# Percentage of ethanol that can be ignited.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-ethanol-that-can-be-ignited/406118
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 30, 2007, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-ethanol-that-can-be-ignited/406118 "2007-05-30T22:02:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@BluePitbull](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BluePitbull)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2007, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-ethanol-that-can-be-ignited/406118/1 "2007-05-30T22:02:48Z")
What is the minimum percentage of ethanol, in a drink, that can be ignited by a match?
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### Author:  [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2007, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-ethanol-that-can-be-ignited/406118/2 "2007-05-30T22:04:38Z")
Anecdotally, I believe it to be 50% or 100 proof.
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### Author:  [@MrJackboots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrJackboots)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2007, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-ethanol-that-can-be-ignited/406118/3 "2007-05-30T22:12:23Z")
From personal experience, I’ve ignited gently-warmed glasses of brandy before (80 proof). I’ve also exploded amaretto (56 proof), but that was in a hot frying pan. I suspect it won’t ignite at room temperature.
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### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2007, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-ethanol-that-can-be-ignited/406118/4 "2007-05-31T03:45:23Z")
At room temp, it has to be 50% (100 proof.) If it has a large amount of sugar in it, you might be able to get away with a little lower. When heated, however, lower proofs have alcohol vapor that can float up from the cooking vessel and be ignited.
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### Author:  [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2007, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-ethanol-that-can-be-ignited/406118/5 "2007-05-31T03:49:00Z")
Well wait a minute, I recall lighting vodka on fire and it is usually 40%. I don’t have any here otherwise I’d try it. Am I missing something?
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### Author:  [@ArmenE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArmenE)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2007, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-ethanol-that-can-be-ignited/406118/6 "2007-05-31T03:52:27Z")
A few people have posted that it has to be 100 proof to light. This is incorrect. It has to be 100 degrees proof (English system), which is equivalent to 114.2 proof (US), or 57.1% ethanol by volume.
At 51 deg. Farenheit (10.6 deg C), 57.1% ABV mixture will light.
Temperature can change this significantly.
[Wikipedia’s Proof article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholic_proof)
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### Author:  [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2007, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-ethanol-that-can-be-ignited/406118/7 "2007-05-31T03:54:50Z")
[QUOTE=Shamozzle]
Well wait a minute, I recall lighting vodka on fire and it is usually 40%. I don’t have any here otherwise I’d try it. Am I missing something?
[/QUOTE]
You’re not missing anything. 40% will sometimes ignite and sometimes burn, especially given an evaporative medium (like a cotton swab saturated with vodka will burn off the vodka really well)