Pink beer

I want / need to make a very pink beer. I would say that cotton candy pink would be the target, but anything close to that would work. I recently did a strawberry wheat and it didn't come out very pink at all. Any ideas? Need something that will be drinkable around mid-July.

Thanks!

Brew an extremely light colored beer (koelsch, pils, blonde, etc.) and use artificial color. Nothing in nature looks like cotton candy. If you have access to filtration, you can try to filter out some additional color.

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

Brew an extremely light colored beer (koelsch, pils, blonde, etc.) and use artificial color. Nothing in nature looks like cotton candy. If you have access to filtration, you can try to filter out some additional color.

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I was thinking about the same thing.

I found this through google.



There's some info here, including a little mixing guide that might help.

http://www.mccormick.com/Products/E...rs/Assorted-NEON-Food-Colors-and-Egg-Dye.aspx

Heh, that was my backup plan. My hope was some combo of very light malt and some grains might give me a nice pink... Cotton candy was a target color to get people thinking PINK and not sort-of-light-reddish.

So you think add some color at bottling?

For the record, I'm doing this as a beer-in-lieu-cigars give away when my daughter is born. Custom labels with date, time, weight, length, etc.

Yeah nothing natural is going to give you pink. Reds and purplish are doable, but pink I have never seen.

closest natural pink/purple/red color I've ever gotten was when I brewed the Honey Hibiscus Wit kit that AHS sells. I'm sure it's not pink enough for you though.

pink is a tough one. if i recall, the cigars only had a pink BAND on them, though.
maybe some cranberries will get you halfway.

One of my beers got lightly pink when we added one of those little POM bottles to a keg of BM's Centennial Blonde. Maybe a jug of it will get you there....

Reno_eNVy_446 said:

One of my beers got lightly pink when we added one of those little POM bottles to a keg of BM's Centennial Blonde. Maybe a jug of it will get you there....

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You mean pomegranate juice, right? Hm... A pomegranate beer could be good. Maybe do a 4 gallon batch of something very light, somewhat weak (as the juice would add some fermentable sugar after being added) and then add a gallon of pomegranate juice during a secondary fermentation.

Might come out pretty pink, and could add pink dye at bottling still if needed.

Thanks, i will keep investigating this!

There is a brewery here in san diego that has a beer called Peep Show that comes out every easter. They put pink peeps in the beer and it has a pinkish tone to it. Not really cotton candy though

Isn't there a Magic Hat beer that's tinted pink with beets?

944play said:

Isn't there a Magic Hat beer that's tinted pink with beets?

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That's a nice color! I'd like to try to get something like that... I liked the pink head! Again, the "cotton candy pink" was more a target to aim at so as to be as pink as can be... I know it's probably not possible to get to that level of color, but it's the direction I wanted to aim at.

Right now I am thinking:
3lbs Pilsen DME
1lbs Wheat DME
1gal Pomegranate Juice (added at secondary)
1oz Liberty
1oz Tettnanger
Maybe something like Safale K-97 for yeast, just for something slightly different in the flavor (or maybe just Nottingham, which I use for everything) or perhaps S-04 to improve clarity...

Not sure about any grains. Are there any specialty grains I can use that might give a little body or some improved mouthfeel to this otherwise pretty bland brew? Maybe flaked barley or torrified wheat or something like that?

Figure I will add the juice when racking to secondary, then check the color at bottling time and add pink food coloring if needed. What do you guys think?

Yeah, the Wacko's not a very good beer, but it's definitely pink. The beets, used in a pale ale, or a simple wheat ale, should get you there.

i did a pomengranate cream ale with the girls that worked in the tasting room as an educational thing. we kept it real simple and just used a american cream ale kit and added pure pomengranate juice. completely pink and was actually really good.

since someone mentioned peeps in a beer i gotta mention this cask i did for easter that had peeps, a chocolate easter bunny, and a cadbury egg in it. really surprised that any other people did something like this...i thought it was an original (albeit spawned from a drunk converstaion about priming a porter cask with marshmallows with a co-worker) i'm on record for saying it was a disgusting idea that turned out pretty good in the end.

ive always wanted to do a cranberry wit...could be a possibility

One of the gals in our club does a triple-berry hefe that comes out real pink. A lot of guys were harassed at he Spring Hop Fest for carrying glasses of pink beer.

My first thought was what others have mentioned; beets. A traditional beet will give a blood red color though I would use Chiogga Beets, which have a pinker skin and if you cut them across they look like a pink and white bulls eye. They might be hard to find at conventional stores but Whole Foods/Wild Oats/Local CoOps should have them. I would further recommend they be added in boil for color but it might end up being pretty earthy tasting. To make a good cloth dye I have used about a pound of peeled beets per gallon of water boiled until the beets are pretty much mush (a couple of hours). Maybe boil 3 pounds of beets in a couple gallons of water before you brew then add it to the wort to cool it?

-dylan.

Hibiscus will do it. I made a Hibiscus Honey Wit - it came out pink, but did impart a very citrus flavor.

daletar said:

Hibiscus will do it. I made a Hibiscus Honey Wit - it came out pink, but did impart a very citrus flavor.

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Did you use the petals to make a tea (boil or vodka/everclear before adding it? I ask because I just got a hibiscus plant as a gift

I think if you cut the beets and let them sit in some water the red comes right out. Then add that to your boil. Easy to experiment with this and a 5g carboy full of water.

I added unsanitized beets to a cooling wort once. That was a freaking infection disaster. Ruined one batch, and almost another. Don't do that.

I had dried flowers that I added during the last 15 minutes of the boil. They were part of a kit, but I understand they are used in some types of Latin cooking and you can find them in stores that cater to those types of ingredients.

+1 to the hibiscus leaves. I made the same beer recently, and it had a very, very light straw color before the hibiscus leaves, which promptly turned it pink. 4oz of dried flowers will do the trick.

daletar said:

Hibiscus will do it. I made a Hibiscus Honey Wit - it came out pink, but did impart a very citrus flavor.

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yard brewery in philadelphia made a pink beer last year... it was literally called PINK. Never tried it but a few places had it on tap around here.

Errr, sorry for the above - I meant petals...

bartyen82 said:

+1 to the hibiscus leaves. I made the same beer recently, and it had a very, very light straw color before the hibiscus leaves, which promptly turned it pink. 4oz of dried flowers will do the trick.

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I have seen a watermelon beer recipe somewhere here on the boards. Maybe a watermelon-strawberry-hibiscus blend? (Oh, that sounds kinda good, I might have to make it now)

Found the watermelon recipe:DubbelDach Watermelon Wheat

Hi all - been AWOL for a couple weeks on this... busy with work, school, and of course getting ready for a baby! I'm down to the wire on this one. JUST enough time to brew, bottle, and condition before the due date. Read through all the suggestions, and talked with my LHBS owner and decided on pomegranate juice for color/flavor.

Using a pound of carapils, with a little vienna, malt to get some head and body, and 6lbs of light DME. 2oz of Liberty for a full 60min is the hops bill. S-04 yeast. Wish I would have seen the hibiscus petals comment before today, though!

Now, I am debating on doing the juice in the primary or adding it to the secondary after a (shortish) 7 day fermentation, then letting it ferment a second time and check the color. What do you guys think? My gut says add it now so I can check the color when racking to a carboy (out of the primary bucket).

If it's not pink enough I am going to boil and reduce some sliced beets and add my bottling sugar to the concentrated coloring on bottle day. Will the beets add an appreciable amount of sugar? I assume so, looking at the nutritional data says maybe 30 grams of sugar in a pound of beets. How will this affect my bottling sugar amounts? Should I do the beet concentrate (if I decide I need more color) before bottling to let it ferment out?

Also considering a small amount of lactose to sweeten it up some (and match the sweetness to the fruit flavor and color) at that point. Maybe .5lbs or so?

I've got grains steeping now, so I have about two or three hours to decide wether to add the juice now or later. I really appreciate all the advice up to this point, and some help now!

Thanks!

More insane idas.... wife has some pomegranate herb tea bags lying around. Lists the follow ingredients:
apple, hibiscus, blackberry leaves, natural pomegranate and other flavors, orange peel, maltic acid, licorice root, natural pom. and apple juice from concentrate.

Steeps up really pink. The hibiscus made me think of adding it to the steeping, and the flavor is of course right on...

If no one says something in the next couple minutes I think a couple of them might get chucked into the grain steeping!

here's a photo of my cranberry lambic. IT'S QUITE PINK! i know you wanted a quick TAT for drinking so this is kind of out, but you could always sub the brett for standard yeast. just sanitize by soaking the cranberries in high proof alcohol and it will extract the cranberry flavor taboot. i did soak the dried cranberries in beajolais which could have brought on the pinkish hue. recipe was torrified & flaked wheat, crystal 10L, lite dme, honey, saaz and brett B&L. fwiw i've used hibiscus and i think that will give you good results too, though!

i just saw your questions above. i would say just do what you feel would taste good. throwing in a few tea bags might not be a bad idea at all! don't overdo it, though. beet juice for coloring, hmmm, hell it could work! don't hold back, but don't go overboard either. for beet juice sugar in primary 28 g = 1 oz so just subtract that amount of sugar from you calculation. btw i didn't see what juice you were using. the beajolais might not be a bad idea, though. perhaps add the dried cranberries with it?? if you don't have 'em on hand just add it in a few days with a little sugar to kickstart fermentation again for extra complexity...

mrgreen4242 said:

More insane idas.... wife has some pomegranate herb tea bags lying around. Lists the follow ingredients:
apple, hibiscus, blackberry leaves, natural pomegranate and other flavors, orange peel, maltic acid, licorice root, natural pom. and apple juice from concentrate.

Steeps up really pink. The hibiscus made me think of adding it to the steeping, and the flavor is of course right on...

If no one says something in the next couple minutes I think a couple of them might get chucked into the grain steeping!

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Well, grains were steeped, sparged, and I said f- it and tossed in 8 of the tea bags for the time it took to go from steeping temp to boiling. Smells really nice, and the color is at least pinker than it was before. Looks like only about a half an ounce of herbs in all of the tea bags combined, so not sure if it will have much of an effect on color and flavor, but it can't hurt (I hope)!

Jessup - thanks for the suggestions! If the color isn't there yet after I move into a carboy, I will definitely look at the dried cranberries!

Final update for at least a week or two... not terribly pink, but since I don't use hops bags with my pellets, the wort is always a little murky and brown. I suspect that I shall have to add more colorant as well as a gelatin to clarify it some more (used irish moss while brewing already) on bottle day.

Maybe I will be surprised and it will turn pink as it lightens up during fermentation! Thanks for all the help, I shall post pics when it's all done.

Ok, the end result was a very delicious fruity, as my wife calls it "girly" beer with a hint of pomegranate flavor but no pinkness at all. It had a faint red hue while in the carboy, but nothing att in the bottles/glass. A day after bottling I found where to buy hibiscus pestles in cheap bulk, of course. Ah well. Thanks everyone!

I just did a pomegranate hibiscus pale ale about 7 weeks ago and used enough hops to balance out the sweetness the pom juice gives it. Interesting beer for sure but I'm kinda glad it didn't turn out too pink...