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Calculators

Sugar syrup calculator

Make simple or rich syrup by weight, see exactly how strong it is, and convert a recipe from one to the other at the same sweetness.

What will this make?

g
g or ml
Strength
50° Brix
Finished syrup
about 813ml
Sugar per 10ml
6.1g

How much do I need for…

ml
Sugar
307g
Water
307g (ml)
Strength
50° Brix

Swapping in a recipe

ml
of 1:1 → use 2:1
13.9ml
of 2:1 → use 1:1
28.8ml

Same sugar, slightly different water. Most drinks will not notice; a stirred one made with 2:1 may want a few more seconds on the ice.

How this works

A syrup's strength is the share of its weight that is sugar — its Brix. Equal weights of sugar and water make 50° Brix; two parts sugar to one of water make about 67°. Because sugar takes up less room dissolved than it did in the bag, the finished volume is less than the sugar and water added together, so the volume here is worked out from the density of sugar solutions rather than guessed.

Why weigh rather than measure by cup

A cup of granulated sugar weighs anything from about 180g to over 200g depending on how it settles. A recipe that says 1:1 by volume and one that says 1:1 by weight make different syrups — by volume is noticeably weaker. CocktailHQ's simple syrup is equal parts, and these figures take that to mean by weight.

Water is the easy half: a millilitre of water weighs a gram, so a jug is fine for it.

Simple or rich

Rich (2:1) syrup carries about 45% more sugar per millilitre than simple, so less of it sweetens a drink by the same amount and it adds less water. It also keeps longer in the fridge, because there is less free water for anything to grow in.

Swapping one for the other changes the water in the drink a little, not the sweetness. For a shaken drink it makes no practical difference; for a stirred one, stir a touch longer with rich syrup.

A worked example: a bottle of simple syrup

  • 500g sugar and 500g water: 1,000g in total, 50% of it sugar — 50° Brix.
  • A 50° Brix solution weighs about 1.23g per ml, so 1,000g fills about 813ml, not a litre.
  • Each 10ml of it holds about 6.1g of sugar.
  • A recipe's 20ml of 1:1 can be replaced with about 13.9ml of 2:1.

What it does not account for

  • Brown, demerara and other less-refined sugars, which are not pure sucrose. The figures are close, not exact.
  • Honey and agave, whose sugar content varies by product — about 80% for honey is typical, but it is not fixed.
  • Syrups stronger than about 2.3:1, which crystallise as they cool and are beyond the density table this uses.
  • Evaporation: simmering rather than stirring the sugar in cold or warm water will boil some water off and make the syrup stronger.