Pálinka Calculator
Practical calculators for fruit brandy distilling — dilution, blending, alcoholmeter correction and mash yield — plus guides explaining the arithmetic behind them. Everything runs in your browser; nothing you type is sent anywhere.
Calculators
Dilution
How much water to add to bring a spirit down to the strength you want.
- Water to add
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- Final volume
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- Pure alcohol (unchanged)
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Method and accuracy
Assumes ideal mixing. Ethanol and water contract slightly when combined — most strongly around 50 %ABV — so real volumes run a little lower than calculated, by up to about 2–3%. Add slightly less water than the figure shown, measure, then top up.
Blending
The strength you get when two spirits are combined.
- Resulting strength
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- Total volume
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- Pure alcohol
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Method and accuracy
Assumes ideal mixing. Ethanol and water contract slightly when combined — most strongly around 50 %ABV — so real volumes run a little lower than calculated, by up to about 2–3%. Add slightly less water than the figure shown, measure, then top up.
Temperature correction
Alcoholmeters are calibrated at 20 °C. Correct a reading taken at any other temperature.
- True strength at 20 °C
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- Correction applied
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- Deviation from 20 °C
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Method and accuracy
Uses a linear approximation of 0.33 %ABV per °C away from 20 °C. The true correction also depends on the strength itself, so expect a few tenths of a percent of error. For anything official, use the OIML alcoholometric tables.
Absolute alcohol
The litres of pure ethanol in a quantity of spirit — the unit records and duties are counted in.
- Absolute alcohol
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- Equivalent at 50 %ABV
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- Mass of ethanol
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Method and accuracy
This calculation is exact — no mixing is involved, so the only uncertainty is how accurately you measured the strength. Reporting thresholds and allowances vary by country and change over time; this tells you a quantity, not your obligations.
Mash yield
Roughly how much spirit a fruit mash will give, from its sugar content.
- Finished spirit at 50 %ABV
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- Pure alcohol
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- Fermentable sugar
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- Theoretical maximum
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Method and accuracy
A planning estimate. The efficiency figure absorbs everything real fermentation and distillation lose: yeast growth, unfermentable residue, alcohol left in the pot, and the heads and tails you discard. Measure your own output and calibrate the efficiency to your setup.