Dying a beer, I know, I know...

So I'm brewing a beer for my dad and his buddies for the NC State Carolina game at the end of the month and my dad is dead set on having that beer be red. I'm brewing the cream of three crops ale, so it will be nice and light. Basically I'm wondering if I can just drop red food coloring in the keg and be done with it.

Does this create any issues other than just looking absolutely ridiculous? I don't want to do anything detrimental to an entire keg to satiate my dads strange need for highly festive drinks.

Thanks

should have brewed an Irish Red

or used beets as an adjunct ...

Go Pack!!!

That's all I have to add...

I say go for it - use the red food coloring and have fun with it. A little will go along ways, so be judicious.

The old man is not the best with giving advanced notice, I would have loved to brew an irish red, but just not enough time. What I may end up doing is bottling a few bombers and dropping in a bit of food coloring and then keeping the rest kegged to serve off a cobra tap. You know have a few really festive ones to get the party started, then let everyone get sideways on normal colored beer.

And yes I second the previous comment, GO PACK! Even though they are a terribly sad excuse for a D1 football team.

Food coloring is carefully designed, like crayons, to have no flavor or smell. You can add as much or as little as you like. Since there are no truly red beers, a cream ale will work just fine.

As much as I bristle at the thought of dying beer, if the beer's already brewed then that is your best bet.

In college, we wanted red and blue beer for homecoming... So the distributor dyed it for us like they do for green St. Pat's beers. We used some Old Milwaukee for the base, I'm sure and then dropped off dye the week before.

Anyway... The blue beer looked blue, but the red beer came out orange. Tasted fine though, just make sure you use enough dye.