Amber and dark lager

International Dark Lager

BJCP 2C

Dark in colour and light in everything else: a pale lager with colouring malt, finishing dry and clean with only a hint of caramel and toast.

Vital statistics

Each bar is drawn against the full range of all 98 styles

Original gravity

1.044 - 1.056

Final gravity

1.008 - 1.012

Bitterness

8 IBU - 20 IBU

Colour

14 SRM - 22 SRM

Alcohol

4.2% - 6%

Colour also 28-43 EBC

What goes wrong

Expecting a Munich dunkel. This is a much lighter beer and the malt depth is not there by design, not by accident.

Commercial examples

Baltika #4Dixie Blackened VoodooSaint Pauli Girl DarkSan Miguel DarkShiner Bock

Reference examples of the style, as listed in the BJCP 2021 Style Guidelines. Availability varies by market and year.

Vital statistics as published in the BJCP 2021 Style Guidelines. Not yet checked against the published guidelines: treat these ranges as a planning aid and read the source at bjcp.org before entering a competition.

The rest of the amber and dark lager family

International Amber Lager

4.6-6% · 8-25 IBU

Czech Amber Lager

4.4-5.8% · 20-35 IBU

Czech Dark Lager

4.4-5.8% · 18-34 IBU

Marzen

5.6-6.3% · 18-24 IBU

Rauchbier

4.8-6% · 18-30 IBU

Vienna Lager

4.7-5.5% · 18-30 IBU

Altbier

4.3-5.5% · 25-50 IBU

Munich Dunkel

4.5-5.6% · 18-28 IBU

Schwarzbier

4.4-5.4% · 20-35 IBU

Plan a batch to these numbers.

Bitterness Colour Alcohol