Scale a recipe. Estimate its strength.
// Pick a recipe, set servings, units and method. The output is a scaled ingredient list and an estimated ABV. Every number comes from typical bottle strengths and a dilution assumption that you can see, and change.
old-fashioned.out
Estimated ABV29.7%estimate, not a measurement
Per serving2.77 ozafter dilution
Ethanol19.2 gper serving
US standard drinks1.4per serving, 14 g each
Scale: 0 to 50% ABV. Marker: ~29.7% (estimate)
Share of the finished drink, by volume
- bourbon or rye 72.2%
- simple syrup (1:1) 9%
- aromatic bitters 2.2%
- meltwater 16.7%
// Old Fashioned x1, stirred, in oz
bourbon or rye2 oz// 40% ABV, 0.08 of a 750 ml bottle
simple syrup (1:1)1/4 oz// no alcohol
aromatic bitters2 dashes// 40% ABV
garnish1 x orange peel
before dilution2.31 oz
+ meltwater+0.46 oz// stir: 20% of the chilled part
after dilution2.77 oz// 2.77 oz per serving
est. ABV~29.7%// estimate, not a measurement
ethanol / serving19.2 g// ~1.4 US standard drinks (14 g each)
Heads up: ABV is an estimate. Adults of legal drinking age only. Never drive after drinking.
How to use it
- Choose a recipe. The method switches to that recipe's usual one, and the strength fields below the advanced fold show only the bottles it uses.
- Type a number of servings from 1 to 200, or use the plus and minus buttons. A batch is the recipe multiplied, nothing cleverer.
- Pick ounces or milliliters. Quantities are stored in ounces and converted at 29.5735 ml per US fluid ounce; milliliters are rounded for display only.
- Choose stir or shake. The method sets how much meltwater the chill adds, and therefore the final strength.
- Read the output, then copy it as plain text. The copy includes the ABV caveat and the age and driving reminder, so it stays honest when pasted into a group chat.
What the estimate assumes
- Dilution. Stirring adds 20% of the chilled liquid's volume as meltwater; shaking adds 25%. Real numbers depend on ice size, ice temperature and how long you work. Treat the result as good to a few points of ABV, not to the decimal shown.
- Bottle strengths. Typical shelf values from pantry.yaml: 40% for the base spirits, 16% sweet vermouth, 17% dry vermouth, 25% bitter red liqueur, 30% orange liqueur, 40% bitters. Juice, syrup and ginger beer count as zero. Your bottle may differ, so override it in the advanced fold.
- Toppers. An ingredient marked as a topper, like the ginger beer in the Moscow Mule, is added after chilling and is not diluted again.
- Volumes add up. Mixing alcohol and water shrinks the total volume by a small amount that this tool ignores. The real drink is slightly smaller and slightly stronger than shown.
- A dash is 0.03 oz, about 0.9 ml. A standard drink is 14 g of ethanol, the US definition; other countries use other values.
Edge cases and limits
- Servings must be a whole number from 1 to 200. Empty, zero, negative, decimal or non-numeric input shows an error and compiles nothing, rather than guessing.
- At large batches the dash count gets silly. Forty servings of a Manhattan is 80 dashes; measure bitters in milliliters instead and use the ml view.
- Pre-batching a drink with citrus is a different job. Juice fades within hours, and dilution should be added up front. This tool shows the arithmetic, not the logistics.
- Serving over ice adds more meltwater as you drink. Egg white, salt rims and garnishes are not modelled.
- ABV tells you concentration, not how much you drank. A big drink at 15% can carry more alcohol than a small one at 25%. The ethanol and standard drink figures are there for exactly that reason.