Sugar & Honey for a Target Gravity
How much table sugar or honey raises a must, juice or wort to a target gravity — for mead, wine chaptalization and cider — with the volume it adds.
The sugar or honey to add in kilograms and pounds, the volume after it dissolves, and the potential ABV if the must ferments to the final gravity you expect.
Example: 5 gal of juice at 1.080 needs 0.58 kg (1.28 lb) of table sugar to reach 1.090; 20 L of water needs 8.44 kg of 80 % honey to reach 1.100.
Weigh the
sugar in.
How a mass balance in degrees Plato gives the sugar needed, why honey’s sugar content is an input, and what the volume does.
A mass balance
Degrees Plato are grams of dissolved extract per 100 g of liquid. The must weighs its volume × gravity × the density of water, and holds its °P share of extract; each kilogram of sugar adds its sugar share of extract and a kilogram of mass. Setting the result equal to the target’s °P and solving gives the sugar directly.
Honey and other sugars
Table sugar is all sugar. Honey is mostly sugar with some water, and the share varies with the honey, so it is entered from the label or the supplier; the same goes for other syrups. The sugar is treated as extract on the Plato scale.
Volume and alcohol
The dissolved sugar adds volume, shown so a carboy is not overfilled. The potential ABV uses Hall’s formula from the target gravity to the final gravity you expect from your yeast and recipe.
What the numbers do not settle
Local rules on chaptalization, yeast nutrition and how far a yeast will ferment are outside the arithmetic. Inputs stay in your browser; the same anonymous usage counts as the rest of the site apply.
SOURCES
- ASBC Methods of Analysis — extract (°Plato) table, as its cubic fit in specific gravity
- Tanaka et al., Recommended table for the density of water between 0 °C and 40 °C, Metrologia 38 (2001) 301–309
- Michael L. Hall, “Brew by the Numbers — Add Up What’s in Your Beer”, Zymurgy, Summer 1995
Last reviewed 24 September 2026. How results are checked: How we verify.