Lovibond® EBC ColorPod

Automatic Grading of Beers & Malts

The EBC colour scale, developed by the Institute of Brewing and the European Brewing Convention, is a recognised method for colour grading of beers, malts and caramel solutions as well as similarly coloured liquids. It has a range of 2 to 27 visual units, yellower pale worts and lagers at the low end of the scale and the redder colour of dark worts, beers and caramels at the upper end of the scale.

Lovibond® EBC ColorPod
The Tintometer Ltd has introduced a new hand held photometer for the analysis of EBC (European Brewing Convention) colour units. The Lovibond® ColorPod is based on proven technology that has been utilised in the water testing area for a number of years.

Traditionally EBC colour units have been derived using subjective visual assessment against glass standards. Many samples required to be matched by the EBC colour scale do not match the glass standards. This is due to the samples being off hue, too bright or too dull. This leads to differences in reported values between users. A more objective approach is to use an instrumental method based on a photometric measurement.

The Lovibond® EBC ColorPod combines simplicity with accuracy for the measurement of colour in the brewing industry. The instrument is compact and portable allowing for measurements to be made in-situ, rather than having to carry samples back to the laboratory.

The measurement is performed in accordance with the official photometric EBC method for colour that relates the light at 430 nm passed through the sample being analysed with the EBC colour value. The light is generated by a single wavelength LED that will last the lifetime of the instrument, samples are measured in 10 mm path length plastic cuvettes, that are inserted into the spill proof sample chamber. The measurements take only three seconds to perform, with results output either in EBC colour units or absorbance at 430 nm.
To ensure the robustness of the instrument, the casing is splash proof with a chemical resistant keypad fitted. To maintain battery life the instrument powers itself down if it has not been used for five minutes.

Download EBC ColorPod literature