Calculator
Beer Colour Calculator (SRM and EBC)
Malt colour units to SRM by the published Morey fit, with its limits stated.
Morey is a published empirical fit, not a physical law, and it loses meaning past roughly SRM 50. Beyond that point the calculator says so rather than reporting a precise looking number for a beer that is simply black. A small amount of a very dark malt moves colour far more than a large amount of a pale one, which is why the weighting matters.
The formula
Morey is a published empirical fit, not a physical law, and it loses meaning past roughly SRM 50. Beyond that point the calculator says so rather than reporting a precise looking number for a beer that is simply black. A small amount of a very dark malt moves colour far more than a large amount of a pale one, which is why the weighting matters.
What rests on a standard and what rests on convention
- Standard The Morey equation and the SRM to EBC conversion are published.
A standard is a published equation, a published constant or a manufacturer specification. A convention is widely repeated brewing practice with no governing document behind it. Both are useful. Confusing one for the other is how a habit ends up being quoted as a fact.
Recipe kits and scales
This grid re-orders itself against the numbers you enter above. Prices are those returned when the page was built and change often.
Brewer's Best American Cream Ale Ingredient Kit
Complete malt, hop and yeast kit for a five gallon batch, with no recipe design required.
Brewer's Best American Amber Ingredient Kit
Five gallon amber ale ingredient kit.
Brewer's Best Imperial Blonde Ale Ingredient Kit
Higher gravity blonde ale kit, which needs a larger yeast pitch than a standard strength beer.
Brewer's Best Mexican Cerveza Ingredient Kit
Five gallon light lager style ingredient kit.
My Brew Supply American Wheat All Grain Kit
All grain wheat recipe kit with pilsner and caramel malt plus Kent Goldings hops.
Northern Brewer Nut Brown All Grain Kit (5 gal)
All grain nut brown ale kit, a forgiving recipe for a first all grain batch.
ABC Crafted Series Irish Red Ale Kit
Canned extract kit yielding roughly forty pints.
Digital Pocket Scale 200 g x 0.01 g
Hundredth of a gram resolution, which is the precision hop additions and water salts actually need.
BOMATA 1 kg x 0.01 g Digital Scale
Wider range 0.01 g scale, which covers both salt additions and whole hop packets.
Bonvoisin Digital Lab Scale 600 g x 0.01 g
Laboratory balance with a draft shield style body, for brewers building water profiles by the tenth of a gram.
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Frequently asked questions
- How accurate is a calculated SRM?
- Good enough to tell an amber from a brown, and not much better. Morey is a fit to observed data, and real colour also depends on boil length, mash pH and how much caramelisation happens in the kettle. Treat the number as a design target rather than a prediction of what you will pour.
- What is the difference between SRM and EBC?
- They are two scales measuring the same thing, used in different places. EBC is roughly twice SRM, and the conversion here uses the published factor of 1.97. American recipes usually quote SRM and European ones EBC, so converting matters mainly when you are reading a recipe from somewhere else.
- Why does a little dark malt change so much?
- Because colour contribution scales with both weight and the malt colour rating, and roasted malts carry ratings hundreds of times higher than base malt. Half a pound of a 500 Lovibond roasted barley contributes more colour than eight pounds of a 2 Lovibond pale malt. That is why dark beers are built with small quantities of very dark grain.
Researched from published brewing formulas, manufacturer specifications and verified owner reviews. This is general guidance, not professional advice.