Brix dilution bench

Planner

Expected paste Brix

°Brix, your guess before reading

Paste to weigh

Instrument range

A 0–32 instrument needs the sample diluted. Read the Brix scale, never SG, and apply no wort correction factor.

Reading window, low

°Brix

Reading window, high

°Brix, where the shadow line is sharpest

Reading

Paste weighed

Water weighed

g, distilled or boiled-cooled

Scale read

Use the Brix scale whenever the instrument has one.

Reading

°Brix, of the diluted slurry

Sample temperature

°C at the prism

Temperature compensation

Insoluble pulp in the paste

Mass fraction of the paste that does not dissolve. Presets are guesses (Low); the honest value is the sieved residue of a weighed sample, once per fruit.

Pot

Contents now

g, pot minus tare

Target Brix

°Brix, Stage B aim

Start mass

g, before reduction

Start Brix

°Brix, read neat on the 0–32 scale

Resolutions

Reading ±

°Brix

Paste scale ±

Water scale ±

Paste Brix, whole basis

–

°Brix ±

Liquid-phase Brix

–

°Brix ±

Water activity, estimate

–

sucrose to hexose mapping

Dilution factor used

–

by mass

Water still to remove

–

g, to target

Mass-balance estimate

–

°Brix now, from pot weight

Where the liquid phase lands

40
runny

60
a_w hurdle starts

68
band top

72
scorch limit

Linear scale, 40–76 °Brix. The shaded width around the marker is the ± from reading and weighing errors. Stage B target band 60–68; the water-activity hurdle (a_w below ~0.93) does not exist below about 60.

What changed the answer

Step	°Brix	Note

Dilution recipe

–

A measurement aid. Weigh, do not pipette; read at 20 °C; log the raw reading with the result. Brix here is refractometric dry substance: everything dissolved reads as if it were sucrose, which is exactly the basis of the 60–68 °Brix target.