I have a heavy crystal decanter I’ve been using for years. A while back I was having some guests for a week, and thought I’d save some money and grabbed a bottle of Jim beam to put in it, as opposed to the higher end I tend to go for, because none of my guest cared about Bourbon. I noticed the level going down further than I had consumed. This has never been an issue before, so I figured someone had just nipped it while o was asleep. The next day, there was condensation on the inside, and the level had dropped further.

Since I’d been using the decanter for so long, I assumed the frosting on the stopper had rubbed off and it no longer sealed.

When it was empty, I refilled it with larceny, my standard, and to my surprise, it didn’t evaporate at all for weeks.

Last night, I refilled it with beam again, and this morning, it had dropped and there was condensation on the side.

What really confused me, is Jim beam has a lower alcohol content than the Bourbons I usually fill the decanter with, so I would think it would evaporate as readily.

Why does only this one brand evaporate?

Quick searching gave me no results

Tldr: Why does Jim Beam evaporate in my decanter while nothing else does?

  • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz
    702·
    1 month ago

    Occam’s Razor: prefer the answer with the least assumptions. The simplest answer is that the stopper leaks.

    You’ve only got a very small sample size and it’s possible that the stopper is slightly asymmetric and fits well one way and no other.

    The easiest way to unreliabily detect this is just to rotate the stopper in the neck and see if it sits in one place sightly differently than other positions.

    Also, if you’re more frequently drinking your preferred bourbon, you’ll have a harder time noticing any evaporation.