Cocktail Dilution & Final ABV Calculator
Build a cocktail from ingredients, choose your dilution method, and get the final alcohol percentage, proof, total volume after dilution, and calorie estimate. Nothing uploaded.
Results
Full drink details
Learn more: how ice dilution changes a cocktail's ABV
Where the final percentage comes from
Before any ice touches it, a drink's strength is a weighted average: the pure alcohol volume of every ingredient divided by the total liquid volume. A Manhattan built from 60 ml of 45% rye and 30 ml of 16% sweet vermouth carries 31.8 ml of alcohol in 90 ml of liquid, so it starts at 35.3%.
Stirring it on ice adds roughly 15% of that volume back as melted water. The calculator reports 14 ml of water, a final volume of 104 ml, and a final strength of 30.7%, which it also shows as 61 proof since US proof is ABV doubled.
Stirred, shaken, built, neat
The presets apply fixed dilution rates: 15% added volume for stirred, 25% for shaken, 5% for a drink built in the glass, and none for a neat pour. The custom option takes your own figure if you have weighed a drink before and after mixing it.
Shaking picks up more water because the ice fractures into smaller pieces with far more surface area, and the liquid gets colder and aerated along the way. The same Manhattan shaken lands at 28.3% in 113 ml rather than 30.7% in 104 ml. That gap is why spirit-forward drinks are stirred: the extra water thins out a Martini or a Manhattan.
The method list has one quirk. Its "built / no ice dilution" option still applies 5%, on the assumption that a rocks pour picks up some melt while you drink it. Pick "no ice / neat" when you want the undiluted number.
Dilution moves the percentage, not the alcohol
Water changes how concentrated the drink is, not how much ethanol sits in the glass. That Manhattan reads 1.8 standard drinks stirred, shaken, or neat, because the count comes from 14 grams of pure alcohol per US standard drink and the alcohol total never moved.
The calorie estimate works from the same fixed quantity. It converts alcohol volume to grams at 0.789 g/ml and counts 7 kcal per gram, so the 27 ml of ethanol in a 60 ml pour of 45% rye weighs 21.3 g and comes to about 149 kcal. Sugar is counted separately at 4 kcal per gram, but the recipe rows only take volume and ABV, so read the total as an alcohol-led estimate rather than a nutrition label.
FAQ
Why is a shaken drink weaker than a stirred one?
Shaking breaks the ice into smaller fragments and works the liquid harder, so more ice melts into the glass. The calculator uses 25% added volume for shaken against 15% for stirred, which turns a 35.3% Manhattan into 28.3% instead of 30.7%.
Does diluting a cocktail lower its standard-drink count?
No. Melted ice adds volume but no alcohol, so the grams of ethanol stay put and the standard-drink figure holds steady. A drink that reads 1.8 standard drinks neat still reads 1.8 after a long stir, even though the ABV has dropped.
How do I use this for a pre-batched party pitcher?
Set the batch multiplier to the number of servings and every ingredient volume scales with it, including the water figure. A pitcher is not stirred per serving, so the water shown for your chosen method is what you would mix into the batch before chilling it.