Glossary

Degrees Lovibond

An older colour scale based on visual comparison against coloured glass slides, still used to specify malt rather than finished beer.

Pronounced LUV-i-bond.

Also called lovibond, °l.

Reference points on the beer colour scale, with SRM, EBC and an example style
SRM	EBC	Colour	Roughly
3	6	straw	Munich Helles
8	16	amber	Märzen
14	28	copper	amber ale
22	43	brown	brown ale
30	59	dark brown	porter
40	79	black	imperial stout

The scale saturates visually long before it saturates numerically. Past roughly 30 SRM a beer reads as black in a full glass whatever the number says, and the difference between 35 and 50 shows only at the edge of the glass or held to a light. The swatches approximate transmitted colour at drinking depth; they are not a measurement, and depth, haze, glass and lighting all move what you actually see.

Lovibond survives because maltsters have always specified their products in it and the trade never saw reason to change. Crystal malt sold as 60 °L means the same thing to every brewer who buys it.

For malt, Lovibond and SRM are close enough to be treated as equivalent. For finished beer, SRM’s instrumental method replaced Lovibond’s visual comparison precisely because eyes disagree with each other.

SRM — The instrumental scale that replaced it for finished beer.

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ABV · ABW · Alcohol unit · Alkalinity · Alpha acid · Apparent attenuation · Attenuation · Beta acid · Cohumulone · Degrees Plato

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Last reviewed 2026-08-16.

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Degrees Lovibond

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