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Gauging

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Whisky Science

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Abstract

Gauging is the determination of amount: in the whisky context, it refers to the measurement of the volume of spirit and of its alcoholic strength. These have obvious significance to both commerce and taxation.

Ye men of wit and wealth, why all this sneering

‘Gainst poor Excisemen? give the cause a hearing.

What are your landlord’s rent-rolls – taxing ledgers;

What Premiers – what? – even Monarchs’ mighty gaugers:

Nay, what are priests, those seeming godly wisemen?

What are they, pray, but spiritual Excisemen?

– Robert Burns, 1795 [126]

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Professor Mori informed me that water coefficient c 3 in Table 10.2 should be positive, not negative, and that the coefficient b 13 of Table 10.6 should be − 1.1767050.

  2. 2.

    “Many other pretty things he showed us, and did give me a glass bubble, to try the strength of liquors with.”

  3. 3.

    A spirit 10% under proof is 90 ∘P, and a spirit 10% over proof is 110 ∘P. The Dicas calibration was different, referring to ‘above’ and ‘below’ instead of ‘over’ and ‘under’. A spirit 10% below proof would need to have 10% of its volume removed as water to become proof, and a spirit 10% above proof would need to have 10% of its volume added as water to become proof. Under/over was alcohol-based, while above/below was water-based.

  4. 4.

    ‘do.’ is an abbreviation of ditto.

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    Gregory H. Miller

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Miller, G.H. (2019). Gauging. In: Whisky Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13732-8_10

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