Brix and ounces

Brewing Processes
1

Aargh.  I’m about to bottle an imperial stout.  I want to add natural blueberry syrup at the time I bottle.  I will be bottle conditioning and corking the beer for Christmas giveaways… assuming it tastes good!  So here’s the dilemma: The blueberry syrup will unavoidably add part, but not all of the priming sugar, so I will have to add some corn sugar to get the right level of CO2.

The carbonation tool in Beersmith says I will need 3.36 oz. of corn sugar, but I need to subtract from that because of the sugar in blueberry syrup.  I contacted the company (Amoretti) who sent me a specification sheet indicating that the syrup has 68 Brix.  WTH am I supposed to do with that?

Can someone help me out?  My brain is numb trying to figure this out.

2

That would be a specific gravity of 1.337.

3

I assume you mean the 68 Brix is SG 1.337.  Math challenged as I am, If I add 6.5 oz. of the Blueberry (which is the flavor threshold I am looking for), how much more corn sugar should I add to get my 4 gallons to 2.4-2.5 vv CO2?

4

Make sure the syrup doesn’t have potassium sorbate in the ingredients because that will prohibit the syrup from fermenting. I never have used flavoring syrups but I would check.

5

You have 184 grams syrup at 68% Brix. That is equivalent to 184*0.68 = 125 grams of table sugar. You need 96 grams (3.4 Oz) table sugar to carbonate your 4 gallons 2.4-2.5 vv CO2. So, no corn sugar. You can back off the syrup to 5 Oz to carbonate to your spec. If you choose to use all 6.5 Oz syrup your beer should carbonate to 2.9 vv CO2.

I used this calculator for part of the math. https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

The extra acidity and effervescence from 2.9 vv might be a nice addition to a fruit beer.

6

Thank you so much!

7

You’re welcome. I hope the beer turns out well.

8

I realize this is a really old, but I was googling and came across this thread.  I received the spec sheet from Amoretti and Artisan Blueberry now shows a Brix of 74.5 +/- 3 Brix.  However, the bottle shows a sugar content of 52 grams per 100 grams of flavoring.

Going back to the math, 184 grams or 6.5 ounces, you’re looking at 184*52 = 95.68 grams of sugar.

From Google: Degrees Brix (symbol °Bx) is the sugar content of an aqueous solution. One degree Brix is 1 gram of sucrose in 100 grams of solution and represents the strength of the solution as percentage by mass. If the solution contains dissolved solids other than pure sucrose, then the °Bx only approximates the dissolved solid content. The °Bx is traditionally used in the wine, sugar, carbonated beverage, fruit juice, maple syrup and honey industries.

9

I assume the 6.5 ounces are fluid ounces, not 6.5/16 lb.