One-Month Blonde Ale? Green Food Dye?

[Slive]

I don't know if anyone was aware of this......but....... St. Patrick's Day is in a month (fully tongue in cheek, I bet more people here know the date of St. Paddy's Day better than that of their anniversary).

That being said, I have horrible timing. Two brews ready now, nothing fermenting on schedule for the Big Day. Can ya tell I'm new at this? Anyways, I think that if I brew this Sunday, that would give a solid month from start to finish. I would just use a very, very simple recipe and hope for the best. Here's what I have planned, such as it were.

5.25 lbs. Light Dried Malt Extract
0.50 lb. Caramel/Crystal Malt 10L
1.00 oz. Willamette hops (60 min.)
1 tsp. Irish Moss (15 min.)
Wyeast 1056 (American Ale)

Beersmith shows:
OG: 1.046
FG: 1.011
Color: 6.9
IBU: 20.6
Alcohol by Vol.: 4.6

Just a simple, simple blonde ale that would probably be ready in a month. Now, being as I'm new at this whole "make-your-own-recipe" thing, I fully expect that I'm missing something. If anybody can clue me in as to things I'm neglecting or forgetting, that would be fantastic. Similarly, if there is anything that would make my recipe (as it were) any better, my ears are fully open!


NEXT QUESTION:
Now, seeing as this is going to be for St. Patrick's Day, and seeing as how it's going to be such a pale Blonde Ale....what if I spruced it up a little with some Green Food Coloring? Get it? Spruced? Nevermind.

Would the green dye screw anything up with the beer? I'm thinking I would add it when I rack to the bottling bucket, just before it goes into the bottles. I wouldn't have a clue how much to use, so I'd just play it by ear and continually mix until I get a decently-green color.

So, would green food dye screw anything up? Make your tongue green while drinking? Make things taste horrible? Anybody have any experience?


Thank you all for your help on both questions! Answer either one you wish!

 

[c.n.budz]

That recipe might be ready in a month but it won't be really ready...

If you want green beer, go buy a cheap, light commercial beer and add the food coloring to that. Don't waste good homebrew that way.

 

[el gato]

You could always add the coloring to a picther or pint glass when pouring too.

 

[BuffaloSabresBrewer]

or an even better idea you could just drink the beer

 

[Slive]

Well, my idea was just for a cheap little gimmick for St. Patrick's Day, I was just wondering about whether or not the green food dye would be feasible and if it would mess up the beer or not. I would still like comments on the actual recipe, as I'd like to still produce a quality beer, I was unsure whether changing the color with food dye would mess with the taste.

Trust me, it's still about the taste (hence the questions about the quality of beer), there's just an additional comment about the coloring.

 

[c.n.budz]

If I were you I'd add another hops addition at 30 minutes and another at 5 minutes and maybe cut the 60 minute addition down a little if you want your IBUs to stay on the low side. Besides that it looks fine

 

[Kai]

If you want something that'll really be in its stride on St. Patrick's day, and you're bottle conditioning, I'd go for an American wheat beer. You can use 1056 yeast and a similar hop schedule, but it's okay if it's hazy and yeasty, and they're really good when they're still young.

 

[bigjohnmilford]

or an even better idea you could just drink the beer

+1 why would you want to drink green colored beer?

 

[Atl300zx]

+1 why would you want to drink green colored beer?

For the greenish/blue poop of course.

 

[bigjohnmilford]

For the greenish/blue poop of course.

you could just eat some kale for that.

 

[TexLaw]

If you are bottling, you better get started RIGHT NOW. You have less that five weeks to get that stuff fermented, cleared, bottled, carbonated, and cleared again. If you were kegging, you would have plenty of time, but you are in the two-minute drill for bottling.

As for food coloring, it will not affect flavor or aroma, so long as you do not use to much. I do not know how much is too much, though. I think you want something like two drops in a twelve ounce serving, but it could be one or three. I haven't dyed beer in close to twenty years, so I don't remember. If you want to get it right, get a sixer of something with similar color and do a little experimenting. Then, do a little measuring and arithmetic and go for it.

Then, think about whether you actually want five gallons of green beer. If you are serving this to others, do you know that they want it already green, out of the bottle? If you are not serving this to others (or many others), just how long do you want to drink green beer?


TL

 

[miatawnt2b]

yellow and blue make green... You want a few drops of blue, not green color.

-J

 

[BuffaloSabresBrewer]

were all kind of ripping on you for the green beer thing but as for the recipe maybe take the suggestions already posted. It looks to me like it will be pretty light with not much hop flavor or aroma as you originally posted it.

 

[john from dc]

yellow and blue make green... You want a few drops of blue, not green color.

-J

this logic makes sense. but as i found out in college, blue food coloring will get you blue beer with a tiny hint of green. not to mention an almost entirely blue head.

two or three drops of green gets you green beer.

also, i personally love to look at my beer in a pint glass, it's part of my self evaluation experience. remember, they're not gonna know that it's green until they pour it into a glass anyway.

if you're set on green out of the bottle, one option that hasn't been mentioned is adding the food coloring to the bottles themselves before bottling, that way you can get a twelver of green beer and the rest will look like beer.

 

[big supper]

I would get the beer in the bottling bucket with the priming solutioin, bottle half of the beer regularly, and then add the dye to the last half and procede to bottle that.

 

[SC_Ryan]

Be careful. The food coloring will stain your bottling bucket green. I would put one or two drops in each bottle like John suggested. I say go for it! The point of homebrewing is to have fun and make whatever you want, not to look down your nose at other people.

As far as your recipe I would cut your bittering hops in half and add something clean like Cascade or Saaz as a flavoring and aroma hop (15min and 5min boils). Maybe a half ounce each.

 

[srm775]

Better yet, use water from the Chicago River to make your beer ... they dyed it green 10 years ago for St. Paddy's day and it never went back.

Actually, from my experience with green beer, is that the dye damages head retention. You might want to only dye a 12 pack and use that as the gimmick then just serve up the rest as usual.

 

[mrkristofo]

OK, this one's for the scientists...anybody thought of expressing GFP in their yeast, and doing it that way?

Anyone want to drink GFP?

 

[discgolfin]

I don't know if anyone was aware of this......but....... St. Patrick's Day is in a month (fully tongue in cheek, I bet more people here know the date of St. Paddy's Day better than that of their anniversary).


Well that is funny because it is my anniversary..(very clever on my part)..never will forget the date...

We had plenty of guiness on tap at the wedding


Jay

 

[njnear76]

If I were you I'd add another hops addition at 30 minutes and another at 5 minutes and maybe cut the 60 minute addition down a little if you want your IBUs to stay on the low side. Besides that it looks fine

I am not sure if I agree. I believe this is Jamil's Blond Ale recipe and it is supposed to be around 22 IBU.

 

[TexLaw]

OK, this one's for the scientists...anybody thought of expressing GFP in their yeast, and doing it that way?

Anyone want to drink GFP?

I don't know if I want to drink it, but that would be 100% super cool. :rockin:


TL