Density Meter Determination of Proof of Ethanol-Water Solutions: Collaborative Study

Abstract

Density meter procedures and the official AOAC pycnometer method to measure proof of ethanol-water solutions in the 25-79° proof range were collaboratively studied. Measurement of proof by density meter is simpler, requires less time and smaller samples, and gives more reproducible results than the AOAC pycnometer method. Differences of —0.05 to +0.02° proof between averages of results reported for density meter and pycnometer are acceptable, considering that proof of finished alcohol products is reported to 0.1°. The density meter method has been adopted official first action.

Improvement of Qualitative Analyses of Aliphatic Alcohols Using Direct Catalytic Fuel Cell and Chemometric Analysis Format

“…As is well known, there are many methods for the quantitative and qualitative analysis of alcoholic substances. Leaving aside the oldest chemical assays [24] or densitometric ones used, above all, for ethanol [25], there are quite a few instrumental methods for the determination of alcoholic substances, which are based on gas chromatography [26,27], liquid chromatography, HPLC and ion chromatography [28][29][30], GC-MS [31], and also on colorimetric [32] and spectrophotometric methods (UV-Vis) [33,34], or NIR [35][36][37], and so on. There is no shortage of sensorial methods either [38][39][40].…”