Blue Beer with butterfly pea flowers

Aside from the discussion on why one would want to color its beer blue, did some testing on different PH levels. Here's the results.



Conclusion is, unless one produces a neutral to alkaline PH beer, color will not be blue.

More detail on my blog HERE

However, other flowers like hibiscus, do not get affected by PH. A batch shown below.

 

Lovely color
How many ounces of hibiscus flowers (dried, presumably) does it take in say 5 gallons to get that amazing hue and depth?

Cheers!

 

Plenty of that in this thread : https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/blue-beer-lets-beat-this-dead-horse.643370/

 

I did a hibiscus Czech premium pils when my first daughter was born inspired by Mexican Jamaica that is purple. I bought about 25 tea bags from the local Mexican market and used between half and the whole box for 2.5 gallons (I can't recall as it was 4 years ago). But the color didn't change much between the kettle and the glass. It was a beautiful light pink color and I handed out bottles to coworkers that said "It's a Girl!" on the label. The saaz dry hop I did wasn't to style per say but complimented the floral hibiscus very well imho.

 

Also as I was reading about the blue beer thread it reminded me of Miller Clear Beer that they did some time ago... Not sure a homebrewers would be able to replicate that without perhaps some lab equipment???
I suppose that could made blue quite easily?

 

Yea, plus acidity aside, beer isn't colorless. That said, even if not "blue", the magenta-ish color it gives are still far more intriguing than what hibiscus yields.

 

To make beer that clear? You need pilsner malt, adjunct sugar, and a low-oxygen brewing process (hot side and cold side).

 

The product still needs to be palatable or it's kind of pointless.

 

He asked to replicate Miller Clear Beer. What I said is exactly what that is and how to make it.

"Palatable" is subjective. Lots of people drink light BMC.
There's nothing stopping you from adding some actual hop flavor, which shouldn't add color, and whatever kind of yeast you want, which also doesn't add color.
Beer's color comes from the grain and the oxidation thereof (edit: and malliard reactions).

 

Hops give color as well, depending on hopping rates anyways. Not really noticeable in strongly colored beers, but adding flavor while maintaining crystal clear clarity is... difficult.

 

Source?

 

Clear beer has nothing to do with low oxygen brewing. It has more similarities to seltzer in formulation than beer. Sugar+malt extract+hops= legally "Beer." You can even use unmalted barley with an enzyme package to achieve a similar result. Other methods include micro filtration to remove color....one can could make "Guinness Clear" via the same filtration methods. Oxidation in the bottle will darken the beverage though.

 

Oxygen increases the color added by the grain, so yes, it does matter.

 

7 1/2oz dry hopped in keg for 2 weeks. Full recipe HERE

 

I believe you've pictured that beer on HBT before - and it caught my eye then, too
Thanks very much for the link! If I may ask, is the picture above from your October batch?
If so that'd be very respectable persistence wrt color depth and hue...

Cheers!

 

Putting hops in water, especially one containing ethanol? Try it?

Lupulin is yellow-ish, and the bracts are yellow-greenish. Water, but especially ethanol, will act as a solvent for those, which will contribute some color.

Which is obviously relative to the amount used, of course, and it's negligible in a traditional must. But when you use ridiculous amounts of hops (NEIPA?), or when your base must is ridiculously colorless, then it can be noticeable.

 

Correct, picture is from batch done in Oct-19. Planning to brew another one tomorrow

 

Here's a sample of two hop tea, one with 2oz/5gal and another with 4oz/5gal, boiled for 15min and through a coffee filter. I assume the alcohol content in beer doesn't extract any more colors as hops are added during boil of wort when no alcohol is present. I also believe that color will fade with time by decantation. But yes, it gives some color.

 

^ neither of those samples are clarified, and they've both been oxidized.

This is the science subforum. I don't think I'm out of line asking for some kind of scientific source without being expected to test it myself.

I'm skeptical that hops would add significant color.

 

I find interesting that you believe your time is worth more than anyone else here, you have produced no evidence to claim your opinion, and yet you question others data points. Until you give the forum evidence, your opinion is what it is, your opinion.

 

Designing Great Beers (p 53 - 54, maybe other sections as well). Basic Brewing Video (June 20, 2006) starting at about minute 7 has a nice visual.

 

Whoa buddy. I'm just trying to find out the truth.

 

Thanks for pointing these out!

The book:
Ray Daniels goes into detail in his book explaining the chemistry of beer color (chapter 7), which comes from 3 things: 1) Maillard reactions, 2) Caramelization, and 3) Oxidation.
Hops don't play a role in any of these process using a low-oxygen hot side brewing method. The polyphenols do not oxidize.
Many/all of the ways he suggests to lower beer color (table 7.6) are tenets of low oxygen brewing, with the exception of reduced hop mass, and increased adjunct usage (which I suggested to help achieve this goal).

On the other hand, if you let your wort/beer oxidize, then hop compounds will add darkness. This is readily apparent from home brewers making NEIPAs with poor cold-side oxidation prevention.

The video:
We can see that the beer with less hops is darker.
This article explains why the higher hopped beer is lighter: https://beerconnoisseur.com/articles/what-determines-color-beer
Note that the polyphenols (haze) should be removed to clarify the beer if your goal is to make a clear, colorless beer, so the hops will have no lasting effect.

Cheers

 

When living in Guatemala, where Rosa Jamaica ("Ha'myca") is very popular, I made a hibiscus infused beer. It was pretty good, just a simple ale with Rosa Jamaica...which adds not only color, but a little tartness.

I made a Rosa Jamaica tea then blended with the near finished ale for better control of the end result and less junk in the beer, then force carbed.

 

This sounds like the future most disgusting episode of Jamil's "Can You Brew It?" !

In the name of Science!

Also, , is very weird to watch but I think substantiates RpHguy's point on oxidation. That beer is nowhere near as clear as the adverts from the 1990s.

It is my personal opinion though that Miller used charcoal filters originally...