Calculating Beer Color
This is for all you techno. brewers out there, whoever you may be . . .
You may have noticed that the descriptions that are written in our newsletter
mention color of each style expressed in Degrees Lovibond. Lovibond is the measure
of the color of each type of grain after malting. For example, standard 2 row
Klages malt is about 2 degrees (l), crystal is available from 10 l to 120 l,
black is, well black. Each style of beer has it's own acceptable range of color,
American Lagers range from 2 - 4, Pale Ales 6 - 16, Porters 25 - 35, Stout 35+,
Specialty beers can range from 0 - 100.
So, how do you know if you are in the right range? If you know what the beer
is supposed to look like, you pretty much know. I mean, if you are making a
light lager and can't see through it, it probably needs to be a little lighter,
if you were making a stout and you could read a newspaper through it, you may
be a little on the light side. But what if you are entering the Nationals and
you wanted to make sure that you are in the range for American Light
Lager, subcategory Diet/Light (color 1 - 4 l), how would you measure it without
sending it to the lab?
You can test the finished beer at home with this simple test. The standard beer
is Michelob Classic Dark because it is widely available and its color is known
at 17 l (I know what you are thinking, how can a respected homebrewer buy beer,
especially an American Megabrewery beer, but hey, at least it is an American
Premium Style that you can push off on your friends that don't know good homebrew
form a hole in the ground). The test consists of diluting the standard with
water until a color match is obtained.
You will need:
1. Distilled water
2. Blender to de-gas the beer
3. Light Source - ideally a 100-watt bulb against a white background
4. Vessels - equal volume, two glass jars, 1 inch diameter, holding 125 ml,
for samples you believe to below 10 l, two Miller High Life bottles work well
5. Syringe - marked to measure 10 cc
Procedure:
1. Clean Everything
2. De-gas beers in blender
3. Measure 20 ml of standard beer #1 to vessel #1
4. Measure 20 ml of sample beer #2 to vessel #2
5. If colors are different, measure 10 ml of distilled water into vessel #1
and 10 ml of sample beer into vessel #2
6. Continue Step 5 until colors become close. Cut the water and sample beer
increment from 10 ml to 5 ml.
7. When a color match is obtained, record total amount to water added and compare
to chart.
(Ref. - Classic Beer Styles Series #4, Marzen, Oktoberfest, Vienna by
George & Laurie Fix.)