That recent magazine article by ron made think: Farbebier or Röstmalzbier is legal to use according to the Reinheitsgebot. But is it...legit/ok to use? I only had very few beers that had it on the label, but those were all stil ok in taste for me. An example would include Hütten Festbier, for instance. BUT: You don't have to admit it on the beer label as a producer.. And I fear many industrial brewers use it without admitting to it. Isn't this kind of...well, bad practice? Legally it is not fraud, but is it right? I suspect, for example, Krombacher to use Röstmalzbier to color their Dunkel. Because it tastes, to me, almost identical to their Pils. No typical Dunkel notes are there in its flavour. And I'm not alone with this opinion. So... What is your opinion on this? Mine is, in short: As long as you write it on the label and the beer tastes decent, there is nothing wrong with using it. BUT when you put it in your Pils or Helles and then claim it's a Dunkles or Schwarzbier, without mentioning the use of it on your label, it's wrong and I don't trust you to brew a good, honest beer at all. And one more question: Is Röstmalzbier only a german phenomenon, or is it used in other countries as well? Discuss.
I have a strong suspicion that Spaten uses it with the "Franziskaner Dunkel".To me it tasted like the regular Hefe without any dark malt character. I know that the Newcastle Brown Ale uses caramel coloring It should at least be required on the Label as an Ingredient.
Oh yeah right I forgott, in dark Hefeweizens I suspect it to be all over the place. I mean, how many dark Hefeweizens can you think of that have a proper dark malt character? Maybe a dozen or so? I remember when I was at a place that switched from serving Erdinger Dunkelweisse to Benediktiner. The former has a dark malt character, the latter not at all. Very striking difference.
Yeah,Dunkelweizen & Dunkel are definitely the styles to watch out for where i experienced this most often. To me, adding colouring,without mentioning it on the label is Fraudulent (even if it's legal).
I have long had the suspicion that Spaten and others use Farbebier/Sinamar to make the export versions of their beers look dark/amber.
I think Köstritzer is classic example. I may be wrong, but Farbebier is simply Black Patent malt, used all the time. EDIT: just saw the Sinamar reference from HerrB - must be the liquid form.
Köstritzer is one of the few beers where I do get a real roasted malt character, which leads me to believe they do use Röstmalz and not Sinamar. Sinamar is purported to not supply any roasted character.
cutting cost? Take a bit of roasted malt to keep a dark character (avoid suspicions).Sinamar solves the rest. Heres a (2004) article looking into dark Beers at a conference for food chemists. http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/jedes...ur-gefaerbt.697.de.html?dram:article_id=73371 out of 80 tested dark Beers only 18 were completely brewed with dark malt,22 partially brewed with dark malt,40 were completely free of dark malt.
I'm not sure, but I think you'd need to use a ton of Sinamar to achieve the depth of dark color that you see in Kostritzer. Can't see that being cheaper than something like 2-3% of a Carafa III.
No point using it anywhere that doesn't have a Reinheitsgebot. It's just a caramel substitute. Cheaper to use caramel outside Germany.
