Glossary
Degrees Plato
A scale expressing dissolved extract as the percentage by weight of sucrose that would give the same density — 12 °P wort behaves like a 12% sucrose solution.
Pronounced PLAH-toe.
Also called plato, °p, balling, brix.
Plato is standard across continental European brewing and increasingly common elsewhere; specific gravity remains dominant in Britain and American homebrewing. The rough conversion is that one degree Plato is about four gravity points, so 12 °P is roughly 1.048.
Balling is the older scale Plato refined, and Brix is the near-identical scale used in winemaking and by refractometers. For brewing purposes the three are close enough to be treated as interchangeable, though Plato is the calibrated modern standard.
Related
- Specific gravity — The equivalent density-based scale.
More vocabulary
ABV · ABW · Alcohol unit · Alkalinity · Alpha acid · Apparent attenuation · Attenuation · Beta acid · Cohumulone · Degrees Lovibond
See every term on the glossary index.
Last reviewed 2026-08-16.