Simple syrup ratios by weight and Brix

Simple syrup goes into many of your cocktails. Take a Daiquiri specA drink's exact recipe: each ingredient and how much of it. with ¾ oz (22.5 ml) of 1:1 syrup. The sugar in that pour depends on how the batch was made. Two bartenders who use cups can make two different syrups from one recipe. So the drink changes from shift to shift while the spec stays the same. Making it the same every time starts with the ratio.

What the ratio means

A simple syrup ratio gives the sugar first and the water second, both by weight. A 1:1 batch is 1 kg (2.2 lb) of sugar and 1 kg of water, which is 1 liter. A 2:1 batch, called rich simple syrup, is the same 1 kg of sugar with 500 g of water.

Brix (°Bx) is the number of grams of sugar in 100 g of syrup. The 1:1 batch holds 1,000 g of sugar in 2,000 g of syrup, so it is 50 °Bx. Because Brix is a weight measure, a ratio by weight converts to it exactly:

Brix (°Bx) = sugar (g) ÷ (sugar (g) + water (g)) × 100

The 2:1 batch is 1,000 ÷ 1,500 × 100 = 66.7 °Bx. A 3:2 syrup, three parts sugar to two parts water, is 3 ÷ 5 × 100 = 60 °Bx.

How to make simple syrup

For 1:1 syrup, weigh 1 kg of sugar and 1 kg of water. Stir or blend until the sugar has dissolved.

For rich 2:1 syrup, use 1 kg of sugar and 500 g of water. Warm it gently if needed to dissolve the sugar, without boiling away water.

Let the syrup cool, measure the finished yield and transfer it to a clean, labeled bottle. Store it according to your bar's food-safety procedures.

Weigh it, don't use cups

A cup of sugar weighs less than a cup of water. USDA lists 1 cup of granulated sugar at 200 g, and 1 cup of water weighs 237 g. So a 1:1 made with cups is 200 ÷ (200 + 237) × 100 = 45.8 °Bx, not 50.

Cups also vary. A cup holds 200 to 220 g of sugar, depending on how it packs and who scoops it. Weighing gives the same amount every time.

The table compares five syrups. For each one, it shows the Brix and the sugar in a ¾ oz (22.5 ml) pour. The last column shows how much to pour to get the same sugar as 22.5 ml of 1:1 made by weight.

Made by weight, the Daiquiri's 22.5 ml of 1:1 holds 13.8 g of sugar. Made with cups, it holds 12.4 g. That is 10% less sugar from the same spec. Difford's Guide measured one cup-made 1:1 at 48.0 °Bx. With that syrup, the Daiquiri gets 13.2 g, about 5% less.

1:1 or rich 2:1?

Either ratio works if every spec is written for the syrup you make.

The difference is the water. A 1:1 pour has equal weights of sugar and water, so the Daiquiri's 22.5 ml of 1:1 holds 13.8 g of each. A 15.6 ml pour of 2:1 holds the same 13.8 g of sugar, but only 6.9 g of water. So the drink goes into the shaker about 7 ml smaller and a little stronger, before the ice adds any water.

Some bartenders also pick 2:1 for taste. One of them, Jeffrey Morgenthaler, says it makes drinks taste fuller. He learned it in Europe, "where most bars use 2:1 simple," and uses only 2:1.

A 1:1 dissolves cold with a stir or in a blender. A 2:1 needs heat or a long stir. Because a 2:1 holds less water, it takes less room in the fridge and keeps longer.

The risk with a 2:1 is crystals. Water can only hold so much sugar. At room temperature, a 2:1 is just under that limit. Below about 63 °F (17 °C), as in the fridge, it is over that limit, so crystals can form. The chart below draws that limit as a line.

If your 2:1 starts forming crystals, check that the sugar was fully dissolved and that the batch wasn't made too concentrated. Gentle warming may dissolve the crystals again. But if crystals keep forming in the fridge, a slightly weaker syrup, such as a 3:2 at 60 °Bx, may be easier to work with.

If you switch the house syrup, write a new spec for every drink that uses it. The Daiquiri's ¾ oz (22.5 ml) of 1:1 becomes 15.6 ml of 2:1, close to a ½ oz (15 ml) jigger. Taste the drink before it goes on the spec sheet.

How much syrup does a batch make?

The 1:1 batch does not make 2 liters, because dissolved sugar takes up less room than sugar in the bag. You can work out the yield from the batch weight and the syrup's density. Density is how many grams 1 ml of syrup weighs: at 68 °F (20 °C), 1:1 syrup weighs 1.230 g per ml and 2:1 syrup weighs 1.329 g per ml.

Syrup yield (ml) = (sugar (g) + water (g)) ÷ density (g per ml)

The 1:1 batch makes (1,000 + 1,000) ÷ 1.230 = 1,626 ml, about 1.6 liters. The 2:1 batch makes (1,000 + 500) ÷ 1.329 = 1,129 ml, about 1.1 liters, from the same 1 kg of sugar.

The math tells you what a batch should make. The yield to record is what it actually makes, so measure each batch with the marks on its container. For other ratios and amounts, use the simple syrup calculator.

Checking a batch with a refractometer

You don't need a refractometer to make good simple syrup. Weighing sugar and water consistently is enough for most bar prep. A refractometer is useful when you want to check a finished batch, especially if you've heated it or suspect the ratio is wrong.

A Brix refractometer reads sugar from the way a liquid bends light. In a syrup of only sugar and water, only the sugar changes the reading. So one drop shows its Brix: 50 °Bx for a 1:1 made by weight, 66.7 °Bx for a 2:1.

Put a drop on the prism (the glass surface) and close the cover plate. Hold it up to the light and read the scale where the light and dark parts meet.

The scale has to reach your syrup's Brix. If you make both 1:1 and 2:1, choose a 0 to 90 model. Here are one maker's ranges:

The 0 to 90 model does not correct for temperature, so let the drop and the prism reach room temperature first. A cold syrup straight from the fridge reads wrong.

Same syrup on every shift

Put the empty container on the scale and set it to zero (tare it). Weigh in the sugar and the water. Write both weights in grams on the prep sheet, with the target Brix.

Heating past a simmer boils off water, which makes the syrup sweeter and the batch smaller. If 100 g boils off the 1:1 batch, the syrup reads 52.6 °Bx instead of 50. It makes 1,526 ml instead of 1,626 ml. So weigh the pot before and after heating, and add water back to the starting weight.

Check a batch with the refractometer when you can't be sure it is right: a new barback's first batch, a heated batch, a new bag or brand of sugar, or a drink that tastes too sweet.

What does simple syrup cost?

Sugar is the whole ingredient cost. At $10 for a 4 kg bag, sugar is $2.50 a kg (10 ÷ 4 = 2.5), so each batch with 1 kg of sugar costs $2.50.

Cost per liter = sugar cost of the batch ÷ syrup yield (liters)

The 1:1 batch makes 1.626 liters, so it costs $1.54 a liter. The Daiquiri's 22.5 ml pour costs about 3½ cents. The 2:1 batch makes only 1.129 liters, so it costs more per liter: $2.21. But its 15.6 ml pour costs about the same 3½ cents, because it carries the same sugar.

Your cost per liter depends on the yield you record. Say you log 1 kg of sugar and 1 liter of water as 2 liters of syrup. The cost on paper is then $1.25 a liter, 19% below the real $1.54. That wrong yield goes into every batched cocktail that uses the syrup.

Labor can cost more than the sugar. Say a bartender at $20 an hour spends 10 minutes on a batch. That is $3.33 of time, more than the $2.50 of sugar in the batch.

How long does simple syrup keep?

Sugar concentration makes a difference to how long syrup keeps. A 1:1 syrup contains more available water than a rich 2:1 syrup, so it is more susceptible to microbial spoilage.

Keep house-made syrups in clean, covered, labeled containers and refrigerate them at 41 °F (5 °C) or colder. Set a conservative use-by date in your bar's food-safety procedures and follow any applicable local requirements.

The FDA Food Code has a 7-day date-marking rule for certain refrigerated, ready-to-eat foods. Whether that requirement applies to a particular syrup depends on how the food is classified, not simply whether the recipe is 1:1 or 2:1.

Rich syrup generally keeps better because its higher sugar concentration reduces available water, but it isn't immune to contamination or spoilage. If your bar keeps plain 2:1 syrup in the fridge for up to 14 days, that is a house rule, not a legal limit or a guaranteed shelf life.

Discard syrup that turns cloudy, smells sour or grows anything. Remember that a clean appearance or normal smell does not, by itself, prove that a product is safe.

For everything else in the fridge, see our bar prep shelf-life chart.

Questions

Sources

1. Jeffrey Morgenthaler, Simple Syrup (2006).
2. Simon Difford, Difford's Guide, 2 to 1 'rich' sugar syrup versus 1 to 1 'simple' syrup.
3. USDA FoodData Central, Sugars, granulated (SR Legacy 169655): 1 cup = 200 g.
4. Jonathan Musther, Vinolab, Gravity, density and sugar conversions (specific gravity from Brix).
5. Wikipedia, Brix (definition, 20 °C reference, NBS density check value).
6. Belle Lowe, Experimental Cookery from the Chemical and Physical Standpoint, Table 5: solubility of sucrose (from Browne, Handbook of Sugar Analysis).
7. Cole-Parmer, Operating instructions, handheld analog refractometers (2017).
8. US Food and Drug Administration, Food Code 2026: date marking of ready-to-eat food that needs cold holding, and which foods need time and temperature control.