How do you figure out the potential SG of a substance?

I want to know what the potential SG is of my candi sugar. How much would I dissolve in a gallon of water to find out?

According to BeerSmith, Amber Candi Sugar is 1.036 (potential) SG. BTW it's also the same for clear and dark candi sugar too.

Right, but sucrose is 1.046, and I want to test and see if my homemade candi sugar is now 1.036 or if it retained the 1.046 of sucrose.

Ó Flannagáin said:

How much would I dissolve in a gallon of water to find out?

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potential yield is generally measured in PPPG (points per pound per gallon or something...) - aka the SG you would get if you dissolved one pound of it in one gallon. So if you dissolve one pound of sugar in one gallon of water, the measured SG would be (directly) your potential yield in PPPG.

Funkenjäger said:

potential yield is generally measured in PPPG (points per pound per gallon or something...) - aka the SG you would get if you dissolved one pound of it in one gallon. So if you dissolve one pound of sugar in one gallon of water, the measured SG would be (directly) your potential yield in PPPG.

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Awesome, just what I needed to know. THanks!

EDIT: Stated awkwardly the first time...and misleading.

You could use 1/4 lb in a quart and save yourself some time, effort, and sugar. The results will be the same.

Yuri_Rage said:

EDIT: Stated awkwardly the first time...and misleading.

You could use 1/4 lb in a quart and save yourself some time, effort, and sugar. The results will be the same.

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You're the man, I didn't feel like using a hole pound. Trying to see how much I need to prime with. I'd rather use candi sugar than DME on my belgians as the priming agent.

Please post up the results. I would love to do this with my Wit.

Wow, it's 1.046. I wonder what the difference is in my sugar and belgian candi sugar from the HBS? Anyone out there have any idea? My process for making it is in my signature.

More sugar to water ratio in the commercial, that's it.

If you want to learn more then read up on invert sugar.

A little extra info:
For those trying to emulate golden syrup used in some uk recipes like my OSH.

It is partial invert sugar syrup. So just use part candi and part table sugar. Simple!

orfy said:

More sugar to water ratio in the commercial, that's it.

If you want to learn more then read up on invert sugar.

A little extra info:
For those trying to emulate golden syrup used in some uk recipes like my OSH.

It is partial invert sugar syrup. So just use part candi and part table sugar. Simple!

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AWesome! I'm gonna use this candi sugar for all of my belgian starters now. And, to prime with.

To get the best reading, you should dissolve the candi in a little less water, then top off. The numbers are based on having a pound in a gallon, not adding a pound to a gallon.

david_42 said:

To get the best reading, you should dissolve the candi in a little less water, then top off. The numbers are based on having a pound in a gallon, not adding a pound to a gallon.

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I don't understand. I thought adding a pound to a gallon would give you a pound in a gallon?

It depends if you have water content in the Candi Sugar.
It won't make enough difference to matter for what you are concerned with.
The Lb of sugar will not increase the volume of the gallon if it is dissolved.
If it is just melted then it will increase the volume.

If you have a gallon of water and your lb of candi sugar contains 5floz of water
then you have.

1 gallon and 5floz of water. and under a pound of sugar.
the figure you get will be ever so slightly different to 1 gallon of water and 1lb of sugar.

Your hydrometer will not pick up the difference and for home brewers the thing to have is consistency not accuracy.

If all your figures are out by 10% then that's fine if they are consistently out by 10%

Ó Flannagáin said:

I don't understand. I thought adding a pound to a gallon would give you a pound in a gallon?

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Sugar in water does something weird to Hydrogen bonds (I remember this vaguely from a chemistry class). So basically, adding 1 lb sugar in 1 gallon may give you something like 1 lb sugar in 0.98 gallons, because of the Hydrogen bonds that are either replaced with something else or appear with the sugar (I honestly don't remember that part, wikipedia probably has an answer here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_bond).

As orfy said though, you shouldn't worry about it too much because unless your approaching the maximum concentration possible in water of sugar (Solubility in water 211.5 g/100 ml (20 °C), which would be 1.75lbs / gallon) , it won't affect you too much.

Ó Flannagáin said:

And, to prime with.

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Ok, hold up there for a second. Make sure the amount you prime with since the fermentability is different than dextrose.

For Example, for a Belgian ale, say you want 2vol CO2 in the bottle, and you have a fermentation temp at 70˚F:

you'd add 0.68oz/gal of Dextrose or 0.59oz/gal of Sucrose.

I only point this out, because I've made bottle bombs without making this adjustment before.

Ó Flannagáin said:

I don't understand. I thought adding a pound to a gallon would give you a pound in a gallon?

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Sugar is kind of a bulky molecule. Bulky enough that it displaces a volume in water as an effect of its own solubilized volume and with intermolecular forces (which include H-bonds, like mrfocus said).

This property isn't just for sugar though, it applies to everything. This is why chemists use units of Molarity for concentration, which is a quantity (moles) of solute dissolved, over the solution's volume (liters), rather than the solvent's volume.

Gotcha, thanks scientists! Yea, I guess it would matter if I was using a larger amount. As far as priming, I know I have some math to do before actually doing it.