Skip to the calculator

Dilution

Find how much water to add to bring your syrup down to a target Brix.

01 · Inputs

Enter your starting volume, starting Brix, and target Brix.

Read at room temperature, or correct a hot hydrometer reading first.

66.0 is the US and Canadian minimum; Vermont and New Hampshire require 66.9.

03How this is calculated

Brix is percent sugar by weight, so the sugar in the syrup is conserved by weight, not by volume. The calculator converts your syrup to pounds using the weight of a sugar solution at that Brix, works out how much water brings the sugar down to the target share, and converts that water back to volume.

A gallon of 68 °Brix syrup weighs about 11.1 pounds against 8.3 for water, which is why a straight volume ratio under-calls the water by about a quarter. Diluting 1 gallon from 68.5 to 67.0 °Brix takes about 3.8 fluid ounces, the same as the worked example in the North American Maple Syrup Producers Manual, and the results match the manual’s Table 8.3.

If the syrup will not be boiled again, use only potable water. Raw sap or concentrate added to finished syrup can carry the microorganisms that make it spoil.

Sources

  1. Ch. 8, "Adjusting Syrup Density" and Table 8.3 water to add per gallon to lower densityNAMSPM 3rd ed. (2022)pp. 8-18 to 8-19, Table 8.3
  2. Ch. 9, "Blending for optimal invert levels" (rule of allegation; proportions by weight)NAMSPM 3rd ed. (2022)pp. 9-7 to 9-8
  3. Weights per United States Gallon and Weights per Cubic Foot of Sugar SolutionsSnyder, C.F., Hammond, L.D. (1946). National Bureau of Standards Circular C457Table 1, pp. 3–34: true specific gravity 20 °C/20 °C and pounds per US gallon in air at 20 °C, by tenth degree Brix; Table 2 for water

Keep the density with the batch

Sapline records each batch’s grade and the barrels it fills, and a bottling run checks density before it stamps a lot code.

Start free