, %.

For example, from 96% alcohol you need to get 40% vodka. Alcohol volume - 1 liter (1000 ml):

Those. pour 1000 ml of alcohol into 1400 ml of water.

You can also use the Fertman table, which contains various combinations of the initial and final solution.

Having chosen the strength of the starting material and the strength of the final product, we find out the amount of water in ml that needs to be added to 100 ml of alcohol

Important. Always add alcohol to water to avoid the alcohol becoming cloudy. The water must be chilled, otherwise the final product will have a taste and smell characteristic of alcohol, and not of vodka.

Tap water

The worst option. This hardness can reach 7 mEq/l. In addition, it contains bleach, which has its own distinct odor. I do not recommend using this kind of water, but if you still decide, then you need to perform some manipulations on it.

First, let the water sit for 3-4 hours so that the chlorine evaporates. Then boil the water and let it cool. After boiling, pass through a household water filter jug. Now there are a lot of them on sale and they do a good job of purifying water. After these procedures, the water is ready for use.

Spring water

Most sites on the Internet recommend this kind of water, but I would not be so categorical. It's not that simple. As a rule, spring water is very tasty, but its composition and hardness cannot be determined without special analysis. In addition, its indicators can vary greatly depending on the time of year, heavy rains or drought.

Therefore, I cannot recommend such water. If you have a spring or well nearby, you can try using this water to prepare a small amount of the mixture and see what happens. If it does not become cloudy and its taste suits you, then the water from this spring is suitable for use.

Store-bought bottled water

This, in my opinion, is the best option. The chemical composition and hardness are written on purchased bottles, so all we have to do is choose the water that is suitable for our purposes.

This, as I already said, is water with a hardness of 1 mEq/l and below. There are plenty of these on sale. I have even seen water with a hardness of 0.05 mEq/L. It happens that the total hardness is not indicated on the bottle. Then you should focus on the content of Ca and Mg. It is desirable that calcium be less than 10 mg/l, and magnesium less than 8 mg/l. At least my water has such indicators.

Distilled water

It would seem that what could be better than water purified from all impurities for diluting alcohol? Such water will definitely not become cloudy. But even here, not everything is so simple. Everything will depend on what you are going to use the resulting mixture for.

If for further preparation of some kind of tincture, for example Pertsovka or Kedrovka, the taste of which is determined primarily by the ingredients included in it, then distilled water is perfect. After all, it has no taste.

For the same reason, it is poorly suited for making vodka, the taste of which largely depends on the taste of water. Vodka prepared with distilled water is significantly inferior in taste to vodka made with spring or bottled water.

To summarize: for dilution, use soft bottled water with a hardness of 1 mEq/L or lower.

Formula for calculating water volume

To calculate the required amount of water to dilute 1 liter of alcohol, you can use the formula:

((100*Alcohol strength*(Volume, ml/100))/Required strength) – 1000

For example, to dilute 95% alcohol to 40% strength:

100*95*1000/100/40-1000 = 1375 ml

Fertman table

Another way to calculate the volume of water for diluting alcohol is to use the table:

Fertman table

Fertman's table differs slightly from the results of the alcohol dilution formula given above.

Mixing technology

The table for diluting alcohol with water contains almost all the important information on the technique of mixing components. The dilution of liquids has one interesting pattern. This phenomenon is called contraction. It means reducing the amount of fluid.

For example, when mixing a glass of alcohol with 0.3 liters of water at 45 degrees, you will never end up with 0.5 liters of vodka (it will turn out to be much less). In solutions with a lower strength, the phenomenon of contraction is not so obvious, but the taste will be an order of magnitude worse than that of 45% of the composition.

Mixing technology

To speed up the mixing process, the liquids are cooled. However, it should be remembered that the resulting ethanol concentration in the resulting composition will be significantly lower. Alcohol can be placed in the freezer, because... To freeze it, high temperatures are required, and water is placed on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator.

Using the components warm will result in the drink having too strong an alcoholic odor. During dilution, you need to pour a liquid with a higher density (alcohol) into light water. In this case, the reaction occurs according to all the laws of chemistry.

Although there are many sources claiming that there is no fundamental difference in this (Technological instructions for alcoholic beverage production from 1971 and Recipe for alcoholic beverages from 1981). Filling should be done as quickly as possible and the solution should be thoroughly mixed immediately. Then the container with it is tightly closed and left in a cool place for a week.

Is it correct alcohol to water or water to alcohol?

One of the hottest questions that divides people into 3 categories:

• Those who believe there is no difference;
• Those who believe that you need to pour alcohol into water;
• Those who believe that you need to pour water into alcohol.

Personally, according to my observations, when adding water to alcohol, cloudiness sometimes occurred. I’m not saying that this was the reason, but this is my personal practice.

In addition, chemists have a rule that when mixing solutions, you need to pour a more active liquid (in our case, alcohol) into a less active liquid (in our case, water).

So my personal choice is alcohol in water. But you can do as you please.

How to measure water hardness

1. The most accurate method

Submit it to a laboratory for analysis. For example, to the Sanitary and Epidemiological Station. SES will check not only the concentration of hardness salts, but also record nitrates, pesticides, iron levels, hydrogen sulfide, organic impurities and other substances that are often found in groundwater.

Fastest method

Use test strips to determine water hardness. They are sold in a pet store or in a store with coffee machines, sometimes in branded household appliance stores. This test will show approximate hardness. A reagent is applied to the paper, which changes color upon contact with water. The strip is immersed in water for a while, and the intensity of its color will change depending on the concentration of the substance in the water.

The main disadvantages of this method are low accuracy and the fact that it can be difficult to interpret the test result. You will first have to determine the intensity of the color by eye, comparing it with the “palette” of possible results. And then convert the numerical values ​​of hardness indicated on the palette from European degrees to Russian ones. High-quality test strips are usually foreign-made.

How to dilute alcohol for medicinal, cognac, ethyl vodka 96, 70 percent to 40 degrees?

• Medical alcohol is obtained from ethyl alcohol by purifying ethanol and adding water to it, about 4%. Medical alcohol is the purest product. Its strength usually varies between 96.4-96.7%.
  

  Important. Medical alcohol is an antidote for poisoning with methanol, ethylene glycol, if drunk before or immediately after consuming these toxic substances.

• The strength of ethyl alcohol, which is recommended to be used to make vodka at home, may vary. The main thing is that the ethanol is food grade, not technical. Edible ethyl alcohol is produced from food raw materials, while technical alcohol is made from synthetic materials.
• Cognac spirit is a spirit obtained from grape juice (mainly white grape varieties), after two stages of distillation. Its strength is 68-72%. Cognac alcohol is turned into cognac in oak barrels, where it is aged for a certain time, but not more than 70 years, since after this the strength, taste and aroma characteristics do not change.

Before starting the process of preparing a drink from alcohol, it is necessary to determine the strength of the alcohol. To do this, use a hydrometer.

1. To obtain 40% product from 96% alcohol, you can use the ratio of alcohol and water: 1:1.4. If you use any additives: syrup, honey, juice, then try to ensure that the total final amount of liquid is within 1.4 liters per 1 liter of alcohol.
2. If you have alcohol with a strength of 70%, then you can get a 40% drink from it by combining 100 ml of alcohol with 77.6 ml of water.

Important. If alcohol has already been poured into water, then you cannot add more water to it - the alcohol will become cloudy and the product will be spoiled. You can try to save this situation by passing the liquid through activated carbon. The result will be even better if activated carbon is crushed, poured into an alcohol solution, left for several days and then filtered.

If you follow the technology, the drink will turn out crystal clear

What is the difference between medical alcohol and food alcohol?

It's as simple as two and two making four. Rubbing alcohol is popular on pharmacy counters. It is added to medicines and created as disinfectants. Its production requires compliance with GMP standards, certain technical equipment and various certificates. It is also not cleaned properly, making it unsafe for internal use.

Alcoholic drinks are created based on food alcohol. Food grade ethanol undergoes rigorous filtration and purification. With its help, they create wine, vodka, beer, cognac, whiskey and everything that can relax a person even a little.

The difference between drinking alcohol and medical alcohol is small, only in the degree of processing. But both types are capable of dealing a colossal blow to the human body and putting him in a hospital bed. Medical ethyl alcohol and food ethanol killed 48,000 Russians in 2021. Most of them are men. Therefore, if you are interested in where alcohol came from and what types there are, that’s good. But don’t get carried away with its consumption, but rather lead a healthy lifestyle. Otherwise, the sad consequences of drunkenness in Russia cannot be avoided. Unfortunately, our state is among the TOP 20 countries with alcoholics, occupying 16th position. It's time to change something in the worldview of our population, because the earth's resources are intended to be consumed for good, and not just to kill your life.

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What is the best way to dilute ethyl alcohol for drinking to make it tasty?

To obtain a tasty and high-quality drink, in addition to purified tasty water, you will need:

• glucose;
• sugar syrup: 1 liter of water/1 kg of sugar. The syrup is cooked over low heat until foam forms, which is removed;
• honey;
• various juices;
• milk;
• lemon acid;
• dried lemon zest;
• pepper;
• various roots;
• Tea coffee;
• lemonade;
• berries;
• herbs.

Such ingredients are added in small quantities. On average, 30-40 ml of additives is enough for 1 liter of solution. Add 5-10 ml of citric acid. 5-40g of dry matter is added, depending on the desired result.

Algorithm for preparing a delicious drink:

1. Prepare the ingredients: alcohol, water, additives. To accurately measure strength, the temperature of the components should be about 20°C. If the water is warm, the drink will have a pronounced alcohol taste, not vodka.
2. Add alcohol to the water in appropriate proportions.
3. Add various flavorings.
4. Mix everything thoroughly. This is done to more quickly dissolve all substances. If the container can be tightly closed, then you can shake everything up.
5. Add crushed activated carbon tablets to the solution. For 2.5 liters of solution - 3-10 coal tablets. Let it brew for several hours to a day at room temperature, optimally 22°C.
6. Filtering. The filter can be fabric, paper, gauze with cotton wool.
7. We bottle it. Bottles must be filled up to the neck so that the alcohol does not evaporate.
8. Let the drink sit for several days.

Important. The product must be stored and prepared exclusively in glass containers; plastic containers are contraindicated.

Citrus cocktails are popular

How to dilute ethyl alcohol with juice: proportions

When preparing vodka using this “cold” method, the alcohol can be diluted not only with water, but also with juice. This results in exquisite cocktails.

1. “Screwdriver” cocktail is a mixture of orange juice (2.5 parts) and alcohol (1 part). Add a slice of lemon and ice cubes and the drink is ready.
2. “Bloody Mary” is a combination of tomato juice (2 parts) and alcohol (1 part) with the addition of salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Although you can limit it exclusively to juice and alcohol.
3. Cranberry cocktail is a 2:1 combination of juice and alcohol. The drink has some astringency.
4. Apple cocktail - juice and alcohol are mixed in a 3:1 ratio. Juice from green apples is best suited.
5. When making a cherry cocktail, you can use 2 or 3 parts of vodka for 1 part vodka. The sweetness of the drink depends on the type of cherries.
6. For a pomegranate alcoholic drink, a ratio of 3:1 is suitable, where 1 part of alcohol is added to 3 parts of juice.
7. Grapefruit cocktail has a sweetish taste. Its proportion is the same as that of pomegranate: 3:1.

Based on these proportions, you can combine alcohol with any other juice.

Lemon vodka

What alcohol is safe for humans

Many types of alcohols are used in human economic activities. The most common ones are ethanol, methanol and isopropyl alcohol. The last two types are always technical. If they enter the body, they can cause irreparable harm. Thus, methanol damages the nervous system, which causes blindness, breathing problems, and in large doses leads to death.

You can only drink ethanol. It is worth considering that ethyl alcohol can also be technical and food grade. Technical can be no less dangerous than methanol, since it contains dangerous impurities (the mentioned methanol is also part of these impurities). Technical ethanol is also found under the names wood alcohol or denatured alcohol.

There are two types of food alcohol: rectified and distilled. You can read about their differences here. Distillates usually have a strength of no more than 70°. This alcohol, also called raw alcohol, can be drunk undiluted. Distillates, for example, include cognac alcohol.

What kind of water is used to dilute alcohol: raw or boiled?

On a note:

1. In general, it does not matter whether the water is boiled or raw, as long as the water is of good quality and does not have impurities and a large amount of salts. If the water is tap water, then it is advisable to boil it, and then at least pass it through a filter jug. But it is better to undergo three or more stages of cleaning.
2. If the water is spring, it depends on the degree of its hardness.
3. Bottled water is optimal for urban conditions. There is no need to boil or filter it. The main thing is that the water is not too mineralized.

Alcohol dilution calculator

Very often, to prepare most tinctures at home, we need alcohol, but pure 96 degree alcohol is not suitable for us, and the strength of ordinary vodka (40%) is not enough in many recipes. So what should we do, everything is very simple, you need to properly dilute the medical alcohol to the strength you need, as a rule, it is enough to achieve a concentration of 70%. The easiest way to do this at home is to take and dilute alcohol with water; people call this method “cold”; it is even used in some distilleries. All we need is medical alcohol and the required amount of water.

Can alcohol be diluted or mixed with carbonated or distilled water?

Worth knowing:

1. Although it is written everywhere that distilled water should not be used for drinking, alcohol is diluted with distillate quite often. The main harm of distilled water is the absence of the bulk of useful substances in it, which contributes to the leaching, rather than saturation, of useful substances in the body.
2. Distilled water has an unpleasant odor and specific taste, so it should not be used. There are no other restrictions on diluting alcohol with it. Although, if a person does not have a particularly sensitive taste, he may not feel it. But some fans, on the contrary, prefer to use exclusively distilled water, since without additional additives, vodka with it turns out softer and more pleasant.
3. Alcohol is not diluted with carbonated water; the desired effect - a tasty, pleasant drink cannot be achieved. Carbon dioxide increases the absorption of alcohol and irritates the walls of the stomach. In order to speed up the absorption of alcohol, it is better to simply drink the finished vodka with a carbonated drink.

Taste pleasure!

Adding Other Ingredients

After you have successfully diluted the alcohol, the next step is adding additives. To soften, add honey, glucose, and citrus juices. If you have no experience, then add in small portions. For 1 liter, 30-40 ml of the ingredient is enough, no more. Even less acid is added - 5-10 ml per 1 liter of finished product.

Next, you need to keep the entire composition in the dark and cold for about a week: diluted alcohol reacts with all the components, the mixture gains its final taste. When the aging is complete, the finished vodka needs to be bottled. It is important to seal the bottles tightly: if this is not done, some of the alcohol will evaporate, which will reduce the strength of the product.

At this stage, another surprise awaits you: there will be less finished vodka - part of the substance will react and form new compounds, due to which the final volume of vodka will decrease.

Note 1. A number of sources suggest first preparing pure vodka, without additives. Others suggest preparing the water first: pour in and stir all the additives.

Note 2. If the table is difficult to use, then there is another simple formula for diluting 96% alcohol: 1 liter of alcohol must be added to 1.4 liters of water to obtain a 40° drink.

Note 3: The temperature of the ingredients is important when preparing vodka. It is enough to heat them to 20° C. If you do not do this, you may have trouble adjusting the “degrees” of strength: differences from the standard 20 degrees (temperature) can lead to differences in strength degrees of 1 or more for each unit of temperature.

Can I drink pure alcohol?

But it is not recommended to drink rectified alcohol neat. Its concentration is more than 95%. And in this state, even safe food grade alcohol can be harmful. So, it damages the mucous membrane, causing a small chemical burn. This may prevent you from eating solid food for long as it will be difficult to swallow.

There will also be problems with the gastrointestinal tract. With such an amount of alcohol, all beneficial microflora dies, and therefore the effect will be similar to that after taking a course of antibiotics. People with gastritis are prohibited from drinking pure alcohol, like any other alcohol.

Storage periods and rules

Homemade vodka from water and alcohol can be stored in the same way as store-bought vodka. However, it should be borne in mind that the resulting product should be stored only in glass containers, and under no circumstances in plastic. At best, the taste of vodka will deteriorate, and at worst, it will contain compounds hazardous to health.

For the same reason, it is also advisable to mix all the ingredients and add additional components in a glass container.

The technology for diluting alcohol with water to obtain vodka is shown in the video.

Diluting alcohol with water for medicinal purposes

The alcohol solution is used not only as a drink. It is considered the best antiseptic, therefore it is popular in medicine. Compresses and tinctures are made on its basis. Alcohol is often included in inhalation mixtures and is also used as a local antipyretic. Each purpose of use requires appropriate dilution proportions.

For compress

To make compresses, there is no need to look for high-quality raw materials. Plain rubbing alcohol will do. However, in order to avoid getting a chemical burn, it needs to be diluted to 40% concentration according to Fertman’s table (a little higher can be used to increase the warming effect). To increase the therapeutic effect, medicinal herbs are added to compression alcohol solutions.

For tincture

Dilute alcohol for preparing tinctures is also mixed with purified water until the alcohol concentration is halved. Here, special requirements are imposed on the quality of ethanol and the purity of water. Ideally, you should use a distilled format of the component. Then the resulting solution will be cleaned to the maximum from foreign impurities.

After adding the main components of the tincture (herbs, berries or fruits), they will be able to better reveal the aroma, taste and beneficial properties.

For inhalations

Alcohol is often present among the components of inhalation solutions. It is better to purchase ready-made pharmaceutical mixtures, especially if the procedure is for a child. But you can do this yourself. For this, a regular 45% solution is prepared, to which medicinal components are added (propolis, eucalyptus, fir, chlorophyllipt).

The prepared tincture is mixed with saline in a ratio of 1:2 and used for its intended purpose.

Medical alcohol: concentration and how to make?

Medical alcohol is much easier to produce because it does not undergo various filtration and processing. When producing medical raw materials, purified water and ethyl alcohol are added. It is popular only on pharmacy counters as a medicine. In medicine, the degree increases from 40% to 95%. You can change its concentration simply by adding water.

Despite the ease of production, medical alcohol is more expensive than food alcohol. After all, it requires a lot of licenses and special equipment. Also in Russia, food alcohol is produced in almost every home, while about 10 enterprises across the country are working on medical alcohol.