My gf is convinced alcohol settles on the bottom of bottles, cans, etc. and it claims that the last sips always taste more alcoholic. I’ve tried googling this phenomena and haven’t found anything to suggest that this is happening.
Perhaps mixed drinks I could see this happening since the density of liquids wanting to separate. Since alcohol is water soluble this should not happen… I have a theory that is has to do with the temperature of the last few sips being much warmer than the first. Warmer beverages to me taste higher in alcohol.
Most likely this is the key. Warmer temperature increases the perception of alcohol, which is why I prefer to drink virtually all wines at cellar temp or cooler.
In some cocktails the different components can be layered, so a heavy (ie. very sweet), high-alcohol liqueur can settle/remain in the bottom of the glass. Otherwise ethanol is normally pretty evenly distributed in a solution.
Ethanol and water are miscible (completely mix) because of the strong hydrogen bonds with the hydroxyl (OH) group in ethanol. Ethanol, at any percentage, dissolves in water. But, if they were immiscible, ethanol is less dense than water.
There is an interesting demonstration that is sometime performed in high school chemistry. If you mix equal amounts of water and ethanol, the solution occupies slightly less volume than the two liquids separately (about 4% less, I think).
Yep, agreed. I was thinking if ANYTHING I’d guess the ethanol would want to rise to the top not the bottom if it wasn’t the case. Also, just from how the distillation process works it’s pretty evident that ethanol and water are completely stable mixture. If it weren’t true all the college kids storing their vodka in the freezer would have some very interestingly proofed liquor.
Isn’t that a different issue, the different freezing points? I haven’t tried freezing any liquor but sadly have learned that wine left in the freezer will separate out as it were.
As Otto mentioned, freeze distilling works to concentrate the ethanol level, although more for lower alcohol content liquids in typical freezers.
Ethanol-water mixtures freeze in a funny way, both water and ethanol freeze but in different proportions than in the liquid (more water percentage). This lowers the freezing point of the remaining liquid so it stops freezing eventually (unless extremely cold). The “ice” also doesn’t float. If you leave a bottle of wine in the freezer, you’ll end up with slushy liquid.
) needs to stop creating unscientific conspiracy theories.
College was just tequila and vodka in freezer next to the frozen bag of french fries.