Crystal Malt is one of the traditional British color malts, next to brown, amber, chocolate, and black malts. During the malting process, it is steeped and germinated like classic, fully modified, pale malt, but then moved wet, with a moisture content of almost 50%, past the kiln directly into a roasting drum. There it is heated without ventilation to roughly 64°C to 72°C (147°F to 162°F), whereupon the contents of the endosperm liquefy and the starch is saccharified by strong alpha- and beta-amylase action. See saccharification. This is also called the “stewing stage.” The malt is then dried at a high temperature of approximately 280°F to 390°F (roughly 140°C–200°C.) This is called the “curing stage.” It darkens the kernels and causes the malt sugars created through saccharification to crystallize into hard, unfermentable dextrins upon subsequent cooling. In the finished beer, these sugars are responsible for clean, nutty, caramel-like, residual sweetness. The entire drum process may take about three hours, and the finished crystal malt may have a moisture content of only about 5%–7%. Some maltsters nowadays make their crystal malts not in a roaster, but in a kiln. This is considered a more efficient production method, but such crystal malts tend to be less homogeneous and have a much lower moisture content than drum-roasted crystal malts. The exact roasting times and temperatures for crystal malts vary with the desired color, which can range from light, to medium, to dark, in a color band of about 25 to 320 EBC (roughly 10°L–120°L). See european brewery convention (ebc) and lovibond. Some very dark crystal malts may have color values of up to 400 EBS (roughly 150°L). Colors added to beer by crystal malt range from pale honey to dark copper. Crystal malts have no enzymes and are used primarily to enhance a beer’s color, flavor, body, aroma, and head retention. However, some brewers will use lighter crystal malts for up to 20% of the grain bill of certain beers.