Sorghum Malt Roast Profiles

Pick the roast from the beer you're making. Pilsners and golden ales need little or none, pale ales and IPAs want a Light roast for backbone, ambers, reds and browns live in the Medium roasts, and porters and stouts reach into the Dark ones, always on top of a pale sorghum base that carries the beer. A sorghum dark roast isn't a barley dark roast with the gluten taken out, so everything here is written for sorghum from sorghum evidence.

Each flavour is marked by how well it's supported: Record (measured in Bard's production or by a panel), Supported direction (a sorghum study points the same way), or Proposed (reasoned from the pages cited). These roasts haven't been scored by a tasting panel yet, and the beer pairings below are proposed from this site's roasted-malt guidance. The flavour words are the ones in the sensory lexicon.

Roasts by beer

Start from the glass. Find the beer, reach for the roast beside it, and watch for the failure it's prone to. The first roast listed does most of the work; anything after a + is a smaller addition. No use rates are given beyond the one on record, so set amounts by tasting.

Pale and golden

Beer	Roast profile	What it builds	Watch for
Pilsner	Pale base alone	A clean, bright grain note	Any roast shows. "A golden beer may need almost none"
Helles	Pale + a touch of Light · Golden	A rounder, slightly sweeter malt middle	Colour creeping past gold
Kölsch-style	Pale + a touch of Light · Golden	Soft grain with a little warmth	Toast pulling it away from delicate
Blonde ale	Pale + Light · Golden	Sweet aromatics and a fuller body	Reading as a light amber
Saison	Pale + a little Light · Toasted	A dry grain backbone behind the yeast	Toast competing with the yeast character

Hop-forward

Beer	Roast profile	What it builds	Watch for
Pale ale	Pale + Light · Toasted	A toasted grain backbone under the hops	"A delicate hop profile loses its balance" with more roast
IPA	Pale + a little Light · Golden	Enough malt to hold the hops up	Sweetness blunting the bitterness
Red IPA	Pale + Medium · Caramel	Red colour and caramel under the hops	Caramel clashing with the hop finish
Black IPA	Pale + Dark · Cocoa	Black colour with a smooth roast	Coffee-bitter roast colliding with hop bitterness

Amber and red

Beer	Roast profile	What it builds	Watch for
Amber ale	Medium · Caramel (M-70)	Colour and brown-sweet warmth. The record: one bag of the C-70 on a 7 bbl batch reached about 11 SRM	Harshness. "An amber needs warmth without harshness"
Märzen	Medium · Caramel + Light · Toasted	Toasty, malt-forward amber	Too sweet to finish clean
Vienna-style lager	Light · Toasted + a little Medium · Caramel	Copper colour with a dry, toasted finish	Caramel taking over
Irish-style red	Medium · Caramel + a touch of Dark · Coffee	Red colour, caramel, and a dry roasted edge	The roast edge turning sharp
Bitter, ESB	Light · Toasted + Medium · Caramel	Biscuit-toast and caramel balance for the hops	Heaviness in a beer meant to drink easily
Bock	Medium · Caramel + Medium · Nutty	Rich, deep malt in a stronger lager	Cloying sweetness

Brown

Beer	Roast profile	What it builds	Watch for
Brown ale	Medium · Nutty + Medium · Caramel	Nutty, toasted depth that reads as brown rather than roasted	Turning sweet and heavy, or muddy
Dark lager (dunkel-style)	Medium · Nutty + a touch of Dark · Cocoa	Brown-bread depth and a smooth finish	Roast showing in a beer that shouldn't taste roasted
Scottish-style ale	Medium · Caramel, leaning Caramel ↑	Caramel-forward malt with little roast	A custom lean. The common Caramel type may not carry enough
Honey ale	Pale + Medium · Nutty	A nutty layer under the honey. Bard's Tavern Ale got its nutty, "lightly coffee-like" layer from roasted buckwheat (Tavern Ale)	Roast covering the honey

Dark

Beer	Roast profile	What it builds	Watch for
Porter	Dark · Cocoa + Medium · Caramel	Cocoa and roast without sharpness	A porter "whose roast isn't doing all the work" is the aim
Black lager (schwarzbier-style)	Dark · Cocoa, lightly used	Black colour with a soft roast and a clean finish	Coffee bitterness in a beer meant to be smooth
Dry stout	Dark · Coffee	Coffee, dryness and the bitter edge. "A stout may want the firm roasted note"	Flattening into "one burnt note"
Sweet stout, milk stout	Dark · Cocoa + Medium · Caramel	Chocolate and sweetness over a gentler roast	Roast bitterness fighting the sweetness
Imperial stout	Dark · Coffee + Dark · Cocoa + Medium · Caramel	Layered roast, cocoa and caramel at strength	Heavy caramel with heavy coffee is a custom roast: Dark · Coffee, leaning Caramel ↑

In every dark row, a tannin-rich sorghum adds astringency on top of the roast. Quotes are from base and roasted sorghum malt and Stop Hiding Behind the Hops; the pairings themselves are proposed. When the beer you want sits between two rows, or needs more of a flavour than the common types carry, that's a custom roast.

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How a roast builds a beer

This is the part a maltster needs to design roasts around, and a brewer needs before adding more.

• The base carries the beer; the roast changes what it says. Roasted sorghum malt is a specialty on top of a pale base, not a base. Bard's C-70 was used exactly that way: a color-and-character addition on pale sorghum malt (base and roasted sorghum malt).
• Roast solves a specific problem. Colour, roast aroma, dryness or contrast. If the beer lacks foundation, more roast makes it darker and more forceful, not more complete. Strengthen the base instead.
• Colour and flavour arrive together, but one doesn't predict the other. A roast chosen for colour brings its flavour with it, and two roasts at the same colour can taste different. Judge colour, aroma, flavour and mouthfeel together.
• Colour can come from the base. Bard's corrected colour with red sorghum malt in the base and carried the roasted malt as a flavour specialty on top, so the roast didn't have to do both jobs.
• Most of the need is Medium and Dark. Gluten-free beers often struggle to build the malt depth drinkers expect from amber, brown, porter and stout. Those are the Medium and Dark types, and they're where a maltster's roast does the most for a brewer.

The ladder

Style	What it is	Colour	Support
Pale	The base: kilned, not roasted. Every roast starts here	0.9–2.1 SRM across six lab reports	Record
Light roast	Just past the kiln into light toast. Grain character stays in front	Open — set by the first recorded lot	Proposed
Medium roast	Where the malt becomes a character malt: colour plus brown-sweet depth	65–75 °L for the one recorded type, M-70	Record for colour · flavour proposed
Dark roast	Roast aroma, dryness, coffee and cocoa edges, rising bitterness	Open — the recorded roast programme didn't reach this far	Proposed

What each style entails

Pale — the base

Kilned, not roasted. Bard's five-stage kiln finished at 185°F (85°C) (seed data profiles), and malt colour runs 0.9–2.1 SRM across six lab reports (reading a certificate). It's the one level with measured flavour. A trained panel scored malted sorghum wort at malty aroma 54.2, malty flavour 52.9, cooked-sorghum 39.2 and astringent aftertaste 14.1 on a 0–100 scale, with bitter 9.9 and sour 9.4 near the floor (sensory lexicon). Grain, cooked sorghum and an earthy edge, and no roast character.

Light roast

Kilning taken far enough to "preserve pale grain character, build light toast, deepen malt aroma" (kilning and roasting). Toasted cereal and nutty notes begin, sweet aromatics rise, and grain still leads.

Medium roast

Where sorghum malt stops being quiet. Bard's 2018 programme roasted white sorghum malt to 65–75 °L under the working designation C-70, with flavour "judged worth building on" (base and roasted sorghum malt). Caramel and brown-sweet lead. Craig's working starting point for reaching this range is a 300°F (149°C) roast over 45–90 minutes, and it's guidance rather than the original programme, which most likely stayed with the contract roaster.

Dark roast

Roasting adds "cocoa-like or coffee-like edges" (kilning and roasting), and more roast brings "sharpness, perceived dryness, bitter or burnt impressions" (base and roasted sorghum malt). Sorghum's own evidence points the same way. A drink brewed from roasted sorghum malt gave "a characteristic nutty, sweet chocolate aroma" (Lasekan, Lasekan & Idowu 1997), and sorghum grain roasted at 439°F (226°C) for 70 minutes brewed "dark brown" with "aroma and flavor resembling 'rice coffee', and coffee-like bitterness" (Abacan et al. 2015). That second study used raw grain, not malt. Bard's programme couldn't go darker without dedicated roasting capacity.

The flavour grid

Levels compare styles within one attribute: Leads, Present, Low, Absent. There are no 0–15 numbers here, because these profiles haven't been scored by a panel. The Pale column rests on the panel data above; the other three columns are proposed from the sources in each style.

Attribute	Pale	Light	Medium	Dark
Cereal / grain	Leads	Leads	Present	Low
Cooked sorghum	Present	Present	Low	Absent
Earthy	Present	Low	Low	Low
Toasted cereal	Absent	Leads	Present	Low
Nutty	Low	Present	Present	Present
Sweet aromatics	Low	Present	Leads	Low
Caramel	Absent	Low	Leads	Present
Brown-sweet	Absent	Low	Leads	Low
Cocoa	Absent	Absent	Low	Leads
Coffee	Absent	Absent	Low	Leads
Woody	Absent	Absent	Low	Present
Burnt/char	Absent	Absent	Absent	Low
Bitter	Low	Low	Low	Present
Astringent	Low	Low	Low	Present

These profiles assume a low-tannin sorghum. Sorghum's tannins and polyphenols are astringent before any roast, they vary by cultivar, and bird-resistant varieties carry markedly more (flavour and sensory directory). A tannin-rich cultivar pushes Bitter and Astringent up at every style, so its Light roast can taste more astringent than a low-tannin Dark. Score the two separately.

The common types

Types are the roasts a brewer can expect to find. Each one sits inside a style and leans a known way.

Type	Leans toward	Beers it builds	Colour target	Support
Light · Golden	Sweet aromatics, with grain still clear and a light toasted cereal note	Golden beers that want warmth, not roast; pale ales and IPAs that want a grain backbone	Open	Proposed
Light · Toasted	Toasted cereal and nutty; drier	Pale ales and IPAs, and golden beers that want more grain depth	Open	Proposed — a sorghum toasted malt has been made by varying kiln temperature and time (Harry et al. 2019); its flavour wasn't reported
Medium · Caramel (M-70)	Caramel and brown-sweet, with sweet aromatics	Ambers, reds and Märzen-types; some in a brown ale for sweetness	65–75 °L	Record for colour (Bard's C-70, 2018) · flavour proposed
Medium · Nutty	Nutty and brown: toast and depth, drier than Caramel	Brown ales: depth without sweetness	Open	Proposed
Dark · Cocoa	Cocoa and sweet aromatics; bitterness moderate	Porters, and rounding a stout	Open	Supported direction — "nutty, sweet chocolate" from roasted sorghum malt (Lasekan 1997)
Dark · Coffee	Coffee and bitter; woody and dry	Stouts	Open	Supported direction — "coffee-like bitterness" from sorghum grain roasted at 439°F (226°C) (Abacan 2015)

A colour target is set by the first recorded lot of each type; M-70's comes from Bard's record. The beers it builds column mirrors roasts by beer, so it's proposed too. The one recorded use rate: a 50 lb (22.7 kg) bag of the C-70 on a 7 bbl (8.2 hL) batch brought the beer to about 11 SRM (base and roasted sorghum malt).

Custom roast

A custom roast is the uncommon case: a combination no common type covers, a new type that isn't typically done, or a derivative of a type you already know. It's always written as a type plus a lean, with at most two leans:

Dark · Coffee, leaning Caramel ↑

That one exists because a brewer wants heavy coffee and heavy caramel. Dark · Coffee doesn't carry enough caramel, and Medium · Caramel doesn't carry the coffee.

Send the maltster a note that reads the same on both ends:

Type:        Dark · Coffee (standard)
Lean:        Caramel ↑   (at most two)
Colour:      as the type / or: ______
For:         (the beer, and the planned use rate)
Quantity:    ______
Judged by:   hot steep, scored in sensory-lexicon terms, beside a lot of the standard type

Why custom roasting is hard for sorghum. Custom work starts from very little. Bard's own Medium needed a contract roaster, and the programme couldn't go darker without dedicated roasting capacity. Every lean is development work, not a tweak: trial roasts, tasting and repeat runs, and each one costs yield. The C-70 roast took moisture from 13% to under 4%, with further loss in process (base and roasted sorghum malt).

A lean changes the roast, not just the result. The maltster runs a different programme to get there. When a lean proves repeatable, it's recorded as a named variant with its lot data, and it can become a common type.

One more reason caramel leans are harder than they look: on barley, heavy caramel comes from stewing wet malt before kilning. Bard's Medium was dry-roasted finished malt. That's reasoning, not a tested result, but it's why a heavy caramel lean may need a different process rather than a longer roast.

Names you'll hear

You'll hear	What it means here
Golden	Light · Golden: a type, not a style
Crystal, caramel malt	Medium · Caramel's colour range, though barley crystal is stewed wet and Bard's recorded Medium was dry-roasted finished malt
Red, white sorghum malt	The grain, not the roast
Vienna-style, Munich-style	Barley names on sorghum and millet products: ask for the colour and the profile

Related

• Sorghum Base Malt Profiles — the pale base these roasts sit on
• Base and Roasted Sorghum Malt — what roasted malt does in a beer
• Kilning and Roasting for Character
• Sensory lexicon (GFB-SML) — the flavour words used here
• Sensory Evaluation of Gluten-Free Malt — how to taste a roast before brewing with it
• Sorghum Malt Flavor and Brewing Character