# How much sugar to increase SG



## Casey

How much sugar (per gallon) do I need to add to increase the SG by .006?


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## St Allie

Hiya Casey.. what is the SG now and what SG are you aiming for?

Is this a grape wine or other fruit wine? 

Not being a mathematician myself..Generally I'd make a simple syrup.. ( 2 parts sugar to one parts water or must).. and add small amounts to the must, stirring and checking regularly with the hydrometer to assess gravity.

If Luc comes in later he may have a proper conversion for you.

hope this helps

Allie


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## rocket man

Here is a really useful tool. Wine calc will tell you exactly how much sugar to add to bring up your SG to a desired level. It does alot of other stuff too.
http://winecalc.software.informer.com/2.3/


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## Tom

Nice to see others use the WineCalc I been touting here


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## rocket man

Tom said:


> Nice to see others use the WineCalc I been touting here



I think it's a great little program. It sure beats guessing how much sugar to add. If I had to do the math myself I'd have it all screwed up.


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## Casey

rocket man said:


> Here is a really useful tool. Wine calc will tell you exactly how much sugar to add to bring up your SG to a desired level. It does alot of other stuff too.
> http://winecalc.software.informer.com/2.3/



That was exactly what I needed. Kudos to WineCalc and super thanks to you for pointing me to it.


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## Luc

As my name was mentioned I ought to reply 

I tried STu's program but that is just lousy. It does not allow you to enter SG as a parameter just Brix, and is totally unhelpfull for hobby winemakers.

So stick to fermcalc:
http://web2.airmail.net/sgross/fermcalc/fermcalc_applet.html

In the sugar department use specific target gravity.
Enter initial volume: 1 gallon
Enter staring SG 1.000
Enter desired SG 1.006
Sugar to be added 0.1304 pounds.

Now please all go over to the metric system, that would have made
it far more easier.

Luc


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## rocket man

Luc said:


> As my name was mentioned I ought to reply
> 
> I tried STu's program but that is just lousy. It does not allow you to enter SG as a parameter just Brix, and is totally unhelpfull for hobby winemakers.
> 
> So stick to fermcalc:
> http://web2.airmail.net/sgross/fermcalc/fermcalc_applet.html
> 
> In the sugar department use specific target gravity.
> Enter initial volume: 1 gallon
> Enter staring SG 1.000
> Enter desired SG 1.006
> Sugar to be added 0.1304 pounds.
> 
> Now please all go over to the metric system, that would have made
> it far more easier.
> 
> Luc



Winecalc does allow you to enter the target SG and the measured SG and tells you how much sugar to add to get to your target SG. It even tells you in ounces, pounds, grams, or kilos.


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## BobF

Luc said:


> As my name was mentioned I ought to reply
> 
> I tried STu's program but that is just lousy. It does not allow you to enter SG as a parameter just Brix, and is totally unhelpfull for hobby winemakers.
> 
> So stick to fermcalc:
> http://web2.airmail.net/sgross/fermcalc/fermcalc_applet.html
> 
> In the sugar department use specific target gravity.
> Enter initial volume: 1 gallon
> Enter staring SG 1.000
> Enter desired SG 1.006
> Sugar to be added 0.1304 pounds.
> 
> Now please all go over to the metric system, that would have made
> it far more easier.
> 
> Luc


 
Hey Luc ...

I read your Merlot from juice article ... very good. In it you say that 18g/liter = 1% abv. I can't make that match up to any hydrometer charts I can find. It seems you're using a higher resulting alcohol for a given amount of sugar.

Please explain your rationale or point me to the article where you explain this.

I really want to understand it.


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## BobF

Casey said:


> How much sugar (per gallon) do I need to add to increase the SG by .006?


 
Casey - I have a cheapo 1 cup measure that I've used enough to be able to level it and know I'll get exaclty .015 increase when added to a US gallon.

For example, I just preped a 3 gallon batch yesterday that needed a .030 increase. I used 6 of these cups leveled and it came out on the nose.

I arrived at this by adding small amounts and measuring the SG at each addition for several batches. By keeping detailed records of these additions/measurements, I can go back through the records and figure out how much to add to get just about any amount of SG increase.


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## Luc

rocket man said:


> Winecalc does allow you to enter the target SG and the measured SG and tells you how much sugar to add to get to your target SG. It even tells you in ounces, pounds, grams, or kilos.



I know, Michiel's program is great but it has to be downloaded.
And Michel's program is a few years old, I wonder if it works under Windows 7 or Mac-OS. I know it does work under Linux as I am using that myself.

By the way winecalc is made (like mentioned above) by Michiel Pesgens. You can find his web-page, program and free winemaking book here:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~mpesgens/thwp/

Fermcalc can be used online.

I was referring to something called wine additions. Also an online wine calculation program that some were speaking off sometime ago around here.

Luc


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## Luc

BobF said:


> Hey Luc ...
> 
> I read your Merlot from juice article ... very good. In it you say that 18g/liter = 1% abv. I can't make that match up to any hydrometer charts I can find. It seems you're using a higher resulting alcohol for a given amount of sugar.
> 
> Please explain your rationale or point me to the article where you explain this.
> 
> I really want to understand it.



Years ago I took all winemaking books I had and started comparing the SG tables.
The least sugar needed for making 1% alcohol was about 15%, the max was at 19.8%.

I compared the SG at certain points in all the tables. Next I compared what they stated how much sugar was at that SG and what alcohol they predicted at that level of sugar.

I published the article on my web-log but it is only still in Dutch. However you can see the table with the SG's derived from the books in that article and that speaks for itself:
http://wijnmaker.blogspot.com/2007/03/hoeveel-suiker-zei-u.html

In the mean-time I have bought another like 20 books, books that were previously not availbale in Holland like US books. An example is what is considered 'the winemaking bible' called Techniques in Homewinemaking by Daniel Pambianchi

In his book he states that at an SG of 1085 you will have 22.2% sugar in the must being 222 gram per liter. He states that will make about 10.6% alcohol. So his figure is even higher as 222 / 10.6 = 20.9 gram sugar for 1%.

Jon Iverson gives on page 214 a brix of 22 at an SG of 1.085.
In his book he states further that half of the brix (approx) will be converted to alcohol.
Meaning 220 gram (22 brix) will get you 11% alcohol.
So 220 / 11 = 20 gram per liter !!!!

Now I think these are out of line.
SG is not sugar content.
Sg is a measurement of all solids suspended in a fluid. So sugar, acid, tannin, color components, flavor components etc.

And my statement is proven by figures given by yeast manufacturers. I had a look at some yeast manufacturers sites and they give far lower figures as Iverson and Pambianchi do. They state that their yeast need as low as 16.7 gram sugar to produce 1% alcohol.

Now I have to work with some figure and therefore I aimed a bit higher. I took the average of all the books I had at that time and used that as the figure to work with, and to be honest it did not prove me wrong.
In the mean time I have seen more tables coming up at the same level I am.

Luc


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## BobF

Luc -

Thanks for presenting your findings here. Very much appreciated.

I have two goals. First, I want to be able to target alcohol content as accurately as possible. Second, I want to be able to calculate sugar additions instead of add/measure, add/measure, add/measure, etc.

I am satisfied that I can use the 18g/liter/1% figure for alcohol, but I have one follow-on question.

When measuring the initial sg to determine the starting sugar level, which chart do you use to establish the number of grams per liter based on the sg reading? Are the various charts displaying equal sugar content for given sg readings, varying only in the PA?

Is there a linear formula one can use to derive g/l from sg?


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## Luc

Actually I use my own made chart. You can download it from my web-log, or from here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?sjcvgeebjqn

It is listed in the column on the right side on my web-log.

It is based on a method by mr William Beeckman.
A famous Dutch winemaker from the past.

He made a formula:

Oechsle x 2.6 - 20 (when acid is lower as 6)

Oechsle x 2.6 - 25 (when acid is between 6 and 10)

Oechsle x 2.6 -30 (when acid is over 10)

The formula oechsle x 2.6 is a widely known one and used when
measuring pure water and sugar.
Dissolve 100 gram sugar in a liter and the SG will be around 38 to 40. That is the 2.6 factor.
It is generally accepted that 2.6 gram sugar raises Sg with 1 point.
And oechsle is of course SG -1000.

Now Mr Beeckman just subtracted a figure (20, 25 or 30) representing the solids in the must depending on acidity.

That is what makes this method so reliable.

So when you divide the outcome in gram sugar for each SG by 18 you will have potential alcohol..........

That's it.

Luc


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## BobF

Luc - More great info. If you don't mind indulging my curiosity a bit more, I have another question and will likely have more as I digest this.

Are the PA values in your chart based on fermenting to 1.000 or .990?

Thanks again!


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## surlees

Bob,



> Second, I want to be able to calculate sugar additions instead of add/measure, add/measure, add/measure, etc.



Several weeks ago on a fruit wine making forum I saw it mentioned and widely agreed by several posters that 2.25 oz. (67.5g) sugar will raise s.g. of 1 gallon by 5 points (example-1.095 to 1.100).

So, to test their statement I setup the following formulas on an Excel spreadsheet:

*x= (A*(C-B)/0.005)*2.25*

where *x = ounces of sugar required; A = # of gallons of juice or wine; B = Initial or starting s.g.; C = Desired s.g.*

The following formula gives *grams* of sugar required:

*x = (A*(C-B)/0.005)*67.5*

I cautiously tried the formula on some apple juice and it worked out perfectly.

Hope this helps,

Fred


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## BobF

surlees said:


> Bob,
> 
> 
> 
> Several weeks ago on a fruit wine making forum I saw it mentioned and widely agreed by several posters that 2.25 oz. (67.5g) sugar will raise s.g. of 1 gallon by 5 points (example-1.095 to 1.100).
> 
> So, to test their statement I setup the following formulas on an Excel spreadsheet:
> 
> *x= (A*(C-B)/0.005)*2.25*
> 
> where *x = ounces of sugar required; A = # of gallons of juice or wine; B = Initial or starting s.g.; C = Desired s.g.*
> 
> The following formula gives *grams* of sugar required:
> 
> *x = (A*(C-B)/0.005)*67.5*
> 
> I cautiously tried the formula on some apple juice and it worked out perfectly.
> 
> Hope this helps,
> 
> Fred


 
Thanks Fred. I've been able to get consistent increases in sg for given amounts of sugar.

The thing I want to really nail down is the corresponding alcohol %.

Luc's numbers are very different from some of the popular published charts. My own "feeling" has been that my own wines have been too high by a bit, but nothing I can measure.

I think using Luc's numbers will result in abv's that are more in line with my expectations when comparing to commercial wines.


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## Luc

BobF said:


> Luc - More great info. If you don't mind indulging my curiosity a bit more, I have another question and will likely have more as I digest this.
> 
> Are the PA values in your chart based on fermenting to 1.000 or .990?
> 
> Thanks again!



Bob, 
The chart only points to potential alcohol.

The SG of water is 1.000 the SG of alcohol is lower.

So basically when a wine is below 1.000 the wine has stopped fermenting.

Now where exactly below 1.000 depends on a lot of things:
- the amount of alcohol as the mixture of water and alcohol decides the SG
- The remaining solids like acid etc.

So how low below 1.000 will depend on the amount of alcohol.

So this basically is independend of the chart.
The chart will point to potential alcohol and you will have reached that when SG is at 1.000 or below and fermentation has finished and no residual sugars are left.

Luc


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## BobF

Luc said:


> Bob,
> The chart only points to potential alcohol.
> 
> The SG of water is 1.000 the SG of alcohol is lower.
> 
> So basically when a wine is below 1.000 the wine has stopped fermenting.
> 
> Now where exactly below 1.000 depends on a lot of things:
> - the amount of alcohol as the mixture of water and alcohol decides the SG
> - The remaining solids like acid etc.
> 
> So how low below 1.000 will depend on the amount of alcohol.
> 
> So this basically is independend of the chart.
> The chart will point to potential alcohol and you will have reached that when SG is at 1.000 or below and fermentation has finished and no residual sugars are left.
> 
> Luc


 
Thanks again, Luc. I asked because the chart that came with my hydrometer basically says to add another .7% for a 990 reading.

This is obviously different from the divide sg delta by 7.36 which is also different from your method. I'm just trying to figure out how you deal with sg < 1000 in your process.


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## Midwest Vintner

luc, i again, appreciate the detail and great work that you've done, but even in commercial wine making by US standards, the label only needs to be withing 1.5 abv %. this means there is a very large margin for error! 

your findings though pose a good question. Do major wineries, who try to control as many variables as possible, go to the lengths that luc has? or do they depend on the skills and taste, along with experience, of their wine maker?

these are just things that come to my mind. i think a great wine can be made in both respects (an exact scientific method or with basic wine skills/methods), but knowing all aspects of wine chemistry might give a wine maker using the scientific method an advantage as wine making is a science of taste.

thanks again for all the real world experience people bring to this forum. IMO, the collective group here has a grasp of wine making that never was possible before.


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