Is dark beer higher in alcohol than light beer?

Alcohol strength cannot be assessed by color. Most people think of stouts as having higher alcohol content than lighter beers, but the color of a beer has absolutely nothing to do with its strength. The color of beer depends on the type of grain it is brewed with, and the amount of grain. The sugars in the starches (grains) are converted to alcohol throughout the fermentation process, so the more grains, the higher the alcohol content.

Many misconceptions directly relate color to beer weight. Their point of view tends to be that darker beers are full-bodied and have more calories; lighter beers are lighter-bodied, lower in alcohol and have fewer calories. This assumption is neither quite nor entirely correct.

The light and dark colors of beer are determined by the malt content, not the color of the malt. Most of the residual fermentable sugars in craft beer are made from malt and roasted malt. Below are the colors of beer brewed with different roasted malts

Light Roast Malt: Produces Straw and Blonde Ales with Cookie Flavors

Medium Roast Malt: Produces amber and coppery beers with caramel and nutty flavors

Dark Roast Malt: Produces brown and light dark beers with flavors of chocolate and coffee

Heaviest/Darkest Roasted Malt: Produces a stout with a charred flavor

Most craft beers are made from 75-100% pale malt, with the exception of wheat beers. Specialty malts make up 5% to 15% of the beer dish and dark or black malts make up 1% to 5% of the overall beer dish. In short, the production of dark beer requires trace amounts of black malt elements.

Color can be deceiving. There are plenty of full-bodied, high-brix pale beers, just as there are light-bodied, low-brix stouts. The solution to this principle depends on the beer ABV (alcohol by volume). What you really care about is that the sugar and calories are directly related to the alcohol content. In simple terms, the higher the alcohol content in a beer, the more maltose is needed, which in turn results in a higher calorie content product.

Of course, not all stouts have fewer calories than light beers, and they also have lower ABV than light beers, and knowing the different beer styles can be helpful when choosing which beer to drink.

Hope this helps with your beer choices and inspires you to try different new styles of beer in the future.