Alcohol determination in spirits
Distillation unit EasyDist: Steam distillation in comparison with EEC 2870/2000.
Spirit or liqueur is an alcoholic beverage produced by distillation of grains, fruits after their fermentation. Liqueurs typically contain high percent alcohol. Liqueurs may also have high sugar contents or might be flavoured with herbs or other aromas. In most jurisdictions worldwide it is a legal requirement to quantify the alcohol content for labelling and taxation purposes. An accurate and reliable method for the determination of the alcohol content in five different spirit samples with varied alcohol concentrations in comparisonto a classical distillation setup as a reference method is hereby introduced in co-operation with Versuchs-und Lehranstalt für Brauerei (VLB), Berlin. A close compliance of the steam distillation setup of EasyDist with the 1:8 distillation protocol to EEC2870/2000 is shown. The spirit samples are distilled using the distillation unit EasyDist with a glass splash protector. The alcohol content was determined after the distillation by direct injections in a densitymeter.
