The typical specifications listed below are guidelines and are a reflection of the principal grades that we trade in and this list does not represent a finite list of qualities that we can take.

Specifications for Heads and Tails (called Feints, Mauvais Gout, Vor und Nachlauf, Heads and Middle Oils) made from fermentation material:

Test	Unit	Limit
Acidity	ppm	500 max
Density	global/cm3	0.8292 max
Aldehydes	ppm	3000 max
Esters	ppm	14000 max
Higher alcohols	ppm	600 max
Alcohol strength	% v/v	90.0 min
Methanol	ppm	1200 max
Smell		Characteristic not too strong
Appearance	visual	Slightly yellow to clear, free of suspended matter

Raw or crude ethanol from fermentation distillation. Ethanol strength can vary depending on origin, but below is a guideline.

Test	Result	Unit
Appearance	Clear colourless
Smell	Characteristic	Free of suspended matter
Alcohol strength	Min 95%	% vol
Acetylaldehyde	<20	mg/100ml/ap
Ethyl acetate + Di E-acetal	<50	mg/100ml/ap
Komarowsky	<20	mg/100ml/ap*
Fusel oil	<5	mg/100ml/ap
Methanol	<20	mg/100ml/ap

Industrial-grade 96% vol ethanol (also called REN or Sekunda-grade) made from fermentation of synthetic-grade:

Test	Result
Ethanol strength	min 96% vol
Water content	max 4% vol
Methanol	max 50mg/kg
Higher alcohols	max 100mg/kg
Acetone	max 50mg/kg
Methylethylketone	max 10mg/kg
Aldehydes (acetaldehyde)	max 100mg/kg
Diethylether	max 10mg/kg
Esters (ethylacetate)	max 50mg/kg
Acidity (acetic acid)	max 20mg/kg
SO4, NO3	max 0.4mg/l
Permanganate time test	min 20 minutes

Specification for potable-grade ethanol 96% vol-grade from fermentation material. Called in Europe as Surfin or Feinsprit, in Africa as C Spirit and in USA as GNS.

Test	Limit	Unit
Appearance	Clear colourless
Odour	Neutral
Taste	Neutral
Alcohol strength	min 96% vol	% vol
Density	max 807.6	kg/m3
Residue on evaporation	<1.0	mg/100ml A.P
Residue on incandescence	<0.5	mg/100ml A.P
Aldehydes	<0.3	mg/100ml A.P
Esters	<0.4	mg/100ml A.P
Fusel oil	<0.4	mg/100ml A.P
Methanol	<5	mg/100ml A.P
Acidity	<0.3	mg/100ml A.P
Permanganate test	>20	minutes

Specification for 99% vol ethanol (synthetic- or fermentation-grade):

Test	Unit		Limit
Ethanol content Water content (Karl Fischer)	% vol % mass	min max	99.94 0.10
Appearance			Limpid, colourless
Odour, taste			Slight not foreign
Purity (Komaroswky) 550nm	(%T)	min	Brownish-yellow (83)
Permanganate reaction 20°C	minutes	min	8
Fluorescence (Na-salicylat)	mg/l		0
Absorbance 270nm	Abs (%T)	max	0.12 (min 75.9)