Blue beer

[kh54s10]

People make Romulan Ale cocktails and beers and I found a thread on Northern Brewer's forum talking about it. Food coloring seems to be the way to go.

http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=76133

(And RIP, Mr. Nimoy.)

This is what I found about the Romulan Ale pictured:


The smell is corn, grainy, weird, wheat, floral, and yuck. The color is blue and the look is clear. The taste is weak, corn, and water. Bad stuff.

 

[JonM]

Well, you definitely don't want to clone that crappy beer, but the comments do talk about how to make a beer blue.

 

[EvanMyl]

Brilliant blue (FD&C blue #1) or indigo carmine (FD&C blue #2) should do well at pH 4.5. Not the case for anthocyanins (cabbage, etc.). You should be able to add the dye to a commercially available finished product so that you can see if you like the color, does it affect flavor, etc. before you spend the time brewing up a batch to dye.

Some health questions exist about food dyes but really there are health risks associated with beer in general and I doubt this blue beer will become a daily staple in anyone's diet. You can experiment with berries, flowers or vegetables but I'm skeptical that you'll come up with an ideal solution in the time that you have. If it were me I'd like to have something I know I can rely on if the spirulina isn't the right color or the borage blossoms taste nasty. I'm not wild about them, myself, but they look nice in a salad.

I think I'll give indigo carmine a go, at least I won't have to worry about the PH messing up the color.

Using it on a commercial product is a valid point, but I also need to know if the specific recipe I'll be using can handle the dye (and how much of it).

 

[EvanMyl]

Alright, recipe time;

5gl
WLP400 Belgian Wit ale

Pisner malt - 50%
Candi sugar - 21%
Flaked wheat - 29%

Saaz (2.8%) - 50gr for 60min

Mashing at 55C for 10min, 65C for 60min, 77C for 10min
The sugar goes in 15min before the end of the boil.

In primary for 1 week, dump the dye in the bucket and keg.


Hear me out on my rationale, as I know there will be several objections;

I've gone for a Belgian wheat beer for 2 reasons; paleness and the fact that the Belgian yeast will add some notes of interest. I didn't go for a trippel, as I was having issues keeping the color pale enough, hitting my desired ABV, and staying true to the style all at the same time.

In constructing the grain profile, I'm sacrificing some of the flavor for the ability to hit my desired ABV. Candi will pull the color towards white while adding much needed fermentables, and the pale malt and the wheat are the bare minimum in keeping the beer from turning into pissewasser. I'm not sure if the proportions work. It's not a terribly good wheat beer (which needs equal amounts of pale malt and wheat), but I was more concerned with number-wrangling in this case.

The three-step mashing schedule is meant to deal with the wheat.

The sugar goes in as late as possible to avoid any scorching from the kettle's surface, which will affect the color.

The color is coming up to 6EBC (very pale) and the ABV at 7.1%, right within my requirements.

No secondary needed here, I want the beer as cloudy as possible.

The hops are a bit of an afterthought when drinking a blue beer, but Saaz is subtle enough to let the yeast do its job.

Any thoughts?

 

[Hamaki]

I like it. If it were me I might consider a bit of maltodextrin, maybe 4 - 6 oz.

 

[des]

Any progress? I'd love to know how it goes. Did you brew it already?

 

[Kevin79]

I heard he drank it and swelled into a giant blueberry. The Umpa Lumpas are taking him to the juicing machine as we speak...

 

[grrickar]

"you're turning violet, Violet!"

 

[EvanMyl]

I'm pooping smurfs as we speak!

Just a little busy right now with equipping the brewing room and writing up the health & safety regulations, but I should have some time to brew soon.

 

[Thedutchtouch]

is this just going to be looked at? or does it have to be drinkable? because you could make a "beer" with not much malt and a lot of sugar to get a clearer color that wouldn't react with the food coloring as much.

 

[Travestian]

Interesting read so far. Good luck! Sub'd.

 

[Kevin79]

So any update yet?

 

[thumpersk_a]

Did you end up putting smurfs in a blender then racking onto the blended smurf

 

[EvanMyl]

Soooo...
Apologies for dropping off, work got hectic (the price to pay for a dedicated brewing room).
Here's the result. All the numbers were spot-on, the dye worked like a charm (only need a small amount and it doesn't stay on the tongue), and it actually tastes great and has a great mouthfeel (thank you maltodextrin).

Top management was so impressed, they allocated a fund for custom beer mats :rockin:

 

[EvanMyl]

By the way, the dye used was indigo carmine powder. A knifetip (2gr) was enough to give a quarter of a liter this color.

 

[Hamaki]

Thanks for posting the results & the pic. Glad it worked out for you.

To me everything looks kind of blue in the pic...maybe it's just the Viagra. :fro: