What are gravity points?

Gravity points are the decimal part of specific gravity multiplied by 1000. A gravity of 1.050 is 50 gravity points. Points make recipe math easy because they add and scale linearly with sugar concentration.

How do you convert specific gravity to Plato?

Degrees Plato is the percentage of sugar by weight in the wort. A common polynomial approximation is Plato equals minus 616.868 plus 1111.14 times SG minus 630.272 times SG squared plus 135.997 times SG cubed. The tool applies this formula directly.

How much sugar is in my wort?

Plato gives the percentage of sugar by mass. Multiplying by the wort density gives grams of dissolved sugar per litre. A 1.050 wort is about 12.4 Plato, which works out to roughly 130 grams of sugar per litre.

Is Plato the same as Brix?

They are nearly identical for sugar solutions and often used interchangeably in brewing. Brix is defined for sucrose and Plato for the mix of sugars in wort, but the difference is well under a tenth of a degree at normal gravities.

What is apparent attenuation?

Apparent attenuation is the percentage drop in gravity points from original to final gravity. It overstates true attenuation slightly because alcohol is lighter than water, but it is the standard figure brewers track to judge fermentation progress.

Wort Gravity Units & Sugar Content Calculator

This calculator translates a single hydrometer reading into every unit brewers care about: gravity points, degrees Plato (effectively Brix), and the approximate dissolved sugar in grams per litre. Add a final gravity and it also reports apparent attenuation.

How it works

Specific gravity (SG) is the density of the wort relative to water. Pure water is 1.000; dissolved sugar raises it.

Gravity points are just the decimal part scaled up:

points = (SG - 1) * 1000

So 1.050 is 50 points.

Degrees Plato is the percentage of sugar by weight, obtained from the standard cubic approximation:

Plato = -616.868 + 1111.14*SG - 630.272*SG^2 + 135.997*SG^3

Dissolved sugar (g/L) combines Plato (mass percent) with wort density. Since 1 L of wort weighs SG kilograms (1000 * SG grams), the sugar mass is:

sugar_g_per_L = Plato/100 * 1000 * SG

A 1.050 wort is about 12.4 Plato, giving 0.124 * 1000 * 1.050 ≈ 130 g/L of dissolved sugar.

Tracking fermentation

If you supply a final gravity (FG), the tool reports apparent attenuation, the percentage of gravity points the yeast removed:

apparent attenuation = (OG_points - FG_points) / OG_points * 100

For an OG of 1.050 (50 pts) finishing at 1.010 (10 pts), that is (50 - 10) / 50 = 80% — a healthy, well-fermented beer.

Notes

The Plato polynomial is accurate across the normal brewing range (roughly 1.000 to 1.130).
“Sugar content” here is the total dissolved extract, which in real wort is mostly fermentable sugars plus some unfermentable dextrins — Plato cannot distinguish the two.
Always temperature-correct your hydrometer reading first; most are calibrated at 20 degrees C. All math runs locally in your browser.