Beer can be pale gold, deep amber, ruby red, nearly black, and just about everything in between. But where does all that color actually come from?

The short answer: mostly malt.

The longer answer is a little more interesting.

It Starts With the Grain

Most beer begins with malted barley. Before it ever reaches the brewery, that barley goes through a process called malting, where the grain is allowed to germinate and is then dried in a kiln.

How that malt is dried, and especially how much heat it receives, has a huge impact on its color.

Think about making toast. A slice of bread starts pale, but the longer you toast it, the darker it becomes. Malt works in a similar way.

Lightly kilned malts stay pale and contribute straw, yellow and golden colors. Increase the heat and you begin getting gold, amber and copper. Roast the malt even further and you can create deep brown or nearly black grains.

Those colors eventually make their way into the beer.

The Malt Spectrum

Brewers have a huge range of malts to choose from, and each brings its own combination of color and flavor.

Pale and Pilsner malts provide the light golden foundation found in many lagers, Kölsch-style ales and pale ales.

Vienna and Munich malts move toward deeper gold, orange, amber and copper while often bringing richer malt character.

Caramel and crystal malts can add shades ranging from orange and red to deep brown, along with caramel, toffee and dried-fruit flavors.

Chocolate and roasted malts produce the dark brown and black colors associated with porters and stouts, often bringing flavors reminiscent of coffee, cocoa or toast.

A brewer doesn’t necessarily need much dark malt to dramatically change the appearance of a beer. A relatively small addition can turn an otherwise pale recipe into something much darker.

Color Doesn’t Tell You How Strong a Beer Is

Here’s where appearances can be deceiving.

Dark beer does not automatically mean strong beer.

Color and alcohol content are largely separate things. A dark beer can be relatively low in alcohol, while a pale beer can pack a serious punch.

That’s because alcohol primarily depends on how much fermentable sugar is available to the yeast and how much of that sugar gets fermented. Color is driven much more heavily by the types of malt used.

So you can’t reliably judge a beer’s strength just by holding it up to the light.

What About Red Beer?

Red and ruby-colored beers are a great example of how carefully brewers can manipulate malt.

Certain caramelized and kilned malts can produce rich reddish hues without making a beer completely dark. Combine those with a lighter malt base, and you can create colors ranging from copper to deep ruby.

The effect becomes especially noticeable when light passes through the glass.

That’s part of what gives an Irish Red Ale like Warbeard its distinctive appearance.

Do Hops Change Beer Color?

Not much compared with malt.

Hops can contribute a little color, particularly when they’re used heavily, but their biggest jobs are providing bitterness, aroma and flavor.

Other ingredients can have a much more noticeable impact. Fruit, spices and specialty ingredients can push a beer toward colors that malt alone wouldn’t normally produce.

Add raspberries and you might get pink or red. Add certain dark fruits and you can move toward purple. The possibilities get pretty wide once brewers start moving beyond the traditional four ingredients.

Even the Brewing Process Matters

The recipe isn’t the only thing influencing the final color.

During brewing, heat creates additional browning reactions in the wort. Longer or more intense boiling can deepen color somewhat, while certain brewing techniques can encourage additional caramelization and darkening.

The finished beer’s appearance can also change depending on clarity. Yeast, proteins and hop particles suspended in the beer scatter light, which is one reason a hazy beer can look dramatically different from a brilliantly clear beer made with similarly colored malt.

Yes, Brewers Actually Measure Beer Color

Beer color isn’t just described as “gold,” “amber” or “really, really dark.”

Brewers use standardized systems to measure it. In the United States, you’ll commonly see SRM, or Standard Reference Method.

Lower SRM numbers represent paler beers, while higher numbers indicate progressively darker colors.

It’s useful for brewers because “amber” can mean different things to different people. A standardized measurement gives us something more precise.

For everyone drinking the beer, though, there’s a much simpler measurement:

Does it look good in the glass?

More Than Just Looks

Color is one of the first clues your brain gets about a beer.

Before you smell the hops, taste the malt or know anything about the recipe, you’ve already seen what’s in the glass, and you’re probably forming expectations about what it’s going to taste like.

Sometimes those expectations are right.

Sometimes the beer has other plans.

So the next time you pour a pale gold Kölsch, a copper Märzen, a ruby-red Irish Red or a nearly black stout, remember: that color didn’t happen by accident.

It started with a brewer deciding exactly what kind of malt belonged in the beer.

Quality beer. Zero guesswork.