Brewing With Briess

Wort Color: Lovibond and SRM
Malt Sensory Brings Briess’ Sales Team Together
New Leadership Announcement

Posted: 08 Jul 2021 07:52 AM PDT

For many years, brewers and maltsters alike have come to know and love what has become the universal unit of measure for representing the color of a wort or beer: Lovibond. However, not all color measurement units are created equal, and Lovibond is no exception. We see the "L" suffix tagging along like an old friend after the descriptors of some of our favorite malt types (Caramel Malt 120L, Bonlander^® Munich Malt 10L, to name a few!). But what does Lovibond measurement REALLY mean?

The History

In 1869, Joseph Williams Lovibond, a member of a brewing family, set out to establish his own brewery as part of the family business. In order to measure the outcome of his beer color and improve its consistency, he searched for a novel method. While observing colored light shining through a church window, Lovibond conceived the idea to utilize glass to create transparent, consistent color standards. It is from this idea that the original Lovibond Tintometer was created, and the research and development of color measurement using this method was born.

In the early 1900s, Joseph Lovibond became a pioneer in color measurement for use in various applications, developing innovative instruments to fit the needs of various industries. Applications included the malting, brewing, and distilling industries.

Basis of Measure

To quote the great 19th-century British scholar Lord Kelvin: "When you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in numbers you know something about it; but when you cannot express it in numbers your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind."

As originally designed by Joseph Lovibond, the basis of measurement for Lovibond testing involves a comparison system of various intensities and hues of colored glass swatches. A series of gradient red-, yellow-, blue-, and neutral-colored glasses are used. The two glass swatches are arranged with two adjacent fields of view, seen through the viewing tube, so that the product in the sample field and a white reflective surface in the comparison field are observed side by side, appropriately illuminated. This is known as the Lovibond^® color scale.

Evolution of Malt and Beer

As technology for measurement and analysis continued to advance throughout the mid-20^th century, malt supply and beer styles evolved as well. Alongside these advancements was the move toward a more cohesive method for measurement and reporting of a variety of malt and beer analysis parameters, driven by collaboration and research within the ASBC (American Society of Brewing Chemists).

At the same time, the brewing industry was moving toward lighter beer styles (including pilsners and lagers) and the methods of analysis became more unified. The need for a diverse and highly specific method of color analysis started to become less important in the American malt and beer supply system. This resulted in the creation and adoption of the most utilized method of color measurement in the present day: the Standard Reference Method (SRM). As the transition in methodology was gradual, the Lovibond unit of measure became interchangeable with SRM. In reality, there is close correlation in the values obtained for the same sample by these two methods up to a certain point of measure.

Color Measurement Today: SRM

The creation of the current method of color analysis was likely born out of a need for high volume, consistent analysis of a small range of similar malt types (think 1.5 – 3.0 SRM). Its validation as a method for those styles of malts resulted in a repeatable method for inter-lab and intra-lab analysis, allowing for more uniform interpretation of color results reported throughout the malt industry. Briess currently reports color in SRM.

The general basis for SRM color measurement is as follows: Preparation of wort using ASBC Congress Mash protocol, which creates a wort of about 9 Plato. Analysis of that wort sample using a Spectrophotometer measuring the absorption of that sample at 430nm. This analysis is done at varying dilutions as the absorption at that wavelength increases. So the actual captured absorption of any wort sample lies within what is primarily the yellow range of the visible spectrum, hence its creation and suitability for use in primarily base-kilned malts. The piece we lose by utilizing this as a standard analysis is the hue component of some of the darker specialty malts that are appreciated for providing specific colors to craft beer.

Summary

As the industry has evolved to include more specialty malts, the universally approved methodologies to measure and report the wide range of colors they can provide have not been able to measure the full spectrum (pun intended!) of their hues. In recent years the ASBC has included methods for Tristimulus color of worts (ASBC Beer-10C), which would now be able to meet the need of what Lovibond once did. Generally, reporting of a Tristimulus analysis is not widely used on Malt COA's and would require some education to the brewing community for interpretation of results. In contrast, the Lovibond method of analysis continues to be widely used in the food oils and petroleum industries. Its use has become a renewed topic of conversation for maltsters and the ASBC technical committee, specifically for representing hues of all the wonderful specialty malts available. Lovibond remains like an old friend paired with the malts we've made for generations.

Malt Sensory Brings Briess’ Sales Team Together

Posted: 08 Jul 2021 07:40 AM PDT

During the past year, the Sales & Marketing team at Briess took a deep dive into sensory evaluation of malt. This was especially valuable for me being a relatively new member of the Briess team. Everyone on the team looked forward to "Sensory Day".

For each session, we used the Hot Steep Method developed by Cassie Poirier from our Technical Service team. (If you're not familiar, check out the white paper here)

This is now an approved ASBC Method of Analysis for sensory of base and specialty malts. It's an effective way to quickly evaluate flavor and color attributes.

After we finished our personal sensory experience, we talked through each wort as a group. In addition to flavor and color, we discussed attributes and usage for each malt. A favorite part of each session was sampling a customer beer made with the malts being evaluated and trying to identify flavors of our malts in the finished product. Ha! – a couple of these meetings lead to an early Tuesday happy hour with some of the brews being high ABV.

A couple of my favorite sessions were:

Base Malts: This included our Brewers Malt, Synergy Select Pilsen Malt, and Ashburne^® Mild Malt. What really stood out was our Brewers Malt had so much flavor in comparison to the market. I picked up a sweet biscuit note with a touch of honey that was very enjoyable. Synergy Select Pilsen Malt delivers a very clean profile with slight European notes. Lastly, our Ashburne^® Mild Malt offers biscuity cracker flavors with a hint of caramel. A great malt to stand on its own in a SMASH brew!
Wheat Malts: We compared our White and Red Wheat Malts followed by a wide variety of beers. I never knew the difference until this session. White Wheat, most commonly used, has sweet malty, bready notes great for American wheat beers. Red Wheat, with its sweet sugar cookie and Honey Nut Cheerios^® notes brings a much more flavorful experience. Red Wheat is great for traditional wheat beers like Hefeweizen or Belgian Wit.
Dark Roasted Malts: This segment falls right into my and Dan Burick's wheelhouse, as we are both fans of the dark side. Two of my favorites are our Roasted Barley and Blackprinz^® Malt. Roasted Barley had a lighter color vs. what's available in the market with great semi-sweet, dark roast coffee, caramel, dark chocolate, and toffee notes. Blackprinz^® Malt, our dehusked, bitterless black malt, had notes of baker's chocolate, coffee, brownie, and toffee. Both products are perfect for stouts and porters.

You don't have to take my word on the flavors above as everyone has a different palette. If you haven't tried the Hot Steep Method, give it a shot. It's quick and easy, and we're all here to help you out. Just shoot us a call and we'd be glad to walk you through it or perform it with you and your team.

Cheers!

New Leadership Announcement

Posted: 07 Jul 2021 01:01 PM PDT

Chilton, WI, July 2021 — Briess Malt & Ingredients, a family-owned company headquartered in Chilton, Wisconsin, is proud to announce the appointment of Craig Briess as Chief Executive Officer. Craig represents the fifth generation of continuous family leadership. Craig follows in the footsteps of Monica Briess, who assumed leadership of the company following the unexpected death of her husband and craft beer pioneer Roger Briess in 2001. As a close family business, Monica will remain actively involved as a member of the board of directors as well as strategic advisor.

The announcement comes as part of the company's long-term succession plans. With a background in business and law, Craig has been active with Briess for more than 20 years in a variety of roles, including membership on the Board of Directors since 2001. He has been involved in building the strategic supply relationships with our community of 300 barley growers in Wyoming since 2013, doubling capacity at the Insta Grains^® plant in 2017, and most recently, the major expansion of our Manitowoc malting, roasting, and packaging operations.

As CEO, Craig will provide strategic leadership and direction for the company's future. Craig has demonstrated his commitment to uphold the values that have been established during the past 145 years, including the Company Vision "To be the quality ingredient and service provider that positively differentiates our Customers' products".

Under Monica's leadership during the past two decades, the company continued to focus on helping our customers grow, as she carried out the vision to supply craft brewers and food manufacturers with only the best malt and ingredients. Monica noted that "Craig and I have been privileged to work with the senior leadership team and all our employees to continue the mission of being a partner with our customers in supplying the highest quality ingredients and service. Everyone at the company shares a sense of pride in our accomplishments, including having been recognized as Manufacturer of the Year and as Business Friend of the Environment by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce".

As he assumes the CEO role, Craig values the company's history and is enthusiastic about continuing its commitment to quality and meeting the needs of its customers. "Focus on this business has always been at the center of my family. During the past 20 years, I have gained a deep appreciation for our business and the role we play helping our customers grow with the broadest and highest quality line of malt and ingredients in the industry. I am humbled by the contributions of Monica and all those who preceded me. We have a great team and I look forward to building on the tradition of excellence that has been established."

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