Welcome to the the FIZZICS Cocktail Ice Melt Dilution and ABV Calculator. This calculator will tell you how much dilution you get when you shake or stir a cocktail over ice, and calculate the final alcohol by volume percentage (ABV) and freezing point depression of the final cocktail.
Instructions
- Enter the volume of each liquid ingredient in milliliters (ml). You will have to convert from ounces to ml if your recipe is in ounces. Remember that there are 28.35 grams/ounce.
- Enter the temperature of each liquid ingredient in Celsius (C). Room temperature is typically around 22 C (72 F); refrigerator temperature is typically around 4 C (40 F).
- Enter the alcohol by volume (ABV) of each ingredient as a percent. E.g., for an 80 proof spirit, enter 40.
- Enter the weight of ice used in grams.
- Enter the temperature of the ice. Typical freezer temperature is around -18 C (0 F). The colder the ice, and the more ice is used, the less dilution there will be.
- If you actually want to try an experiment to see how accurate this calculator is, you can also add the weight, temperature, and heat capacity of the container you mix the liquid ingredients in, because the heat from this container will contribute to extra ice melt. For a typical pint glass, the weight is about 400g, and the heat capacity of glass is typically around 0.16 cal/g C.
Assumptions
This calculator takes into consideration the the lower heat capacity of the alcoholic portion of the ingredients, in proportion to their volume in each component of the recipe. It also takes into account the lowered freezing point of the alcohol-water mixture. It does not take into account the fact that the freezing point of the water-alcohol solution rises slightly as the ice melts, but we have found this to be a small second-order effect that has been shown both experimentally and analytically to contribute to no more than a 1%-2% error over the most precise iterative calculations.