As most people know, if we mix ethanol and water, we don't end up with the sum of the parts in volume.
For example, if we mix:
50 litres ethanol
50 litres water
We end up with 96 litres. Not 100.
My question is this:
With the decrease in volume, we don't lose any mass of ethanol, so has the ABV increased?
i.e. is the ABV 50% or has it increased?
I'm trying to do some cost analysis of the total loss of ethanol throughout the distilling process to fully cost a micro distillery.
I've already got some pretty accurate figures on how much I will lose in the actual distilling stage, i.e. recovering the ethanol from heads and tails.
In the UK I need to pay for duty up front (initially) and so my ethanol is around £30 / $39 per litre.
I don't have access to 96% NGS yet to actually try this.