Beer Q&A: What causes a beer's color?

Nov. 15, 2018 4:33 PM PT

Q. What causes a beer’s color?

A. A beer’s hue is largely a function of the malts used by brewers. Pale malts will deliver a straw- or golden-colored beer; deeply roasted malts, something resembling obsidian.

There are fine gradations, which brewers rank by SRM, or Standard Reference Measurement. A light pilsner, for instance, may hit the SRM scale at 2; IPAs are often in the 4 to 10 range; red ales, 30 to 40; while an imperial stout can top the chart at 100.

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Peter Rowe

Peter joined The San Diego Union-Tribune in 1984. A native Californian who grew up in Encinitas, Rowe is a graduate of UC Berkeley and Northwestern University. He is past president of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and a former Fulbright scholar. He has won a few journalism awards, but would trade them all for a chance to avenge his 1994 “Jeopardy!” loss. Married to a terrific woman who has saved him from errors in writing and in life, he has three sons. At the U-T, Rowe writes profiles and features and is even paid to review beers, which hardly seems fair.

Beer Q&A: What causes a beer’s color?

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