Hi Zack. Agreed, heating the sugar syrup affects Brix. On our how to make sugar syrup page I stress the importance of just heating enough to dissolve the sugar - comfortably tough the side of pan. On our "Degree of sweetness (Brix)" page are values measured by Monin when I visited their lab. We made sugar syrups 1:1 and 2:1 by both mass and volume and they measured brix. Homemade 2:1 by volume = 65.1 Brix and Monin Pure Cane Sugar Syrup = 65.0 Brix. Homemade 1:1 by volume = 48.0 Brix.

I know I’m nearly a year late, but chemist here! As you’ve observed, the ultimate volume of syrup ≠ the volume of sugar + volume of water, so comparing Brix is definitely the way to go for accuracy. However, there is one additional wrinkle when comparing syrup sweetness: heating sugar and water together actually causes the sugar (sucrose) to undergo hydrolysis into glucose and fructose! This will make calculation of Brix inaccurate, since the Brix scale assumes the solution contains only sucrose. Is that a problem? Yes, because the 1:1 mixture of fructose and glucose is 1.3x sweeter than the sucrose it is derived from! So if someone is using 1:1 syrup made without heating, to achieve the same sweetness, they may truly need to use twice as much (1.5 x 1.3 = 1.95).

Thanks for your feedback. Has helped me improve the page.

My experiment wasn't very precise, so I'll defer to your numbers, and you've covered your bases by rounding to the nearest bar measure. I'm a math and sometimes physics guy, not a chemistry guy, so we're at the limit of my knowledge. It looks good to me. There's variability in the numbers anyway depending on the fineness of the sugar, and at the end of the day we're adjusting to taste. Thanks for the conversation!

I've taken another approach and used brix to calculate the % difference in sweetness between the two strengths of syrup. I'd be grateful for feedback on my workings above. I becoming increasingly relieved that I have always worked with 2:1 rich syrup (measured by volume)!

This little experiment also helps justify why rich syrup is superior: It takes about that much water to break down the sugar, but doubling the water content to make 1:1 syrup just adds to the volume, it does almost nothing to dissolve the sugar further, it's just watering it down.

Ok I mixed up some of each and measured the resulting volume, the missing factor is how efficiently the sugar dissolves. 120ml of water and 120ml of sugar yields about 180ml of 1:1 syrup, and 60ml of water and 120ml of sugar yields about 120ml of 2:1 syrup, so the ratio is in fact 3:2.

Your chart is correct, the only real adjustment is that 2:1 syrup is 1.5 times as sweet as 1:1 syrup.

This would also be consistent with your 1.33 times as sweet statement, as 1/2 x 1.33 = 2/3.