Beer Measurement by Color

The trend of measuring the color of beer has been going on since the late 1800s. The first system used to measure the color of beer was discovered by J.W. Lovibond in the year 1883. In that system, use of colored slides matching the color of beer was made to be able to find out the approximate value of the beer. Colored glass standards were used for determining the Lovibond color. This measurement is now used for finding out the level of color of grains. This system was not used for a long time as it had its own limitations.

Measurement of beer color

Then came the light spectrophotometer technology that made its way in the market in the year 1950. A system for beer color measurement was developed by Europeans and was named as European Brewing Convention. Assessment of beer color through this method was done visually. It is not necessary for you to have a spectrophotometer for measuring the color of beer as you can make use of other instruments as well. The most popular beer color measurement instrument is a beer reference color card. This card can help you in visually comparing the color of your beer with the colors on the card. An example of the beer color card easily available is the Davidson guide. You can purchase these cards to visually compare the beer color and can find them even at the local stores. If you are not able to do so, you can find one online and take a printout. This method is not recommended as the colors on the card can vary from the actual colors.

Apart from this, a popular method is mixing beer with distilled water and then making comparisons with color measurements that are already known to you. If you are truly interested in brewing, you can buy certain books that are dedicated to the subject and mention many such methods of measuring the beer color.

New methods replace older ones

The methods used in the earlier years have been replaced by methods like SRM (Standard Reference Method) and EBC. SRM is one method whose results are somewhat similar to the Lovibond measurements. SRM is being used nowadays in the modern breweries to measure the intensity of color of beer. The Spectrophotometer used in this method measures the attenuation of light. SRM is mostly used in the United States of America while the Europeans use EBC method to measure the color of beer. If you too wish to use any of these measures, it is recommended that you use SRM measurement only as it is more accurate.

Professional brewers too have taken to this method to be able to measure the color of the beer photometrically. If you have a home brewing business, buying such equipments may be out of your budget. You can look for some other traditional methods or invest some more funds in buying these equipments only. If you have a limited budget, buying or considering these equipments would not be a practical solution for you.