Beets: not as powerful a colorant as I thought

...but still awesome!

I have a batch of lager with some fermentation issues (WCPL #1), so I'm throwing stuff in the keg to see what it does. First I made a hop tea with 1oz of Crystal in a quart of 170ºF water. Kinda nice, but nowhere near as resounding as the last time I hop-tea'd.

I heart beets, so I thought I'd go ahead and dye my beer pink. I thinly sliced half a roasted beet, about 2oz, and steeped it in about a cup of boiling water and strained it into the keg still hot (after pouring out a pre-beet sample glass). Post-beet pours showed no significant color difference; maybe a twinge. So I mashed a bit of beet with a fork and stirred it into my sample glass, about a quarter- to a half-teaspoon in four ounces. THAT'S a nice color! So, deep gold plus beet red equals nearly neon bright red.

Beer is hazy, I know. Keg got tousled a little getting it out of the fridge, and S-189 is so dusty....

what did it do to the flavor?

So, extrapolating from your second experimient, what would it take to color a 5g batch? Putting how many sliced beets into the boil?

BTW, thanks for taking the time to document and post your experiment here. Very useful!

Shrewd_Alchemist said:

what did it do to the flavor?

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Not much. Maybe a vanishing loaminess.

passedpawn said:

So, extrapolating from your second experimient, what would it take to color a 5g batch? Putting how many sliced beets into the boil?

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On the order of 6-12oz, smashed up. Juice from canned beets is probably a much easier way of getting the same effect.

EDIT: On new info, revise that to 3-4oz per 5 gallons for a very noticeable effect.

heh, unix.

You know HP stopped making RPN calculators? I don't know if anyone does anymore.

Is this beer an Ode to Michael Jackson?

"Just beet it!"

Right Brain Brewing in Traverse City made a "Beet Wheat" a couple of months ago. not bad. You could def taste the beet, but it was not unpleasant and not real strong. The color was bright pink, with a light pink foam!

That's also what Magic Hat used in it's Wacko beer.

This is the same beer. Toldja it shouldn't be hazy! That's all condensation, I assure you....

Looks good. Nice to see you broke out the bleu cheese to go with the beets... now I'm hungry.

Have you thought about using beet powder? It has all the color of beets but not much in the way of flavor.

You might need alot of it though...

I would wonder how stable the color is.

I have heard that hibiscus will give a deep red color.

Eric

What about beet juice?

I want to make a chocolate raspberry porter/stout with a pink head someday. I was thinking about using beet juice to do it.

Oops. Gotta amend this thread's whole direction!

I transferred this beer into a clean keg, then part into a 3rd and shook the snot out of it to test head retention after agitation. It's pink! The beet juice done got stratified.

EDIT: It kinda tastes like beet. Just a hint.

...aren't beets are used to make white sugar?

This is perfect. Thanks. My granddaughter wants me to make a "Blood Light" beer for Halloween. Beets will be the magic ingredient in my Killians Clone

Resurrecting the thread to share my "bloody ale".
Finished beer had a little hint of beet flavor, very creamy and smooth.
Blended two raw beets with 2 cups of water, strained and added juice to last 10min of boil.
Use 2row and pilsen + some carapils, vienna and aromatic malts.
IBU's was around 20.

nilo said:

Resurrecting the thread to share my "bloody ale".
Finished beer had a little hint of beet flavor, very creamy and smooth.
Blended two raw beets with 2 cups of water, strained and added juice to last 10min of boil.
Use 2row and pilsen + some carapils, vienna and aromatic malts.
IBU's was around 20.

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Nilo,
I'm very curious about this beer. What hops did you use? What were your grain percentages like? I'm trying for something similar, but hopped like an APA. I'm shooting for 45 IBUs with a strong malt backbone. I appreciate any direction you can give me.

Nilo, does yours have a pink head? Mine does. I didn't use any aromatic, like you do, but all in all, it's very red. I might add something (aromatic, probably) to add just a hint of brown. I definitely taste the beets though. I hopped to 45 IBU, mostly late additions, hoping to mask it.

Hmmm... I am most interested in this. I want to make a cranberry heffe for the holidays (friend's tested recipe) this week but would love for it to be red/pink.

Was there a reason why y'all used raw and not roasted beets?

And while I'm bumping this up, has anyone else gained some experience with these lovely root vegs?

I saw this and had to comment.

I have a friend who made a kolsch and put 5 lbs of roasted beets (chopped up) in the secondary. It blew the lid off!

That stuff was mutant-radiation magenta with a pink head and tasted like earthy beets in kolsch form. Great if you like beets. Otherwise, not so great.

But yeah, great for color - and flavor if you like it. I'll try and find a pic.

Yeah - I ended up roasting the two pounds I used... Not so much cranberry as there is a beet flavor. I'm really hoping that aging helps!!!

beets...bears...battlestar galactica

I think Schrute farms makes a beet beer

Lavender_Pepper said:

Yeah - I ended up roasting the two pounds I used... Not so much cranberry as there is a beet flavor. I'm really hoping that aging helps!!!

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Nothing useful to say here, but I'm loving your forum name. That is all. Sorry for interruption..

passedpawn said:

Nothing useful to say here, but I'm loving your forum name. That is all. Sorry for interruption..

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Thanks? Lol

What a neat idea! The colour is truly striking.