sugar weight

[gonagin58]

Ahoy, Ahoy All,

Here's an interesting question, hypothetically, if I mix 40 lbs of sugar with 40 lbs of water it will weigh 80 lbs., correct? Will it weigh the same after fermentation?

[Expat]

Yes, the net weight would be the total of the two.

No, it will not weigh the same after fermentation as there is a significant quantity of CO2 released during the fermentation process; this change in weight/density is what a hydrometer reads.

[wv_hillbilly]

Weight will drop throughout the fermentation process, as the heavier sugar is replaced with the much lighter alcohol. Hence the drop in SG. If you ferment out dry below a 1.0 SG, you are actually lighter than the same amount of water.

[gonagin58]

Weight will drop throughout the fermentation process, as the heavier sugar is replaced with the much lighter alcohol. Hence the drop in SG. If you ferment out dry below a 1.0 SG, you are actually lighter than the same amount of water.

That's what I was thinking to, Thanks.

[Schmicter]

A good question and related to mass and weight is of course the specific gravity. So hypothetically if you added 40 lbs of sugar to 40 pounds and it = 80lbs. Your SG should read 2.000. So if a mash specific gravity is 1.080... the weight of 1 gallon of the mash liquid would be 1.080 X 8.34 (the weight of a gal. of water)the mash gallon should weigh 9.007 lbs.

[oliver90owner]

If you ferment out dry below a 1.0 SG,

For this example, the outcome would never ever get to that SG
Think here potential ABV and then try to find a yeast that would tolerate that %.

So hypothetically if you added 40 lbs of sugar to 40 pounds and it = 80lbs. Your SG should read 2.000.

Never in a million years. You cannot add that volume of sugar to that volume of ware and not get a volume change.

Honey at 80% sugar has an SG of about 1.45.

I think some here need to check out some density/concentration tables and think realistically.

[Prairiepiss]

Brix scale is 100 deg = pure sugar. 50 deg = equal parts water and sugar by weight. And 0 is pure water.

So 50 deg Brix = 1.233 SG. Which would be 41.2% potential ABV.

[Schmicter]

I was speaking hypothetically. Of course you couldn't get that much sugar in that small a volume of water. Just trying to pint out hte relationship of SG weght and mass. Honey isn't even close to a solution of sugar and water, the % of sugar in honey is only part of the story of its SG, but still a honey sg of 1.45x8.34 and a gallon of honey weighs 12.09 lbs. So when you finish a ferment and read .990 on the hydrometer that liquid will weigh exactly .990 of thw weight of water

I think someone has to look up and understand what hypothetically means

[wv_hillbilly]

If you ferment out dry below a 1.0 SG,

For this example, the outcome would never ever get to that SG
Think here potential ABV and then try to find a yeast that would tolerate that %.

So hypothetically if you added 40 lbs of sugar to 40 pounds and it = 80lbs. Your SG should read 2.000.

Never in a million years. You cannot add that volume of sugar to that volume of ware and not get a volume change.

Honey at 80% sugar has an SG of about 1.45.

I think some here need to check out some density/concentration tables and think realistically.

I never said that mixture would get below a 1 sg, just answering his question as to weight dropping. It was obvious that he was throwing out a question as to weights, not an actual wash that he was going to try.

[gonagin58]

Might be kind of interesting to place a small container of fresh wash on on a scale and map the weight loss during fermentation.

[Dnderhead]

1l of water =1 kg
1l of alcohol=789g
a difference of 211g.....so say a 10% ferment there would be a difference of 21g per liter.
(your starting weight mite be diferant ,depending what is in the ferment.)(but the difference will be the same)

[Schmicter]

Actually, accurately reading your hydrometer will tell you the weight loss. If you start a 5 gallon batch at 1.080 it would weigh in at 1.080x
8.34x5=45lbs. If it finishes at .990 it would weigh .990x8.34x5=41.28 so the loss in weight of a typical ferment (not including grains/just liquid) would be 3.7 lbs. Which some of that weight is liberated as CO2, so all you distillers are contributing to global warming!

[oliver90owner]

I don't think this thread is worth bothering about. We now have a perfectly neutral carbon footprint, for yeast converting biomass to carbon dioxide, and there are some who are thinking it adds to global warming! Ha ha ha.

These hypotheses need simple testing to prove they are not true, so don't'hold watr' for long. All the fermentable sugar will either be converted to alcohols, carbon dioxide, water and a few other minor constuents (we hope), so there will be more water in the final wash, than it started with for a start. Not quite so simplistic as some think. SG of a water/ethanol mixture is a perfect measure of ABV - provided there is nothing else present. There are, of course, unused nutrients in solution, higher alcohols and methanol - all in small amounts, but they will all have an effect on the final SG which, the way it is measured here, is perfectly close enough for purpose. However, it is not absolute.

Bye bye to thread. Going nowhere, this one.

[Schmicter]

SG is the measure of everything that makes the density of a SOLUTION. Its change is the change in that density....period. when converted to weight in pounds or whatever, It includes the change in the solution in its entirety. No need to test a hypothesis..to be not true???.. it is not a hypothesis it is physics, that change is absolute. Just like 2+2 always =4....SG change from 1.08 to 1.00 will always equal a change of .08 of the weight of water period. It is a general measure of potential ABV.

[gonagin58]

Actually, accurately reading your hydrometer will tell you the weight loss. If you start a 5 gallon batch at 1.080 it would weigh in at 1.080x
8.34x5=45lbs. If it finishes at .990 it would weigh .990x8.34x5=41.28 so the loss in weight of a typical ferment (not including grains/just liquid) would be 3.7 lbs. Which some of that weight is liberated as CO2, so all you distillers are contributing to global warming!

Yeah, all you distillers stop breathing, You're causing global warming. LOL