[technopersia]

Hi, I am doing Advanced higher Chemistry at school in Scotland (it's basicly what you study in the 1st and 2nd year of a chemistry related course at university or first year of university for chemistry in Scotland, around the first 6 month in England). Anyway, I'm doing an investigation which is counted towards 20% of the entire year. The investigation I have chosen is a combination of chemistry, biochemistry, Biology, Physics and Biochemical Engineering (after being told to keep it simple! ). In the investigation I am making Mead (fermented honey) using 4 different honey varieties and I'm going to investigate whether the honeys affect ethanol concentration. I will through in some colourimetry as well. And some specific gravity calculations to make it look professional. And also 3 different methods of must preparation will be used to compare the effects. I have completed the first phase of the investigation and I am going to analyse my mead. I am going to use a GC to measure ethanol concentration however the SQA (Scottish Qualification Authority) said this is not enough, since we do not have a GC at school and the local University's equipment has to be used. They are saying I should also measure the ethanol concentration in the chemistry class (lab). (Since the SQA is so modern, being the best education system in the world and all that crap ) Now I have used distillation to separate the ethanol from the mead, however this hasn't worked very well (since samples are only 50ml each) and a mixture of water, ethanol and what ever else is produced. My question at the moment is is there a way to react the ethanol with another chemical and produce a salt (precipitate) so it's stoichiometry can be used to calculate the ethanol volume and then concentration?
P.S. Sorry for the lengthy explanation, I thought you may want some background information.
Many Thanks in advance for reading to this spot! 

[Custos]

I can't think of any way of doing what you want. GC is by far the best method but if you can't do that you may be stuck. You could try something like viscosity but that wouldn't be very accurate even with calibration curves.

[technopersia]

Hi, and thanks you for the reply. After distilling as mentioned previously a mixture of water and ethanol was produced. can the pKa or pH be used to give approximate or exact quantities which could be compared to the pure ethanol of the same volume.
P.S. Can you explain the difference between pKa and pH. I no that ethanol does not have H⁺ ions but other than that.
(Many thanks in advance)⁴² 

[AWK]

You can find an aproximately yield of ethanol on the basis of volume and density of your distillate. Ethanol cannot be easily separated from water quantitatively

[Custos]

If it's a clean water ethanol mixture you could also use the refractive index I guess?