Editing Brix (section)

==Background==
In the early 1800s, Karl Balling, followed by [[Adolf Ferdinand Wenceslaus Brix|Adolf Brix]], and finally the ''Normal-Commissions'' under [[Fritz Plato]], prepared pure sucrose solutions of known strength, measured their specific gravities and prepared tables of percent sucrose by mass vs. measured specific gravity. Balling measured specific gravity to 3 decimal places, Brix to 5, and the Normal-Eichungs Kommission to 6 with the goal of the Commission being to correct errors in the 5th and 6th decimal place in the Brix table.

Equipped with one of these tables, a brewer wishing to know how much sugar was in his [[wort]] could measure its specific gravity and enter that specific gravity into the Plato table to obtain °Plato, which is the concentration of sucrose by percentage mass. Similarly, a [[vintner]] could enter the specific gravity of his [[must]] into the Brix table to obtain the °Bx, which is the concentration of sucrose by percent mass. It is important to point out that neither wort nor must is a solution of pure sucrose in pure water. Many other compounds are dissolved as well but these are either sugars, which behave similar to sucrose with respect to specific gravity as a function of concentration, or compounds that are present in small amounts (minerals, [[hops|hop]] [[acid]]s in wort, [[tannins]], acids in must). In any case, even if °Bx is not representative of the exact amount of sugar in a must or fruit juice, it can be used for comparison of relative sugar content.