Caramel Colouring

Caramel Colouring is a food grade liquid colourant produced through the controlled heating of carbohydrates, supplied as a concentrated dark liquid for direct addition to wort or finished beer. It provides a precise, repeatable means of adjusting beer colour independently of the grist, allowing brewers to achieve target colour without committing further dark malt to the recipe. As coloring agents are virtually free of aroma and flavour at typical addition rates, it can be used to deliver bold visual character without contributing the roasted, astringent, or chocolate notes that come from chocolate malt, roasted barley, or black malt.

This product has two principal uses in brewing. First, as a final correction tool, where small additions are made to bring a beer onto a target colour specification, particularly useful where natural variation in malt deliveries or process conditions has produced a batch that falls short of the intended colour. Second, as a recipe ingredient in its own right, where it allows brewers to formulate dark-coloured beers that retain a milder, less roasted flavour profile, an approach widely used in some commercial styles such as schwarzbier and certain dark lagers, as well as for converting a base lager into a darker product without re-formulating the grist.