According to Larry Warren of St Nicholas Abbey if we want to test for sugar in rum then use an inexpensive Refractometer. I've found one or two on Amazon that measure for sugar. They may be worth looking into.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/DecentGadget-Re ... ractometer
http://www.amazon.co.uk/SainSmart-Refra ... ractometer
how they work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEC-Jxs ... U1&index=3
Refractometers
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Capn Jimbo
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Remember these threads?
http://rumproject.com/rumforum//viewtop ... ractometer
http://rumproject.com/rumforum//viewtop ... ractometer
I'll return to this, but there was some controversy about this. As I roughly (and after analysis) it had to do with rums being bottled at different ABV's, which fact alone alters the readings, whether using a refractometer ($20 or so) or a hydrometer ($10). It is important to note that the refractometer is designed to test sugar in water; thus alcohol will give a high reading (this can be anticipated, below). There's a couple ways to go:
Refractometer
1. The first would be to create a table using say Seale's 10 (adjusted with distilled water to 40% ABV) to get a base number, then add sugar (say 1/3/5/10/20/30/40g) retest and get a reading for each level. The rum to be tested could then be adjusted to the same ABV (40%), and tested to determine sugar level.
2. Another would be to test a similar 40% pure rum (eg Doorly's 5, Doorly's XO, Barbancourt 3/5 Star, Appleton V/X and/or Extra), and get a reading, then adjust the rum to be tested and read again. If the latter is higher, sugar is present.
Hydrometer
1. Test some known pure rums (adjusted to 40%), then some of the sugared rums in the ALKO list with varying amounts of sugar, and record the readings to develop a simple table.
2. The rum to be tested can now be similarly adjusted and tested and the sugar estimated.
Personally I'm all for testing a pure against sugared of various ages and amounts (all adjusted to 40%) to create a reasonable table of your own, then any adjusted rum can easily be tested.
The refractometer is nice as it requires only a few drops. Cleaning between tests is important. The hydrometer is Seales' suggestion and will require a few drams (which can returned to the bottle).
A question Dai: did Warren specify a methodology? Can you PM me his email if he has one, and I'll contact him for details.
http://rumproject.com/rumforum//viewtop ... ractometer
http://rumproject.com/rumforum//viewtop ... ractometer
I'll return to this, but there was some controversy about this. As I roughly (and after analysis) it had to do with rums being bottled at different ABV's, which fact alone alters the readings, whether using a refractometer ($20 or so) or a hydrometer ($10). It is important to note that the refractometer is designed to test sugar in water; thus alcohol will give a high reading (this can be anticipated, below). There's a couple ways to go:
Refractometer
1. The first would be to create a table using say Seale's 10 (adjusted with distilled water to 40% ABV) to get a base number, then add sugar (say 1/3/5/10/20/30/40g) retest and get a reading for each level. The rum to be tested could then be adjusted to the same ABV (40%), and tested to determine sugar level.
2. Another would be to test a similar 40% pure rum (eg Doorly's 5, Doorly's XO, Barbancourt 3/5 Star, Appleton V/X and/or Extra), and get a reading, then adjust the rum to be tested and read again. If the latter is higher, sugar is present.
Hydrometer
1. Test some known pure rums (adjusted to 40%), then some of the sugared rums in the ALKO list with varying amounts of sugar, and record the readings to develop a simple table.
2. The rum to be tested can now be similarly adjusted and tested and the sugar estimated.
Personally I'm all for testing a pure against sugared of various ages and amounts (all adjusted to 40%) to create a reasonable table of your own, then any adjusted rum can easily be tested.
The refractometer is nice as it requires only a few drops. Cleaning between tests is important. The hydrometer is Seales' suggestion and will require a few drams (which can returned to the bottle).
A question Dai: did Warren specify a methodology? Can you PM me his email if he has one, and I'll contact him for details.
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Capn Jimbo
- Rum Evangelisti and Compleat Idiot
- Posts: 3550
- Joined: Mon Dec 11, 2006 3:53 pm
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- Contact:
Here's an easy trial...
Buy an inexpensive refractometer, an eyedropper (some of the meters come with one), some distilled water, a Doorly's 5 Year (comes at 40%), and say an El Dorado 12 Year (also comes at 40%). As it turns out (see below) you could use a Seales 10 just as well to establish a pure number (in my case "14").
1. Play by taking a few reads with the distilled water to establish your technique. The tricks are to cover the glass with enough drops so that when you place the cover down there are no "bubbles", so that the glass is fully covered with a thin layer of liquid - also - to clean and dry the glass between each test. This will "zero" out the meter (no sugar). So far this is very easy, very cheap.
2. Now test the Doorly's Five, or a Seales 10 (as it will be closer in age to the ED12). Do a few reads until you are satisfied with the reading. Then a few reads with the ED12. Note: you need to rinse out the dropper in between rums. I also drew up an squirted out a few droppers with the new rum, to make sure there was no remaining water in the dropper.
3. That's all you need do. Now you know what a pure (Seales 10) rum of about 10 years should read (I got "14"), and what a sugared version of about the same age, (ED12) reads (which if a newish bottle should represents about 45g of sugar per liter).
Divide 45 by the difference in readings (ED minus Seales) and now you know how many grams of sugar are represented by each unit. 45/(ED - Seales) = grams/unit reading
4. If you're testing a roughly 5 year rum (give or take) use Doorly's Five as your reference, and now you can test another five year, note the difference in reading units and multiply by the grams/unit you found above.
Really not very hard, and the readings go very quickly once you've done a few...
*******
Just for fun I took about 15 minutes with my refractometer, and got the following readings.
1. Older Doorly's 5 (40%): 14
2. Newish Seales 10 (43%): 14
3. Very old ED 12 (40%): 16
5. Tap water from the faucet: 0
What I learned is this. Apparently the 3% in ABV between the Doorly's and the Seales' made no difference (as it would have with the hydrometer). I believe this is because the refractometer is measuring the bending of light (due to sugar), while the hydrometer is is measuring density (alcohol is lighter, so a 43% will give higher readings than a 40%). This means either would do as a reference for most rums.
Even this very old ED12 (around 8 years old) shows a reading that is 2 units higher than a pure rum, which means some sugar is present. Because this is a very old ED though, we can't make any further assumptions. If I'd tested a newish ED though that would mean that each refractometer unit is worth 22.5 g of sugar.
I'm sure my old ED is far less altered, so I'd expect a newish ED would read higher than "16". Dai, you up for it?
Buy an inexpensive refractometer, an eyedropper (some of the meters come with one), some distilled water, a Doorly's 5 Year (comes at 40%), and say an El Dorado 12 Year (also comes at 40%). As it turns out (see below) you could use a Seales 10 just as well to establish a pure number (in my case "14").
1. Play by taking a few reads with the distilled water to establish your technique. The tricks are to cover the glass with enough drops so that when you place the cover down there are no "bubbles", so that the glass is fully covered with a thin layer of liquid - also - to clean and dry the glass between each test. This will "zero" out the meter (no sugar). So far this is very easy, very cheap.
2. Now test the Doorly's Five, or a Seales 10 (as it will be closer in age to the ED12). Do a few reads until you are satisfied with the reading. Then a few reads with the ED12. Note: you need to rinse out the dropper in between rums. I also drew up an squirted out a few droppers with the new rum, to make sure there was no remaining water in the dropper.
3. That's all you need do. Now you know what a pure (Seales 10) rum of about 10 years should read (I got "14"), and what a sugared version of about the same age, (ED12) reads (which if a newish bottle should represents about 45g of sugar per liter).
Divide 45 by the difference in readings (ED minus Seales) and now you know how many grams of sugar are represented by each unit. 45/(ED - Seales) = grams/unit reading
4. If you're testing a roughly 5 year rum (give or take) use Doorly's Five as your reference, and now you can test another five year, note the difference in reading units and multiply by the grams/unit you found above.
Really not very hard, and the readings go very quickly once you've done a few...
*******
Just for fun I took about 15 minutes with my refractometer, and got the following readings.
1. Older Doorly's 5 (40%): 14
2. Newish Seales 10 (43%): 14
3. Very old ED 12 (40%): 16
5. Tap water from the faucet: 0
What I learned is this. Apparently the 3% in ABV between the Doorly's and the Seales' made no difference (as it would have with the hydrometer). I believe this is because the refractometer is measuring the bending of light (due to sugar), while the hydrometer is is measuring density (alcohol is lighter, so a 43% will give higher readings than a 40%). This means either would do as a reference for most rums.
Even this very old ED12 (around 8 years old) shows a reading that is 2 units higher than a pure rum, which means some sugar is present. Because this is a very old ED though, we can't make any further assumptions. If I'd tested a newish ED though that would mean that each refractometer unit is worth 22.5 g of sugar.
I'm sure my old ED is far less altered, so I'd expect a newish ED would read higher than "16". Dai, you up for it?
Alko list is based on what is available to buy in Finland at any given time. As you see, the selection is not all that greatDai wrote:No specific methodology was mentioned. More is the pity. It's even more of a pity the ALKO do not have a more comprehensive list. It would certainly make life a lot easier.
The Finns don't know what they are missing.JaRiMi wrote:Alko list is based on what is available to buy in Finland at any given time. As you see, the selection is not all that greatDai wrote:No specific methodology was mentioned. More is the pity. It's even more of a pity the ALKO do not have a more comprehensive list. It would certainly make life a lot easier.