Rapid determination of ethanol in spirit drinks using steam distillation and densitometry

This paper introduces a new method of determining ethanol in spirit drinks. The method relies on fully automated steam distillation in combination with densitometry. The procedure is much faster (taking less than 5 minutes per sample) and easier than the conventional reference method (distillation, pycnometry). This makes it possible to determine alcohol content efficiently and economically, both in official food control and in spirit production. Steam distillation works particularly well for emulsion spirits, which are difficult to distil by conventional methods. Validation has proved the method robust and precise. The relative standard deviation was below 0.55% in all cases. The rapid determination has a wide linear range from 2-80%vol which makes it suitable for drinks with a low alcohol content as well as for high percentage spirits. By analysing 100 spirit samples under routine conditions, a high correspondence (R = 0.999) with the reference method was achieved.