Post #760841 by JenTiki on Tue, Mar 15, 2016 7:09 AM

On 2016-01-20 10:49, HopeChest wrote:
Hi everyone!

One night a month and a half ago the missus and I hollowed out a couple of pineapples to make a few proper Pi-Yi cocktails. On a whim I put the removed pineapple in a large hermetically sealed jar, filled it up with Cruzan light rum, and then put it in the cupboard to do its work. We took a taste a couple of weeks back at the one month period but it was pretty rough, undoubtedly because it was pulled from near the top of the jar and not near the heart of the batch. Last night I finally strained and bottled it up. It filled an empty Plantation rum bottle I had lying about, and still had about a 1/5th left over. It is utterly delicious - very, very sippable and makes a fantastic daiquiri.

As we were drinking it we got to wondering about the alcohol content, as usually when you see a flavoured rum it's about 5% less alcohol content. Is that the case, or similar, when you do an infusion with fruit? I did my share of googling but was unable to come up with any specific info, so I'm very curious as to how much infusing can affect the alcohol content.

Cheers!

I have an answer for you! The question of the factors effecting proof readings came up recently at a secret meeting of Smuggler's Cove's Rumbustion Society. I was reminded of this thread and asked Martin Cate your question. What I learned is that the rum will remain at the same proof at which it was bottled ... however, the residual sugars from the pineapple will throw off the reading on a hydrometer. So although an 80 proof rum will still be 80 proof after it is infused with pineapple, a hydrometer reading will likely show a lower proof due to the residual sugars that have been added. Now if you're actually adding a measurable amount of liquid, then the volume changes, and thereby the ABV % will change, and therefore so will the proof. But just an infusion does not change the original proof of the rum. Other fruit infusions may not change the hydrometer reading as much as pineapple will, since pineapple is super sweet and juicy. Fruits with a lower sugar content will not effect the reading as much. Hope this helps.