Brine

Brine calculator

Pickles, peppers and anything submerged. Enter your water volume and a brine percentage; we return the salt mass in grams and teaspoons for the common grains.

Brine calculator

For submerged vegetables (cucumbers, peppers, cauliflower, garlic scapes). Salt mass is expressed as a percentage of water mass — NCHFP convention.

Water volume

1 L of water ≈ 1 kg. 3.5% brine = 35 g salt per litre.

Brine percentage

Salt grain

35g salt

for 1000 ml of water · 6.15 tsp · 2.05 tbsp · 1.23 oz

Based on Fine sea salt at 5.69 g/tsp.

Safe pickle brine. 3.5% is the most common starting point for cucumbers and peppers.

Brine percentages — the working range

2.5–3.0% — half-sour pickles, fresh-pickle cucumbers, pepper mash short ferments.
3.5% — standard full-sour pickle starting point, fermented garlic, fermented hot sauce base.
4–5% — long-keeper pickles, olive cures, cauliflower and green-bean ferments that sit under brine for weeks.
5–6%+ — preserving brines for olives and fish-sauce bases. Lactic activity slows; shelf life extends.

Sources: USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning (2015 rev.); NCHFP fermentation guidance; Linda Ziedrich, The Joy of Pickling. Convention used here: salt mass as a percentage of water mass (NCHFP convention). See the homepage for the dry-salt calculator.