December 6 is the birthday of the French chemist Gay Lussac, who invented a way to measure the alcohol content of, among other things, beer, wine, and spirits. What we call ABV (alcohol by volume) is also called "degrees Gay Lussac" after him, so in France, for example, you may see "6.8% GL" on a bottle. It is the official measure of alcohol content in Europe.
Another measure is "proof," which is twice ABV in the US. In the UK, proof is different; 100 proof is about 57% ABV, while in the US, 100 proof is 50% ABV.
The term "proof" has its origins in proving that there was the stated amount of alcohol in rum, which was used as a means of payment to sailors. They found that if you mixed gunpowder with rum and set it on fire, it would not burn if it had less than 57.15% of alcohol, and this number became 100% proof that the rum was not watered down.
For beer, besides alcohol content, there is also a measure of bitterness, IBU for international bittering unit. It measures the amount of a certain acid in the beer. For benchmarking, a pale lager style beer may have 10 IBU, a pilsner 25 IBU, an IPA about 50 IBU. Among the highest is barleywine, which may go up to 80 or 90 IBU.
By the way, Gay Lussac also discovered boron. You have probably used borax, a compound of boron, found in cleaning agents. Borax has been around for thousands of years, boron was isolated by Gay Lussac and his colleagues in 1808. He also coined the terms "burette" and "pipette" that you used in high school chemistry.
Another measure is "proof," which is twice ABV in the US. In the UK, proof is different; 100 proof is about 57% ABV, while in the US, 100 proof is 50% ABV.
The term "proof" has its origins in proving that there was the stated amount of alcohol in rum, which was used as a means of payment to sailors. They found that if you mixed gunpowder with rum and set it on fire, it would not burn if it had less than 57.15% of alcohol, and this number became 100% proof that the rum was not watered down.
For beer, besides alcohol content, there is also a measure of bitterness, IBU for international bittering unit. It measures the amount of a certain acid in the beer. For benchmarking, a pale lager style beer may have 10 IBU, a pilsner 25 IBU, an IPA about 50 IBU. Among the highest is barleywine, which may go up to 80 or 90 IBU.
By the way, Gay Lussac also discovered boron. You have probably used borax, a compound of boron, found in cleaning agents. Borax has been around for thousands of years, boron was isolated by Gay Lussac and his colleagues in 1808. He also coined the terms "burette" and "pipette" that you used in high school chemistry.
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