Blue beer: lets beat this dead horse

[Grod1]

if i go the nitro rout i can add a decent amount of corn to the recipe lowering the srm even further. What alkaline adjuncts would work well in a cream ale?

 

[Grod1]

fekin A ... blue oyster stout... or blue oyster kolsch...

 

[NinjaBear]

I saw that ouster’s were alkaline before… never figured out how to use them post fermentation to push the pH up.

 

[SteveH43055]

I have brewed with the blue pea flower myself, my goal however was to create a green beer by playing off the existing yellow. It was green, but more of a blue-green, reminiscent of water in a port a John lol

 

[NinjaBear]

It occurred to me after my last post that Butterfly Pea Flowers themselves can be used as an alkalizing agent in secondary if it’s more in the red zone.

This thread has really gotten me back to wanting to try and make this happen.

 

[NinjaBear]

I have brewed with the blue pea flower myself, my goal however was to create a green beer by playing off the existing yellow. It was green, but more of a blue-green, reminiscent of water in a port a John lol

Got any pictures?

 

[Grod1]

just got my flowers. time to start some things.

 

[passedpawn]

just got my flowers. time to start some things.

Try putting about 30 flowers in a small pan, get the color, strain them out, then make spaghetti in that water. Pretty cool. Same for rice.

 

[cegan09]

I've used the peaflower tea in cocktails. The cup I brewed of the straight tea for my girlfriend to try smelled like straight limabeans/brocolli. Taste wasn't a ton better. It works well in Gin cocktails though.

I'd be curious to see how it works in other people's beer, but i'm not convinced i need weird colored beer in my life.

 

[NinjaBear]

just got my flowers. time to start some things.

Please come back with pictures.

I won’t be able to start until my brew space warms up to at least lager temperatures.

 

[Grod1]

ill post pics when i get to it, so far i have put some in a few beers with different ph levels almost everything looked like bath water grayish. Nothing turned green tho.
2m ill put some lactose into a jar of water and one flower and see how that effects it.I will also nitro some butterfly pea tea and see how tahgt effects it.

 

[Grod1]

I am making working on this recipe now and i keep going back and forth between the idea of using Spirulina powder (blue-green algae).
this page here has super expensive spirulina "proprietary extract" that turns water a very impressive blue. but all other pictures on the web look like nasty green sludge.
a co worker of mine mentioned when he cookes purple or rainbow carrots the water is a dark color so now depending on availability i think i might add some to the mash. Not enough for flavor but hopefully to help steer away from a yellow color.
based off the 50 flowers per a gallon in the mead pic above i estimated that to be about 4 grams of flowers so for 35 gallons i will use 140 grams of flowers.
I added lactose so some clitora pea tea and it didnt not change anything.good.


Psilly rabbit's cream ale
Method: Partial Mash
Style: (Nitro) Cream Ale
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 35 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 37 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.050 (recipe based estimate)
Efficiency: 68% (brew house)

OG:1.052/FG:1.020-ABV4.2%
IBU 13.4SRM 3.2

22 lb - Pale 2-Row 37.9%
7 lb Flaked Corn 12.1%
6 lb DME Extra Light 10.3%
4 lbWhite Wheat 6.9%
3 lb Rice Syrup Solids 5.2%
2 lb Flaked Wheat 3.4%
1 lb - Aromatic Malt 1.7%
3 lb Cane Sugar 5.2%
10 lb Lactose 17.2%
58 lb Total
Hops
Amount Variety Type AA Use Time IBU
1 oz Hallertau Pellet 3.8 Boil 60 min 2.07
1 oz Centennial Pellet 10 Boil 50 min 5.18
1 oz Centennial Pellet 10 Boil 20 min 3.3
1 oz East Kent Goldings Pellet 5.1 Boil 15 min 1.38
1 oz Hallertau Pellet 3.8 Boil 5 min 0.41
1 oz Centennial Pellet 10 Boil 5 min 1.09

Other Ingredients
Amount Name Type Use Time
2 lb carrots color Mash 8 min.
70 g butterfly pea flower Herb Boil 5 min.
70 g butterfly pea flower Herb primary
70 g calcium carbonate Water Agt Boil 5 min.

 

[NinjaBear]

You make 35 gallons at a time? Do you run a brewery?

 

[Grod1]

no i just help one run smoothly( i dont brew) i am a cellar man at one where i am aloud to use what ever i want.I brew with 2 friends so its just easier/more worth it to get at least 10 gallons each,each run.
i dont have to pay for grain/hops either so its a bit easier for me to justify spending a bit of money on adjunts.

 

[NinjaBear]

Damn…

 

[Grod1]

i brewed today.Its BLUE!! i went with a Carrot cake cream ale. Psillys rabbits cream ale to be precise.
After realizing the flowers had a slight earthy flavor i decided that(rainbow) carrots would compliment that flavor along with being a alkaline root vegie that should help keep my ph high helping the blue stay blue.
floweres were added continuously from 2 mins to flame out and then wort was circulated past them for 5 mins
there was a quick second there that the beer tuned a deep algae green and my stomach turned as i though to my self" hey St. Patricks day is around the corner"
but the brilliant blue color over powered and i was able to breath.

i keep trying to post pics but it wont let me upload them since they are to big.
it wont let me buy a supporter account either to upload bigger pictures unless i apply to paypal.
i will resize some images. This is wort re-circulating threw the plate chiller back into the hop screen with 150 grams of butterfly pea flowers we did that for 5 mins.
The two jars are test jars of boiled water. Left is a pea flower in water,Right is a pea flowers a blended baby carrot and a melted down marshmallow.
i think the amount of flower i used was way overkill. It was also not used to its best potential. the hop screen was leaking pure blue dye after the beer was collected. Can i post a video?
if for what ever reason the blue fades i saved 25 grams for primary/aging

this is the final brewed recipie
HOME BREW RECIPE:
Psilly rabbit's cream ale

Partial Mash/ Cream Ale /60 min boil/
Batch Size: 35 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 37 gallons Boil Gravity: 1.046
Efficiency: 68% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.049
Final Gravity: 1.017
ABV (standard): 4.17%
IBU (tinseth): 17.03
SRM (morey): 2.92

FERMENTABLES:
22 lb - American - Pale 2-Row (40.4%)
7 lb - Flaked Corn (12.8%)
6 lb - Dry Malt Extract - Extra Light (11%)
4 lb - American - White Wheat (7.3%)
3 lb - Rice Syrup Solids (5.5%)
2 lb - Flaked Wheat (3.7%)
0.5 lb - American - Aromatic Malt (0.9%)
3 lb - Cane Sugar (5.5%)
7 lb - Lactose (Milk Sugar) (12.8%)

HOPS:
1 oz - Cascade, Type: Pellet, AA: 7.7, Use: Boil for 60 min
1 oz - Centennial, Type: Pellet, AA: 8.7, Use: Boil for 50 min
1 oz - Centennial, Type: Pellet, AA: 9.6, Use: Boil for 20 min
1 oz - Northern Brewer, Type: Pellet, AA: 7.8, Use: Boil for 15 min
1 oz - Cascade, Type: Pellet, AA: 6, Use: Boil for 5 min
50 g - Centennial, Type: Lupulin Pellet, AA: 9.6, Use: Boil for 5 min

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
1 lb - baby rainbow carrots, Type: Flavor, Use: Mash
150 g - butterfly pea flower, Time: 2 min, Type: Herb, Use: Boil
20 oz - marshmellow, Time: 10 min, Type: Flavor, Use: Boil
1 tsp - yeast ex, Time: 10 min, Type: Other, Use: Boil

YEAST:
White Labs - California Ale Yeast WLP001

 

[Grod1]

no one huh? i got all excited fer no reason.

 

[TwistedGray]

This is exciting! I just gave away a bunch of pea tea leaves that we brought back from Thailand, doh!

 

[NickTheGreat]

I'm excited for you. It'll be curious to see what it looks like when it's done fermenting and carbonated up!

 

[TwistedGray]

I'm excited for you. It'll be curious to see what it looks like when it's done fermenting and carbonated up!

Wondering how the fermentation process goes, too.

 

[5hakesbeer]

Yeah this is incredible. Hope it all works out!
Also looking forward to final taste notes! [emoji482]

 

[RedIvan16]

Excited to see how this turns out for you. Very impressive you got that blue color!!

So, the blue color is coming from the carrots and their ability to keep the pH correct? If I tried this without carrots would it work?

 

[Grod1]

The blue color is coming from the flowers the deep blue is assisted by the Ph of the carrots along with the calcium in the marshmallows.
im pretty confident the beer would still be about the same color with out either of the those additions though. I did not leach the color out of the flowers well enough.If the AAs in the hop bill were much higher that could have given me a magenta color as well.
so far the unfermented wort taste normal no carrot flavor but some vanilla on the nose.
My co-worker said it tasted like trix but im pretty sure it was just the color/ name that gave him that impression.
but i can see how the large amount of corn+ rice could give that familiar breakfast cereal complex.

 

[Grod1]

I pulled a small sample today because i needed to know what it looked like.So far lookin great. im pretty sure i am going to add some clitora at the cold crash but im happy withe the color right now.I still have a cup of the unfermented wort and it seems to change color drastically depending on how the light is hitting it,oddly enough its different colors in different parts of the room even different parts of the glass!
The first picture in the taster glass is the partially fermented beer from Sunday. Besides the hint of vanilla on the nose It has a pleasant "beer" taste the corn/rice kind of give it a generic almost busch like taste except the hops are spot on, i hope that doesn't fade as the beer ages because its a damn enjoyable.

 

[TwistedGray]

You should join the next FotHB trade Here's the last one, for reference.

 

[NinjaBear]

Looks like you’re getting a bit of Magenta color… which would be expected from the acidity created during fermentation.

Try “dry hopping” with the blue pea flowers in secondary.

They should have a natural alkaline nature that will both add more blue and push the pH up and away from the red.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

http://www.oldbisbeebrewingcompany.com/In your quest, you can research this clear beer that I had in Bisbee AZ at Bisbee Brewing Company. The clear beer is called Salut!

 

[NinjaBear]

I made a beer about that light when I was making wine coolers.

Once my brewery space gets warm enough in spring, I want to try a similar process to try my hand at blue beer.

 

[passedpawn]

Grod, that’s pretty awesome.

 

[Grod1]

I hope if or when other people try a blue beer they post their tips, tricks or recipes in here.
i would love to throw some cliotoria in right now while its fermenting. I am afraid i will infect the beer so i will probably wait until its cold crashing.

 

[RedIvan16]

My heart is still set on using some sort of Latin American, blue/purple corn in a blue beer attempt. I think I'm going go your route by adding the blue pea flowers for color because your results were so spectacular. I'm not super interested in getting a sweet beer, do you think I can get those results using flaked corn, or a corn cereal mash, and adding the pea flowers like you have?

 

[NinjaBear]

I’d be curious to see your results.

When I was in Japan, they told me of a variety of sweet potato that is blue/purple popular in the southern isles… I never got down to try them. But a student did once bring me back a savory candy made from them. Which were quite good and a little sweet.

Perhaps they could add to your beer’s sweetness and add some more of the blue.

 

[TwistedGray]

When I was in Japan, they told me of a variety of sweet potato that is blue/purple popular in the southern isles… I never got down to try them. But a student did once bring me back a savory candy made from them. Which were quite good and a little sweet.

These grow in the south of Chile as well. They are quite sweet.

 

[Grod1]

All finished up and its tasting great.it dropped down from 1.059 to 1.012 so its 6.30 ABV. its blue in the right light but it turns a pretty stable magenta if you don't have the right lighting or if your holding your phone at different angles. its getting cold crashed tonight with the last of the flowers i had (16 grams) and in the am when im brewing i will pull my keg and carb op to about 2.00 volumes before giving it nitro.
I will take pics after the cold crash tomorrow.-(updated with cold crashed pics)
Its super crisp for a lactose cream ale, the lactose is basically undetectable.
the first pic next to the regular beer is before the cold crash.The others are after the cold crash.
I pulled 13.5 gallons for nitro. 5.5 for non nitro and 12 gallons to be long term soured.
The last picture in the hydrometer is a 12 gallon portion that i pulled to be sour. Its mixed with 100 unnatural blue raspberry slushy mix complete with blue1. that got dosed with sour batch kids from IMPERIAL yeast. its new gravity is 1.040. obviously if or when it sours it shouldn't be blue, but who knows with the amount of blue dye in that portion.that one i call Teachers on acid during snow storms or T.O.A.D.S.S.

I will update this when its carbed up and i can give some tasting notes from co-workers/friends. When i get a chance to throw it on the taps i will get a unbiased review/ rating.

 

[TwistedGray]

Congrats!!

 

[RedIvan16]

Looks great! Glad to see the color has survived intact. I think replicating your results may be something I want to try in a few months

 

[_BullDog_]

Now all you need is glitter.....

 

[Grod1]

glitter, naw.. gold flakes my man. Dosed directly into bottles,i've thought about it already, but not for this beer.

 

[NinjaBear]

Can you get some to me in Minnesota to try?

 

[TwistedGray]

^ I was hoping if I post in here enough it'll entice @Grod1 to join the FotD/HB trades.