Beer color calculator
Enter your grain bill with the color of each malt, the original gravity, the boil time and the batch volume, and pick the Brau!magazin or the Morey formula. Pilsner, pale ale, Vienna and Munich malt are one tap away with their typical color. You get the estimated beer color in EBC and SRM, a color preview and where it sits on the beer color scale.
Wort
Formula
Malt average × gravity, as in Brau!magazin
Grain bill· 10.00 lb
Estimated color
6.4 SRM
- With Morey
- 6.7 SRM
- Average malt color
- 4.7 SRM
- Original gravity in °P
- 11.9 °P
Runs in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent or stored.
How the beer color formula works
Most of a beer’s color comes from the malt. Every malt has a color rating in EBC or degrees Lovibond, and the grain bill mixes them: the calculator first takes the weight-weighted average of all malt colors. 2 kg Pilsner malt at 4 EBC and 2 kg Munich malt at 20 EBC average out at 12 EBC.
A stronger wort carries more malt per liter, so the average is scaled by the original gravity: at 10 °P it stays as it is, at 12 °P it is 20% darker. The boil adds a little color on top, 1.5 EBC per hour. The example above at 12 °P with a 60-minute boil ends up at about 16 EBC, or 8 SRM: orange on the scale.
EBC = (Σ EBCᵢ × mᵢ / Σ mᵢ) × P / 10 + 1.5 × t / 60
SRM = EBC / 1.97
- EBCᵢ
- Color of malt i in EBC
- mᵢ
- Weight of malt i (any unit, only the ratio counts)
- P
- Original gravity in °Plato (SG is converted)
- t
- Boil time in minutes
Malt colors in °L are converted with EBC = °L × 1.97, treating Lovibond as equal to SRM for malts. Sources: Maische, Malz und Mehr and Brau!magazin.
Two formulas: Brau!magazin or Morey
Brewing software estimates beer color in two common ways, and the calculator lets you switch between them. The Brau!magazin formula, popular with German homebrewers and used in BrewForge recipes, takes the average malt color and scales it with the original gravity. It grows in a straight line with the malt color, so every extra gram of roasted malt adds the same amount of color.
The Morey equation, used by BeerSmith, Brewfather and the BJCP, starts from malt color units (MCU): pounds of malt times its color in °L, per gallon of beer. Dan Morey fitted a curve to measured beers, and its exponent of 0.69 makes dark malt add less and less color, as it does in real beer. It needs the batch volume but not the gravity or boil time.
SRM = 1.4922 × MCU^0.6859
MCU = Σ (lbᵢ × °Lᵢ) / gal
- MCU
- Malt color units
- lbᵢ
- Weight of malt i in pounds
- °Lᵢ
- Color of malt i in °L (EBC / 1.97)
- gal
- Batch volume in US gallons
Morey fitted the curve to beers up to about 50 SRM (100 EBC). Source: BeerSmith.
How far apart the two formulas are
For pale beers both formulas land within about 1 EBC of each other. The darker the grain bill, the further apart they get: Brau!magazin rates amber beers about a quarter darker and stouts about twice as dark as Morey. Both are estimates, and both look black in the glass above about 80 EBC. If you compare your recipe with a style guide or with BeerSmith or Brewfather, use Morey. If you brew from German recipes that state the color after Brau!magazin or Maische, Malz und Mehr, use that formula.
| Beer | Brau!magazin | Morey |
|---|---|---|
| Pilsner, 4.2 kg Pilsner malt (1.048) | 6 EBC | 6 EBC |
| Amber, 4.25 kg pale + 0.75 kg crystal 120 EBC (1.055) | 34 EBC | 27 EBC |
| Stout, 4.5 kg pale + 0.5 kg roasted barley 1300 EBC (1.055) | 187 EBC | 89 EBC |
The beer color scale: EBC, SRM and color names
EBC (European Brewery Convention) and SRM (Standard Reference Method) measure the same thing: how much light at 430 nm a beer absorbs. They differ only by a factor, EBC ≈ SRM × 1.97. European maltsters and brewers use EBC, American recipes SRM, and malt in the US is often still rated in degrees Lovibond, which is close to SRM.
The calculator places your result on a scale from 0 to 80 EBC (about 0 to 40 SRM) and names the color, from pale straw over gold, orange, amber and copper to brown and black. Beyond about 80 EBC every beer looks black in the glass.
| EBC | SRM | Color | Typical styles |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4–7 | 2–3.5 | Pale straw to straw | Berliner Weisse, German Pils |
| 7–11 | 3.5–5.5 | Pale gold to gold | Helles, Kölsch, Weissbier |
| 11–19 | 5.5–9.5 | Golden to deep orange | American Pale Ale, IPA, Saison |
| 19–28 | 9.5–14 | Amber to copper | Märzen, Vienna Lager, Altbier |
| 28–43 | 14–22 | Light to medium brown | Dunkles Bock, British Brown Ale |
| 43–60 | 22–30 | Reddish to dark brown | Munich Dunkel, Schwarzbier, Porter |
| 60+ | 30+ | Very dark brown to black | Stout, Imperial Stout |
Why your beer can come out lighter or darker
The formula is a good estimate for most grain bills, usually within a few EBC. It only knows your malt, gravity and boil time, though, and several things it cannot see change the color in the glass.
- Malt colors are ranges. The quick-add buttons use typical values (Munich type I at 15 EBC, for example), but a lot can be a few EBC off, so use the value on your bag or the supplier’s spec sheet.
- A long, hard or directly fired boil and decoction mashing caramelize more of the wort than the flat 1.5 EBC per hour assumes.
- Fermentation, yeast settling, fining and filtering take some color out, while oxidation darkens a beer as it ages.
- Very dark grain bills are the least reliable. Above about 40 SRM (80 EBC) the number hardly matters: the beer looks black.
- Color numbers are measured in a thin sample. In a full glass the same beer looks darker, and light and glass shape change how you see it.
Tips to hit your target color
Small amounts of dark malt move the color a lot. 50 g of Carafa Special III at around 1,400 EBC in a 5 kg grain bill makes a 12 °P beer about 17 EBC darker. Adjust the color with a few percent of dark malt and keep the base malt for the flavor.
- For color without roast flavor, use a dehusked roasted malt such as Carafa Special. It gives dark beers like Schwarzbier their color with little bitterness.
- Add dark malt only at the end of the mash, before lautering. You get the color with less roast character.
- Munich, Vienna and melanoidin malts give golden to amber tones, crystal malts add red and copper hues.
- For a pale beer, use a pale base malt such as Pilsner, avoid crystal malt, and as an extract brewer add most of the extract late in the boil.
Built into every BrewForge recipe
In a BrewForge recipe the color is calculated with the Brau!magazin formula while you design. It uses the color of every malt in your mash, lauter and boil additions, your recipe’s original gravity and the boil time, and updates whenever you change the grain bill.
- Color shown in SRM or EBC with a preview swatch
- Checked against BJCP 2021 style color ranges
- Planned and actual batch color side by side on brew day
Use this calculator via API
The same calculation is also a free JSON API: no account, no key, one GET request. Handy for scripts, spreadsheets and AI assistants that should use exact brewing math instead of estimating it.
Add units=imperial (or one unit parameter per value) for °F, gallons and pounds. Every answer lists the inputs, the units and the formula it used.
GET https://brewforge.sh/api/public/calc/beer-color?malts=4.5:3.5,0.5:150&og=1.048
FAQ
Questions & answers
How do I calculate the color of my beer?
Multiply each malt’s color in EBC by its weight, add everything up and divide by the total grain weight. Scale that average by the original gravity in °Plato divided by 10 and add 1.5 EBC per hour of boil. The calculator does this for you and also shows the result in SRM.
Which beer color formula should I use?
For pale and golden beers it hardly matters: both formulas agree within about 1 EBC. For amber and dark beers use Morey if you compare with BJCP style ranges, BeerSmith or Brewfather, since they use it too. Use the Brau!magazin formula for German recipes that state their color after Brau!magazin or Maische, Malz und Mehr, and to match the color shown in BrewForge recipes.
What is the difference between EBC and SRM?
Both measure beer color by how much light a sample absorbs. EBC is used in Europe, SRM in the US. To convert, multiply SRM by 1.97 to get EBC, or divide EBC by 1.97 to get SRM.
My malt color is in Lovibond. Can I use it?
Yes. Switch the malt color unit to Lovibond. For malts, degrees Lovibond and SRM are about the same, so the calculator converts with EBC = °L × 1.97, the same way BrewForge recipes do. If your supplier lists EBC, use that value directly.
Why does original gravity change the color?
A stronger wort is brewed with more malt per liter, so more color ends up in each liter. The same grain bill brewed to 16 °P instead of 12 °P comes out about a third darker.
Does boil time make beer darker?
Yes, a little. The formula adds 1.5 EBC per hour of boiling for caramelization and Maillard reactions in the kettle. A very vigorous or long boil, and decoction mashing, can darken the wort more than that.
How do I make a beer darker without roasty flavor?
Use a small amount of dehusked roasted malt such as Carafa Special and add it at the end of the mash. A few percent turns a pale grain bill brown to black with little extra bitterness.
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