Hi, I contacted meerkat a few weeks ago from Greece about using his software in the preparation of Liqueurs and still try to set the problem right.
First of all there is a triple contraction between ethanol , water and syrup(sugar) so it will be better working with weights in order to avoid the parameter of temperature.
I read a great book “ the soft drinks companion a technical handbook for the beverage industry” that is great for our case. There are many examples of contraction between syrup kai water mixtures ( the author uses weight during mixing as we have to do)
I think Dehner way of solving the problem will not be precise to large batches (more than 200 litres) because temperature is not under account.
My idea is to prepare a sample of the final product and calculate its density using the official method with a precise scale and a pycnometer
We have to weight the exact amount of syrup, the exact amount of ethanol 96% (in order to have the correct amount of dehydrated ethanol inside) and after setting our flask to a bath (I don’t know how it is called in English) we have to fill the flask with water to a certain amount under 20 oC all the time.
(I am still working on that ……………. )
After that we just know everything
We know the weight of the syrup we want to use
We can use the density d20 from above to calculate the weight of the dehydrated ethanol and the weight of the ethanol 96% we will use
Weight of water = weight of final product ** - weight of syrup – weight of ethanol 96%
** lets say we want to produce 100lt of a liqueur. We have calculated the density d20 and we end up with the weight of the final product
If you use densities of all the above ingredients you will end up with volumes of each one.
If you sum them you will end up with the REAL volume of the final product so
Initial Volume – REAL VOLUME = total contraction
I have also found that there are 2 tables
Walter table of 1955 ( it shows how much syrup , ethanol , water you have to mix in order to end up with 100lt of final liqueur ) I found a reference about it in a greek book I have but no other details except it was used by beverage industry as a very accurate one FEYDT table of 1957 (it is a plato based table that shows contraction)
I think both would be calibrated to 15 degrees Celsius
If someone could find them it would be a great help
Best from Greece