does brix = Spec. Grav?
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There is a Brix chart on your Hydrometer as well. One is a measure of sugar, the other is a measure of mass per unit volume.
No they are not.
Degrees Brix (symbol °Bx) is the sugar content of an aqueous solution.
Specific gravity is the ratio of the density (mass of a unit volume) of a substance to the density (mass of the same unit volume) of a reference substance.
Degrees Brix (symbol °Bx) is the sugar content of an aqueous solution.
Specific gravity is the ratio of the density (mass of a unit volume) of a substance to the density (mass of the same unit volume) of a reference substance.
Then how does the same measuring device measure them both?
The have different scales but they still both measure the density of a liquid, and fulfill the same wine making need.
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When the brix reads 0 there is no sugar left and that is also 1.0 on the sg scale, right? But yet we know many wines don't finish fermenting till it reaches a .993 sg. Why is this?
AFAIK, this is because alcohol has a lower density than water. There is some still sugar there. The wine has the same density as water because the lower density of the alcohol offsets the density increase caused by the sugar.
Great ideas guys. I was thinking that perhaps the author was maybe using the terminology of brix loosely as it seems SG and Brix do relate to sugar in some way. Would this be a fair assumption? In all of your enological experiences have you ever seen a recipe that calls to only pay attention to brix with no attention or even mention of SG at any point? Being a noob, I have no idea whatsoever so am just looking to expand the dialogue and thoughts. Thanks in advance.
I have found this entire post very interesting. There is some good information here and some not so good information. I agree with Mike (ibglowin) that Specific Gravity and degrees Brix do not have an equivalence relationship. In order for that to exist, for every value on one scale, there must be one and only one value on the other and either measure must be usable in all cases. Degrees Brix is only used to measure sugar content whereas Specific Gravity is used to measure the relative density of any liquid (or solid for that matter) relative to water (normally). For example, acetic acid has a SG or 1.052 but would not be 12.85 Brix.
The culprit in all this is our trusty hydrometer. We note that is states "beer and wine hydrometer" and the scales that it has relates SG and Brix (or Balling) to potential alcohol content of beer or wine. In this limited context with the underlying assumption that the density as measureed on the SG scale of the beer or wine is due to the sugar it contains and that amount of sugar can be calculated and converted to Brix i.e. the grams of sugar in 100 grams of solution.
I think we can say, If we are measuring beer or wine with this type of hydrometer, there is a relationship of SG and Brix for SG values equal to or greater than 1.000 assuming that the specific gravity or relative density of the beer or wine is due entirely to the sugar contained in it. This assumption is not entirely true, but close enough for our use.
The culprit in all this is our trusty hydrometer. We note that is states "beer and wine hydrometer" and the scales that it has relates SG and Brix (or Balling) to potential alcohol content of beer or wine. In this limited context with the underlying assumption that the density as measureed on the SG scale of the beer or wine is due to the sugar it contains and that amount of sugar can be calculated and converted to Brix i.e. the grams of sugar in 100 grams of solution.
I think we can say, If we are measuring beer or wine with this type of hydrometer, there is a relationship of SG and Brix for SG values equal to or greater than 1.000 assuming that the specific gravity or relative density of the beer or wine is due entirely to the sugar contained in it. This assumption is not entirely true, but close enough for our use.
GerardVineyard
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Lets really confuse everybody and throw Degrees Plato into the mix....
With all this erudite discourse, no one got around to your questions. Brix and SG relate to each other in wine making only in so far as the hydrometer measures both fairly accurately and simultaneously down to 0 degrees Brix and SG 1.000. After that, you have to stay with the SG scale, so why not use it all the time? I have seen some recipes and books that only reference Brix, but I go with SG as I try to ferment everything to dry (i.e. "no" sugar...there probably is a stray molecule or two), which varies from wine to wine at about SG 0.992. Most everyone I know talks in terms of SG when making wine and Brix when examining grapes (with a refractometer).
Would pounds vs kilograms have ruffled less feathers? Yes, Brix & SG technically measure different things but in the current context they can be converted.
Authors tend to use whichever scale they prefer, and may or may not include the other. Feel free to convert to your preferred scale.
Authors tend to use whichever scale they prefer, and may or may not include the other. Feel free to convert to your preferred scale.
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The main thing is use one or the other and understand it. Wineries and half the home winemakers use brix. Companies that sell kits and the other half of winemakers all use sg. When you enter competitions, classes are based off the amount of sugar in the wine, ie. 3% or less.
Prety much only people who make wine from grapes use the brix scale. They typically are people who dont and have never made a kit wine either or maybe just tried a few to see what tese kits are like. Mosyt who started with graoes dont like wine from kits either as they think the kitwines would be ready much sooner which really isnt the case. I use the brix scale only when Im getting the graoes as I test them at the supplier to make sure Im getting good grapes or when Im testing to see if my currants that are growing are ready to pick. Other then that I use a hydrometer and the sg scale. I dont want to do extra work with spread sheets and the such to figure out what I could have done in a split second with the sg.
Fantastic thoughts everyone! i am blown away. I honestly did not think this would get this much talk but am glad it did. Hopefully more can learn from it. Yeah, I will probably just convert it to SG. That seems to be the standard and sorta like living in north america and using non-metric (yes I know metric is easier and more used elsewhere). I'd rather stick with one constant. All the talk and recipes I read speak of paying attention to SG throughout the process.My experience is that Brix is related to sugar content of the grape/fruit and you want to harvest fruit at the proper brix which will relate to certain amount of final alcohol content. SG would relate more to the actual winemaking process, I would think.
As a side not, when taking SG reading initially before primary should the reading be done after adding sugar or before.I would think after adding sugar. The more sugar added, the higher the SG would be?
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Both. Measure the fruit first to see where you are & calculate from there, how much to add to get to where you want to be.. Add sugar, dissolve, stir well & check again to make sure you're where you wanna be.
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