Specific Gravity - Instructions for making OS

January 6, 2009

I bought a very inexpensive hydrometer at a beer and wine making store yesterday. I just started to boil down oleander leaves which have been drying in my house for several months. Cool and dry. However, my older printed instructions don't say anything about specific gravity, and seem confusing about how much to take after condensing.

My memory is shakey. Something about it being " done' when specific gravity is .08. and condensed at ? When vodka is added, how much is a daily dose, to be divided. I have older instructions for making OS. Have they changed?

January 6, 2009

Hi Rhoda,These are the instructions for making Oleander Soup./oleander soup.htm This is the first I have heard anything about gravity. Hopefully Marc or Tony can shed some light on this.Hugs,oleander soup , "Rhoda Mead" <hummingbird541 wrote:>> *I bought a very inexpensive hydrometer at a beer and wine making store> yesterday. I just started to boil down oleander leaves which have been> drying in my house for several months. Cool and dry. However, my older> printed instructions don't say anything about specific gravity, and seem> confusing about how much to take after condensing.> > My memory is shakey. Something about it being "done' when specific gravity> is .08. and condensed at ?> > When vodka is added, how much is a daily dose, to be divided.> > I have older instructions for making OS. Have they changed?*>

January 7, 2009

As posted previously by Marc Swanepoel:

Specific gravity is the weight of a substance compared to that of an equal volume of pure water. The specific gravity of the oleander, according to the Anvirzel patent, should be around 1.08. That means the final product (before mixing with alcohol) should be 8% heavier than the same volume of water.

One can easily calculate the specific gravity of one's oleander soup if you have a scale that measures accurately to one tenth of a gram. Just take a small container and weigh it (say it weighs 20.5gm). Then fill it with the oleander and weigh it again (say it now weighs 140.3gm). Then take the same container, fill it with water to the same level as with the oleander, and weigh it one final time (say it weighs 130.6gm). The weight of the container can now be deducted from the last two weights to get the weight of the liquids (140.3 less 20.5 = 119.8 and 130.6 less 20.5 = 110.1). The specific gravity of the oleander is the weight of the oleander divided by the weight of the water (119.8 divided by 110.1 = 1.088). If your specific gravity (BEFORE adding alcohol) is less than 1.06 the oleander is too diluted and you need to cook a bit longer in order to get rid of excess water.

Just an FYI - often you can easily find old posts and topics by using the "search" box here at the group right above the messages. I found Marc's post by searching for "specific gravity".

Of course, if we did not have such a lazy moderator we would have that information in a FAQ section.

oleander soup , "Rhoda Mead" <hummingbird541 wrote:>> *I bought a very inexpensive hydrometer at a beer and wine making store> yesterday. I just started to boil down oleander leaves which have been> drying in my house for several months. Cool and dry. However, my older> printed instructions don't say anything about specific gravity, and seem> confusing about how much to take after condensing.> > My memory is shakey. Something about it being "done' when specific gravity> is .08. and condensed at ?> > When vodka is added, how much is a daily dose, to be divided.> > I have older instructions for making OS. Have they changed?*>