Alcohol determination in beer
Distillation unit EasyDist: Steam distillation in comparison with EEC 2676/1990 and OIV-MA-AS312-01A.
Produced by fermentation, beer is brewed from various grains and is one of the widely consumed alcoholic beverage. It is therefore legally required to quantify its alcohol content for labelling and taxation purposes. An accurate and reliable method for the determination of the alcohol content in five different beer samples with varied alcohol concentrations in comparison to 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 proposed 1:8 distillation protocol to EEC 2676/1990 and OIV-MA-AS312-01A is shown. The 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 digital density meter.
