There are two types of barley used for brewing beer, two-sided barley and six-sided barley. The difference between the two lies in the amount of protein content; the former has lower protein content and the latter has higher protein content. As for the amount of protein, it affects the formation of foam, the concentration of enzymes and the weight of the beer.
 
Barley however cannot be used for brewing. It must be converted into malt before it can be used. This process starts with soaking the barley in water for germination, which turns the starch in the barley into sugar.
 
Beer have different colors and taste due to the malt roasting process.
 
Followed by the previous step, the malt that has stopped germinating will be dried, roasted, and classified into various types of malt according to different degrees of roasting. Lighter roast malts leads to lighter beer, while darker roast malt leads to darker beer. Therefore, there is no such thing “Black Malt”.
 
Although dark beer has malt with a relatively high degree of roasting, the dark malt usually only accounts for less than 10% of the total malt usage (FYI, the wheat used in wheat beer usually does not exceed 50% of its total malt usage). The darker the roast, the less sugar it contains, and the harder it is to ferment, so almost all types of beer recipe are based on light-colored malt as the main ingredient.

Conversion of malt color units ( EBC & SRM & °L )
 




Fun fact:
Guinness World Records was founded by Guinness Beer Company of Ireland. At first they were just gathering some interesting knowledge, but the book grew popularity worldwide and now it has become a well known reference for fun facts...