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Pickling Brine Salinity Calculator

Enter the water weight and target salinity to see how much salt your brine needs.

How it is calculated

The target salinity is treated as salt as a share of the finished brine, not of the water alone: salt / (water + salt) = s / 100. Solving for the salt gives salt = water × s / (100 − s), and total brine = water + salt. Water and salt are both in grams (1 ml of water is about 1 g), and s is a percentage. Results are shown to two decimals. Water and salinity must be above zero, and salinity may not exceed 26.5 %, roughly the point where water is saturated and cannot dissolve more salt; anything above that gives no result. Because the share is taken of the whole brine, the salt weight is always slightly larger than a plain s % of the water.

Worked example

1,500 g of water and a 3 % target. Salt = 1,500 × 3 / (100 − 3) = 4,500 / 97 = 46.39 g. Total brine = 1,500 + 46.39 = 1,546.39 g. Check: 46.39 / 1,546.39 is 3 % of the finished brine. A plain 3 % of the water would have been 45 g, which gives a slightly weaker brine than the one you asked for.

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Common mistakes

  • Multiplying the water by the percentage and stopping there. This tool defines the percentage on the finished brine (water plus salt), so the salt figure is a little higher, and the gap grows as the target rises.
  • Entering the water in litres or the salt in spoons. Water is entered in grams here and salt comes out in grams, so weigh it on a scale.
  • Typing 0.03 instead of 3. The salinity field takes a percentage, so 3 means 3 %; 0.03 is accepted and gives a brine with almost no salt (0.45 g for 1,500 g of water).
  • Entering a salinity above 26.5 %. A brine cannot be stronger than saturation, so no result is shown.
  • Comparing results with a recipe that quotes salt as a percentage of water only. Its figures will not match this one for the same nominal percentage.

About this calculator

Brine salinity — the salt concentration by weight of the finished brine — is what actually drives a pickling or fermentation recipe, not the vague "some salt" that home recipes often list: the salt must make up the target percentage of the total brine weight (salt plus water), so a 5% brine made with 1,000 grams of water needs about 52.63 grams of salt regardless of what container or vegetable it is going into.

Home picklers and fermenters, following guidance from sources like the National Center for Home Food Preservation, work in salinity percentages rather than volume measures (a tablespoon of salt is not a fixed weight, since salt types vary in density) because getting the salinity right is what determines whether a lacto-fermentation ferments safely and predictably — typically in the 2% to 5% range depending on the vegetable and desired crunch.

Water weight and target salinity go in; the salt weight needed and the total brine weight come out, so you can hit a repeatable brine strength every time instead of guessing with spoons.

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