Measuring Spirits for a Bar Stock Take

[w88dyy]

Does any body know how i can measure the exact number of shots left in a bottle after service? are there any devices out there that measure the number of shots taken from the bottle?
I hope to hear from you soon, thanks
Sarah

[rjkh]

Hi Sarah.

One way I used to use was to take an optic measure and fill an old bottle up with water. attach the optic to the full bottle and take an empty bottle of whichever product you want to measure. Empty 50ml into the bottle and mark the level with a marker pen. Keep adding 50ml and marking it as you go. When you are finished you should be able to compare the level of spirit with the mark on the bottle.

Obviously this doesn't work so well with darker bottles, so Hendrick's, Baileys etc might need to be done differently.

Of course, you could just pour the contents into a measuring jug, but be warned you would have to make sure it is totally clean and dry before using it for another product. If the ABV falls below a certain point (I think it is 0.3% less than is stated on the bottle), you could incur fines.

[heathfield]

There used to be a ruler for measuring the amount of drink left in a spirits bottle. It was rectangular, with a rectangular hole in the middle. On each edge were listed the different spirits bottles together with the graduations for those bottles. The problem was when distillers changed the shape of their bottles!
The simplest method these days is to weigh a full bottle, then weigh an empty bottle, using inexpensive but accurate digital scales. Divide the difference in weight by the number of measures you expect to get from the bottle. It's then fairly simple to weigh a part-filled bottle and calculate what's left.
On the other hand, microchip wireless sensors are now being used in the US to monitor drinks served from any bottle and passing the info to a computer, like this.