What Does Proof Mean When Talking About Alcohol?
Go into a liquor store and you will find various proofs of liquor, depending on the bottle of spirits. Proof is simply a way of explaining how much alcohol is in a beverage.
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Origin
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Rum and gunpowder will ignite.
fire works2 image by fotomagic from Fotolia.com
Proof is a term that originated in England. It is still used there today. Sailors would put gunpowder into rum to see if the rum would ignite. If it did ignite, the rum was 100 proof, or at least 57 percent alcohol. If it did not ignite, they knew that someone had watered down the rum.
Meaning
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Stronger liquor can have a very high alcohol content.
warming snifter of amaretto liquor on a table image by David Smith from Fotolia.com
One hundred percent proof alcohol means that the liquid in question is 4/7 alcohol by volume, or more than half pure alcohol. Stronger spirits can have proofs of 60 to 160 proof, which means that some of the drinks are almost 100 percent alcohol.
Labeling
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You can compare drinks by comparing the percentage of alcohol.
beer in beer-mug image by Witold Krasowski from Fotolia.com
In the United States, people have moved away from the traditional proof as a way to explain alcohol content. Instead, alcohol is shown as a percentage by volume. A 100-proof liquid in the U.K. would translate as roughly a 57% alcohol percentage by volume in the U.S.
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References
- Photo Credit liquor image by Renee Woodward from Fotolia.com fire works2 image by fotomagic from Fotolia.com warming snifter of amaretto liquor on a table image by David Smith from Fotolia.com beer in beer-mug image by Witold Krasowski from Fotolia.com
