vodka to vinegar ratios

[brad]

Everyone says use 5 times as much vinegar as vodka, but no one says whether this is by weight, volume, mole or other unit. So I went through the math:

1 liter of 80 proof vodka, assuming that is 31.571% ethanol by weight and the rest is water = 315.71 g ethanol = 6.85283264597351855871 moles ethanol = 13.70566529194703711743 moles Carbon

1 liter of distilled white vinegar = 52.45 grams acetic acid (assuming 1.049 density of acetic acid and that the vinegar is 5% acetic acid by volume*) = 0.8734388009991673605 moles acetic acid = 1.746877601998334721 moles Carbon.

So 1 liter of vodka is closer to 7-8 liters of vinegar, 7.84580744310218855036 to be exact.

1 liter of vodka is 914.8 grams (assuming a specific gravity of ethanol of .787) and 1 liter of vinegar is 1002.45 grams. So 1 gram of vodka is 8 or 9 grams of vinegar, 8.5975400867269227288 to be exact.

By mole is easy, with 1 mole of acetic acid adding 2 moles of Carbon, which is the same as from 1 mole of ethanol.

Can someone verify my math is correct (or close)?

*I don't know, but am guessing vinegar is actually 5% by weight. The weight of acetic acid and water are close enough the result is almost the same, but the math is much easier doing it by volume.

 

[ridetheducati]

The common practice is actually 8:1, alcohol to vinegar.

 

[bertoni]

I thought everyone said 8:1. The math seems close enough to me.

 

[Duvallj]

Its close, but I would do the alcohol calculation by using volume.
Memory is a little fuzzy, but most liquor bottles I've seen have something like "80 proof via ABV" aka volume.
However a water + alcohol solution calculation by volume is further complicated by the fact that 1unit of alcohol plus 1unit of water doesn't equal 2 units of solution. (more like 1.9 ish)

I don't know about the 5% by weight or volume, I dose glacial acetic acid.

 

[tmz]

No one says 5 to one as far a I know.

Plain white vinegar is 95% water ,5 % acetic acid; 80 proof vodka is 60% water , 40% ethanol.
So by volume an eight to one equivalence is used to get approximately the same amount of organic carbon from plain white vinegar and 80 proof vodka :

1ml of 80 proof vodka contains eight times more ethanol(C2H60)

than the volume of acetic acid(C2H4O2) contained in 1ml of plain white vinegar.

 

[tmz]

Galacial acetic acid is anhydrous. It is not diluted with water. So by volume , it's considerably stonger than 80 proof vodka ( about 2.5 xs) or 5% vinegar( 20xs).

 

[Duvallj]

Galacial acetic acid is anhydrous. It is not diluted with water. So by volume , it's considerably stonger than 80 proof vodka ( about 2.5 xs) or 5% vinegar( 20xs).

correct. smells alot stronger too. yumm.