# how many grams of sugar equal 1% alcohol?



## shanek17

The more im looking into it the more different answers im getting. Im checking out my hydrometer instructions and it says 15.6g/L equals 1% and then I used an online calculator here and its giving me different answers as well. maybe someone here can clarify for me. I just want true information here so I can have an accurate formula. I found a website thats basically saying it depends which kind of wine your making (see below information)...which is more confusing because I make wine mead and beer. Is there a standard formula for grams of sugar to alcohol percent? 


a) For white wine or rosé, Wine Standards Board's figure of 16.5 grams of sugar per litre of must, to produce 1 % alcohol by volume, is slightly low; they admit it is conservative. German data is 16.85 g/l, Australia (according to Bryce Rankine) is 16.95 g/l and France (according to Peynaud) is 17 g/l.
According to Peynaud, cane sugar was used exclusively for white wines, although I doubt it is used in France today. The land around Champagne is a major sugar beet growing area.

For red wine, which is generally fermented at a higher temperature, 19 (according to Bryce Rankine) or 20 (according to Peynaud) grams of sugar per litre is needed to produce 1% alcohol by volume, because of loss of alcohol by evaporation during pumping over of the warm wine. It is the free-run wine that is most enriched; the press wine more or less keeps its initial strength. According to Peynaud, there is no distinction made between using beet or cane sugar for red wines.
Discussion in the UK has concluded that about 18.3 grams of sugar per litre of must, should be added in order to produce 1% alcohol by volume.

http://www.winegrowers.info/wine_making/Enrichment.htm


----------



## shanek17

I just made my first batch of mead and I used expensive clover honey so iv been trying to take as good of care of it as I can! But im trying to figure out what percent alcohol it will be in the end. When I give it out to family and freinds it will be nice to tell them how much alcohol percent it is. 

Maybe someone can help me out with this, as so far my only sources of info are random websites and random calculators. I tried this calculator and it says it will be 9.5% but then another source told me like 8% 

http://www.hotsaucedepot.com/Calculators-C108.aspx


I used 4929g of honey but the actual amount of sugar was 3946.4g. I then added it too water to equal a volume of 24.5Liters. So 3946.4 divided by 24.5 equals 161grams per liter. So how much alcohol will be in this mead?


----------



## cedarswamp

2 brix=1% ABV
2 brix= 2 grams sugar/100 grams solution
1000 grams per liter
20 grams sugar/liter= 1% ABV

What am I missing?


----------



## shanek17

cedarswamp said:


> 2 brix=1% ABV
> 2 brix= 2 grams sugar/100 grams solution
> 1000 grams per liter
> 20 grams sugar/liter= 1% ABV
> 
> What am I missing?



So 20grams of sugar equals 1%? I just dont understand why some sat its 17g or some say 25grams. 

What do you mean " what am i missing"


----------



## GreginND

Actually 1% sugar theoretically can produce 0.55% ethanol based on the stoichiometry of the reaction. So a little less than 20g / liter would be required. 

But that assumes every molecule of sugar is converted 100% to alcohol. We know other enzymes can take sugars down different metabolic pathways. 

The variability in the equations (eg. 17g vs 25g, .43% vs .59% brix to alcohol) probably reflects variability in actual empirical fermentation measurements. 

The bottom line is that each batch of wine may be a little different so it is not possible to predict the final outcome so accurately. 

20g is a pretty good ballpark number to use.


----------



## saramc

I was told: 
It takes 18 grams of sugar per liter to raise brix by 1 degree. 

There are different schools of thought "European Union" versus others.

I like the explanation this article gives: http://www.etslabs.com/resources/publications/analytical-tools-for-harvest/potential-alcohol.aspx

And this document on National Bureau Standards is an interesting read, and has a great table: http://www.boulder.nist.gov/div838/SelectedPubs/Circular%20440%20Table%20114.pdf

@Shane: I also came up with potential ACV of 9.5% (assuming all fermentable sugars are used). Used the conversion rate from European Union (see ETSLabs document): 161 gm sugar/liter divided by 16.83 = 9.56. Of course, you will need to wait for ferment to complete and take a S.G. reading at that time to truly calculate. Out of curiosity, what was your S.G. reading when you pitched the yeast (just for comparison)?


----------



## shanek17

saramc said:


> I was told:
> It takes 18 grams of sugar per liter to raise brix by 1 degree.
> 
> There are different schools of thought "European Union" versus others.
> 
> I like the explanation this article gives: http://www.etslabs.com/resources/publications/analytical-tools-for-harvest/potential-alcohol.aspx
> 
> And this document on National Bureau Standards is an interesting read, and has a great table: http://www.boulder.nist.gov/div838/SelectedPubs/Circular%20440%20Table%20114.pdf
> 
> @Shane: I also came up with potential ACV of 9.5% (assuming all fermentable sugars are used). Used the conversion rate from European Union (see ETSLabs document): 161 gm sugar/liter divided by 16.83 = 9.56. Of course, you will need to wait for ferment to complete and take a S.G. reading at that time to truly calculate. Out of curiosity, what was your S.G. reading when you pitched the yeast (just for comparison)?



Thanks for all of the info. looks like some interesting stuff to read there! Well the thing with my Meads OG is that i totally messed it up lol. 

i took the SG and was suprised too see it hovering around 1.060 and i was freaking out thinking my calculations were way off. i was aiming for potential alcohol of 11% but my hydrometer was saying way less than that. then i assumed that my honey just wasnt dissolved and even in the must so i wasnt going to get an accurate reading and i added more water than i planned for so that further diluted sugar. but thats okay. Im excited too try this mead either way. 

actually random thought. Somone mentioned that all meads are made with high alcohol because ppl dont drink alot of the mead. whats that about , is that true? Im pretty sure some ppl make lower alcohol meads rite?


----------



## asliamanan

How many percent ethanol produce in 4 liters of water and 1 kilo of sugar?


----------



## GreginND

You can figure that out using Fermcalc. It is a great little wine additive/sugar/etc. calculator.

http://www.fermcalc.com


----------



## BernardSmith

I wonder if the confusion of the ancient post was over the assumption that sugar = sugar = sugar. That is not true. You dissolve 1 lb of honey in water to make 1 US qallon and your SG is about 1.035 and at 1.035 the ABV = 4.59 (call it 5%), so 1/5 of 1 lb of honey will nominally give you 1% ABV. You dissolve 1 pound of table sugar in water to make 1 gallon and the SG will be about 1.040 and 1.040 = 5.25 ABV so you need less sugar to produce 1%. 

That said, to provide asliamanan with a reasonable answer I would need to convert kilos to pounds and liters to gallons. I use the rule of thumb to convert SG to ABV of multiplying the (SG -FG)by 131.25


----------



## Johnd

asliamanan said:


> How many percent ethanol produce in 4 liters of water and 1 kilo of sugar?



Adding 1 kg of sugar to 4 liters of water will result in a SG of 1.083, or 20.029 BRIX. If all of that sugar were converted to alchohol, down to SG .990, the resulting ABV would be around 12.5%.


----------



## BernardSmith

Thanks, John, And so that would be a solution (also known as wine) that would be 12.5% ethanol and so 87.5% would be water. In other words, about 0.5 of a liter (1/8 of the total volume of 4 liters) would be (nominally speaking) 100 percent pure ethanol or 200 proof -


----------



## sour_grapes

BernardSmith said:


> Thanks, John, And so that would be a solution (also known as wine) that would be 12.5% ethanol and so 87.5% would be water. In other words, about 0.5 of a liter (1/8 of the total volume of 4 liters) would be (nominally speaking) 100 percent pure ethanol or 200 proof -



Interestingly, everything you wrote here is correct, Bernard, except "so 87.5% would be water." When you mix alcohol and water, the volume is not conserved; the resultant volume is less than the sum of the two starting volumes. (The effect is small, so this is just for interest's sake.) So the solution described above does contain, as you said, 1/2 liter pure ethanol, but it contains MORE than 3.5 liters of pure water.

The ABV standard is as if you start with the volume of pure alcohol that gives the desired percentage of the final volume, and then and add water to make up the desired final volume. You will need to put in slightly more than you may naively have guessed.


----------



## BernardSmith

Much appreciated. Mixing water and alcohol is never simple...


----------

