The question: Does the alcohol content of wine go down after three days of being opened if I refrigerate it?
The answer: Interesting. By placing it in the fridge, do you hope to better preserve the wine or are you trying to avoid losing a precious drop of alcohol? Just curious!
I digress. Its true that wines alcoholic concentration can decrease when exposed to air. Its a simple matter of evaporation. Wine consists almost entirely of water and alcohol. Since alcohol is more volatile than water, it will, by definition, tend to evaporate faster. However, the relative evaporation rates depend on whats going on above the surface. In a moist climate, alcohol evaporates considerably more quickly than water. This is because the surrounding air, being sufficiently saturated with water, cant readily accept much more. By contrast, theres no alcohol in the air, so the alcohol in the wine sees a free and clear path to escape without overcrowding.
Consider the evaporation dichotomy between whisky in, say, Scotland and Kentucky. You may have heard of the “angels’ share.” That’s the romantic term for the gradual evaporation of a maturing spirit through the pores of a wood barrel. It’s a big inventory cost to most distillers, with common annual volume losses of 2 to 4 per cent. In Scotland, where the air tends to be cool and moist, much of that disappearance comes in the form of alcohol. That’s why a newly distilled whisky that enters a barrel at 62- or 63-per-cent alcohol from the still can drop to the low 40s after 40 or 50 years. In contrast, in Kentucky, the air is much drier, so the water component of bourbon tends to evaporate more quickly than the water component of Scotch, keeping the alcoholic strength on a more even keel as bourbon matures.
So much for whisky. You asked about wine, where the alcoholic concentration is much lower to begin with. And we’re talking three days, not years. That’s nowhere near enough time to produce a significant change regardless of whether you store opened wine in the fridge or not. Rest assured, your hangover will be just as potent three days later as if you’d just pulled the cork.
Hotter temps will burn off more alcohol, and a bigger pan with more surface area will produce the same result. As a reference, here’s a helpful rule of thumb: After 30 minutes of cooking, alcohol content decreases by 10 percent with each successive half-hour of cooking, up to 2 hours.
The answer: Interesting. By placing it in the fridge, do you hope to better preserve the wine or are you trying to avoid losing a precious drop of alcohol? Just curious!
The question: Does the alcohol content of wine go down after three days of being opened if I refrigerate it?
So much for whisky. You asked about wine, where the alcoholic concentration is much lower to begin with. And we’re talking three days, not years. That’s nowhere near enough time to produce a significant change regardless of whether you store opened wine in the fridge or not. Rest assured, your hangover will be just as potent three days later as if you’d just pulled the cork.
I digress. Its true that wines alcoholic concentration can decrease when exposed to air. Its a simple matter of evaporation. Wine consists almost entirely of water and alcohol. Since alcohol is more volatile than water, it will, by definition, tend to evaporate faster. However, the relative evaporation rates depend on whats going on above the surface. In a moist climate, alcohol evaporates considerably more quickly than water. This is because the surrounding air, being sufficiently saturated with water, cant readily accept much more. By contrast, theres no alcohol in the air, so the alcohol in the wine sees a free and clear path to escape without overcrowding.
Consider the evaporation dichotomy between whisky in, say, Scotland and Kentucky. You may have heard of the “angels’ share.” That’s the romantic term for the gradual evaporation of a maturing spirit through the pores of a wood barrel. It’s a big inventory cost to most distillers, with common annual volume losses of 2 to 4 per cent. In Scotland, where the air tends to be cool and moist, much of that disappearance comes in the form of alcohol. That’s why a newly distilled whisky that enters a barrel at 62- or 63-per-cent alcohol from the still can drop to the low 40s after 40 or 50 years. In contrast, in Kentucky, the air is much drier, so the water component of bourbon tends to evaporate more quickly than the water component of Scotch, keeping the alcoholic strength on a more even keel as bourbon matures.
After completing her masters degree in English Language and Literature, Nevena began her full-time editing career in the marketing industry. Before this, she worked as an ESL teacher, translator, and fiction book editor.
When drinking wine, its often wondered whether alcohol evaporates from the beverage. Loosely speaking, wine is made up of water and alcohol, and its basic science that when the molecules of both of these ingredients are exposed to air, evaporation will occur. So, yes, alcohol does evaporate but the evaporated amount is negligible.
Kelli Harris has years of experience planning and implementing digital marketing projects and producing content that gets clients noticed and talked about.
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FAQ
Will alcohol evaporate out of wine?
How quickly does alcohol cook out of wine?
How long does it take for alcohol to completely evaporate?
Does wine get more alcoholic the longer it sits?
Does wine evaporate before it becomes alcohol-free?
In fact, wine that’s just sitting there evaporating would probably turn into vinegar before it would become alcohol-free. If you want to speed up the evaporation of alcohol, you could increase the wine’s surface area, airflow and temperature. You could even put it in a pan and start to heat it up.
How long after consuming wine will the alcohol show up in hospital tests?
Generally speaking, it takes approximately one hour for every unit of alcohol to leave your bloodstream. This is dependent upon your age, weight, gender, and genetic factors. A blood test can measure alcohol in your body for up to 6 hours after your last drink, while breathalyser tests work for between 12 and 24 hours. Urine tests, such as the ethyl glucuronide (EtG) test, are also effective for around 12-24 hours after use.
How does wine evaporation affect alcohol content?
Let’s start with how the alcohol content is determined. During fermentation, the sugar in the grapes is converted into alcohol. Once the wine is bottled, the alcohol content doesn’t change any further. But once you open a bottle of wine and expose it to air, things start to change, and you’re right that evaporation comes into play.
How long does it take Burgundy wine to evaporate?
It can take over 2 hours for most of the alcohol to evaporate out of wine if you’re using boiling as a method. The U.S. Department of Agriculture found that even after 2 ½ hours of simmering at 185 degrees Fahrenheit, a burgundy wine still retained 4-6% of its ethanol content.