![]() Both NBS and ASBC converted to apparent specific gravity at 20 ☌/20 ☌. Those workers measured true specific gravity reference to water at 4 ☌ using, respectively, 17.5 ☌ and 20 ☌, as the temperature at which the density of a sucrose solution was measured. It is not, typically, actually necessary to consult tables as the tabulated ☋x or °P value can be printed directly on the hydrometer scale next to the tabulated value of specific gravity or stored in the memory of the electronic U-tube meter or calculated from polynomial fits to the tabulated data, in fact, the ICUMSA tables are calculated from a best-fit polynomial.Īlso note that the tables in use today are not those published by Brix or Plato. If using the ICUMSA tables, they would report in mass fraction (m.f.). ![]() If using the Brix table (the current version of which is maintained by NIST and can be found on their website), they reports in ☋x. If the analyst uses the Plato tables (maintained by the American Society of Brewing Chemists ) they reports in °P. Whichever means is used, the analyst enters the tables with specific gravity and takes out (using interpolation if necessary) the sugar content in percent by mass. In modern times, hydrometers are still widely used, but where greater accuracy is required, an electronic oscillating U-tube meter may be employed. Measurement Specific gravity Īs specific gravity was the basis for the Balling, Brix and Plato tables, dissolved sugar content was originally estimated by measurement of specific gravity using a hydrometer or pycnometer. In any case, even if ☋x is not representative of the exact amount of sugar in a must or fruit juice, it can be used for comparison of relative sugar content. Many other compounds are dissolved as well but these are either sugars, which behave very similarly to sucrose with respect to specific gravity as a function of concentration, or compounds which are present in small amounts (minerals, hop acids in wort, tannins, acids in must). It is important to point out that neither wort nor must is a solution of pure sucrose in pure water. Similarly, a vintner could enter the specific gravity of his must into the Brix table to obtain the ☋x, which is the concentration of sucrose by percent mass. Balling measured specific gravity to 3 decimal places, Brix to 5, and the Normal-Eichungs Kommission to 6 with the goal of the Commission being to correct errors in the 5th and 6th decimal place in the Brix table.Įquipped with one of these tables, a brewer wishing to know how much sugar was in his wort could measure its specific gravity and enter that specific gravity into the Plato table to obtain °Plato, which is the concentration of sucrose by percentage mass. ![]() In the early 1800s, Karl Balling, followed by Adolf Brix, and finally the Normal-Commissions under Fritz Plato, prepared pure sucrose solutions of known strength, measured their specific gravities and prepared tables of percent sucrose by mass vs. Because the differences between the systems are of little practical significance (the differences are less than the precision of most common instruments) and wide historical use of the Brix unit, modern instruments calculate mass fraction using ICUMSA official formulas but report the result as ☋x. ![]() Ī sucrose solution with an apparent specific gravity (20°/20 ☌) of 1.040 would be 9.99325 ☋x or 9.99359 °P while the representative sugar body, the International Commission for Uniform Methods of Sugar Analysis (ICUMSA), which favours the use of mass fraction, would report the solution strength as 9.99249%. The ☋x is also used for measuring the concentration of a cutting fluid mixed in water for metalworking processes.Ĭomparable scales for indicating sucrose content are: the Plato scale (°P), which is widely used by the brewing industry the Oechsle scale used in German and Swiss wine making industries, amongst others and the Balling scale, which is the oldest of the three systems and therefore mostly found in older textbooks, but is still in use in some parts of the world. The ☋x is traditionally used in the wine, sugar, carbonated beverage, fruit juice, fresh produce, maple syrup and honey industries. For example, when one adds equal amounts of salt and sugar to equal amounts of water, the degrees of refraction (BRIX) of the salt solution rises faster than the sugar solution. If the solution contains dissolved solids other than pure sucrose, then the ☋x only approximates the dissolved solid content. One degree Brix is 1 gram of sucrose in 100 grams of solution and represents the strength of the solution as percentage by mass. Measuring brix and percent acidity of a sudachiĭegrees Brix (symbol ☋x) is a measure of the dissolved solids in a liquid, and is commonly used to measure dissolved sugar content of an aqueous solution. For other uses, see Brix (disambiguation).
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