How to Dilute Liquor

How to Dilute Liquor
Written By
Sam Grover
Sam Grover
Published: Apr 16, 2011
Updated: Dec 13, 2021
1 minute read

You may want a liquor-based drink, but you may also want to drink more than a couple without having to crawl home. A good way to do this is to dilute your liquor. According to the New Zealand Alcohol Advisory Council (ALAC), alcohol negatively affects your brain, skin, liver and a variety of other body parts and organs; you can reduce these effects by diluting your liquor -- drinking less alcohol without consuming less liquid.

Measure the total amount of liquor you want to dilute. Assume you have 1 quart for this example.

Look at the side of the bottle for the current percentage. Assume for this example that your starting liquor is 50 percent alcohol.

Decide what percentage you want it to be. Beer, by way of comparison, is usually around 5 percent alcohol. Assume this is how diluted you want your liquor to be.

Divide the percentage you have by the percentage you want. So, 50/5=10.

Subtract 1 from your result. For this example, 10-1=9.

Multiply the amount of liquor you started with by the result of the subtraction. You have 1 quart, so 1x9=9. This means you are going to need to add 9 quarts of water or another nonalcoholic liquid to the liquor to dilute it to 5 percent.

Measure your other liquid and add it to your liquor.

References

Sam Grover

Sam Grover began writing in 2005, also having worked as a behavior therapist and teacher. His work has appeared in New Zealand publications "Critic" and "Logic," where he covered political and educational issues. Grover graduated from the…

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