Drinking beer is a favorite past-time, whether for the variety of types, or the history, or just enjoying an ice-cold mug of brew with your friends. People want to know what makes a light lager light, and what makes a dark lager dark? Is it the ingredients in the brew or is it how it’s made?
Light lagers only came about around the 60’s and 70’s because people wanted to drink beer without getting fat. Basically light lagers are made from using less hops and barley in the brewing process and watering down the lager, essentially creating a lighter color and less filling beer. Almost every beer is either ale or a lager. Lagers are fermented at colder temperatures than ales. They tend to have cleaner, crispier flavors and tamper-down aromas. When it comes to the color though, it comes down to the Maillard reaction.
The Maillard reaction came around in the late 1800’s by the work of a French chemist known as Louis-Camille Maillard. This reaction is one of the most important reactions to know in how lager looks different from an amber or a stout beer. This reaction may also be known as “browning” in the brewing world. It’s basically heating sugar until the sugar compound is by itself and having amino acids react the reducing sugar. It is to be known that the reaction only happens at elevated temperatures but it can happen at room temperatures as well. Caramelization has similarities to the Maillard reaction as well which gives beer its final color.
Color that a lager or ale is measured by is degrees Lovibond, devised by Joseph Williams Lovibond. Degrees Lovibond or “L” scale is a measure of the color of any beer, whiskey, or sugar solutions. This determination takes place by comparing the color of the beer to a series of amber to brown glass slides known as SRM(Standard Reference Method). The scale ranges from 1 to anywhere in the hundreds, but mainly used from 1 to 40.