St. Patty's Swamp Water (green beer thread)

[Runyanka]

Like he said early on. Why waste a very high quality homebrew to get half in the bag. You can't call yourself a beer lover if you dismiss another style out of personal opinion. I personally hate wheats and saisons. Im not slamming you. If there can't be a positive comment made, move onto a different thread. There are plenty, let us enjoy a spirited holiday dumb fratboy tradition in our own way. Brew on.

Party on Wayne, party on Garth!

 

[jhenderson27]

Ahh wyanes world what a classic. I will now go sing bohemian rhapsody in a amc gremlin!

 

[TwoFortySX]

March 2, 2011 UPDATE

Today was 10 days since I brewed this beer. The beer reached its FG of 1.009 in 4 days and had about a week to sit on the yeast and clear up a bit. I wouldn't say that 10 days in the primary is enough for me BUT I want this for St. Patrick's Day so it will have to do. I know the cons and am sure there will be some negative feedback but ohh well.

Getting ready to bottle

Cleaning the bottles

Transferring to the bottling bucket

Capping....

Here is an idea of the color that the beer ended up

 

[TwoFortySX]

I decided not to add anymore coloring to the beer. I really liked the color that the beer ended up being. It is really hard to get a picture of the true color of the beer. I wouldn't say that is an overwhelmingly green color but there is a green tint to it that I like. I am really excited to see what kind of color this ends up pouring.

As for the taste, the color had no adverse effects on it. The beer itself tastes somewhat like your typical BMC light beers. I was expecting some green flavors because of the relatively short time in the primary but I am pleasantly to say that I didn't notice much. It has a nice crispness even warm and flat so it should do the trick perfectly in about 2 weeks.

And lastly I wanted to add that none of my equipment is stained green. Everything came very clean and had no adverse effects from using the food coloring.

 

[TwoFortySX]

I guess since I am posting about my bottle day I will show some pictures of my Vanilla Coffee porter that went into the secondary after about 3 weeks in the primary. This is a brewers best robust porter kit that I added 6oz of cold steeped coffee and 4oz of vanilla to after a week in the primary.

The color is nice. The beer's taste is a little thin at this point. The coffee flavor is very nice. the vanilla comes through in the smell more so than the taste. I am hoping after some time in the secondary and bottle aging that this beer will thicken up a little bit. If it does that then I am excited to have myself a good Vanilla Coffee ROBUST porter but as this point is is just a vanilla coffee porter

The FG of this guy rested at 1.012

Thanks,
Jimmy

 

[Hellfish76]

Thanks for those updated pics. Glad to hear that you didn't end up with green stained brewing materials!

I want to see the finished product when you open your bottles.

 

[oldmate]

This is so great, I should do something like this for my birthday (although it will have to be next year) - which is the 17th

Can't wait to see the first pour!

 

[jhenderson27]

I can't wait to see the first car bed pour.

 

[Buck33]

Yeah you got one think right us Pittsburg boys enjoy the st pattys day, beer looks nice, Im gonna try this one out just for ****s n giggles

 

[jhenderson27]

I got a Vanilla robust porter in my secondary sitting on madagascar vanilla beans. Smells amazing. Original gravity of 1.09 and its around 1.024 now. Can't wait.

 

[cappy]

I wonder if you added enough green food coloring to a stout if it would create a green foamy head? Any takers?

 

[jhenderson27]

Might kill the head. That much needed could affect things.

 

[TwoFortySX]

March 11, 2011 *UPDATE*

Summing up the situation so far:
Primary: 10 days.
No Secondary
Bottled: 10 days

This beer will go from brew kettle to glass in about roughly 21 days. I have just moved the beer from my spare room to the refrigerator which gives it 1 day to cool down before it gets drank. Again, I know that this is normally not a good move to only give them a day to cool before you drink them but I have stated the plan for this beer already. So on with the update!

I was having a few beers on Monday night when I decided to crack one open after about a week carbonating and "aging" if you want to call it that to see what was going on.

My first impression was, first and foremost, that its BEER. Drinkable BEER too! I guess that is always the question I ask myself when I open the first bottle of any given beer.

The beer has a mild alcohol smell but its not that bad at all. The flavor is slightly thin but a little bit more flavorful that a typical BMC beer, although the flavor is VERY similar. The head of the beer is actually very nice, surprisingly nice to be honest. There is even some lacing.

I feel like i did a very good job of racking and bottling this beer. I left more beer than usual in the primary when I racked it to the bottling bucket. It helped to keep the sediment out since I wasn't using a secondary. I covered the bottling bucket for a while and gave any sediment in the bucket a little bit of time to fall. I also put some sanitized cheesecloth over the inside of the spigot to keep larger sediment out of the bottles. Needless to say, the beer is very clear for being so young.

The big question is the color and well the color IS tinted green but its a subtle green. The head even has a bit of a green tint to it.

Tomorrow I will take some pictures of the finished product and re-analyze the beer after it has had some time to cool and settle.

And for research and learning reasons I have left a few bottles to age for an extended time period, as I do with most the beers and ciders that I make. There is a nice little box that i will bring out around the holidays so I can retry all of the things I have made over the year!

 

[Cascadegan]

I wonder if you added enough green food coloring to a stout if it would create a green foamy head? Any takers?

hmmm, this is something i really want to do... i think it might have to wait until next year

 

[RMitch]

It turned your bottles green!

 

[TwoFortySX]

It turned your bottles green!

I thought it was only fitting that I used green bottles for this brew.

 

[fivehoursfree]

Freetail Brewing in San Antonio makes a Spirulina Wit that is naturally green. I haven't had it, but they brew it up this time of year.

 

[TwoFortySX]

Freetail Brewing in San Antonio makes a Spirulina Wit that is naturally green. I haven't had it, but they brew it up this time of year.

Thats crazy that they brew with spirulina. I wonder how they add it? It is a blue-green algae that I familiar with from when I worked at GNC. It comes in a powder that they might add to the beer prior to bottling.

I never really though about adding a "natural" green color to the beer for color. That might be my project for next years beer.

 

[TwoFortySX]

The POUR!

Okay Ladies and Gentlemen, Here is the much anticipated pint picture!

 

[jwatkins56550]

Nice. I have a German Vienna I'm kegging today, but I'll be adding food coloring to each pint glass rather than a whole keg.... Because let's face it, who wants green beer after st pattys day??

So if I remember correctly, blue and yellow make green right? So what about using blue food coloring in my yellow beer?

 

[TwoFortySX]

I had a few of these guys yesterday so here is my take on the final product.

The beer is undoubtedly young, and needs conditioned longer. The carbonation level was good and the head was nice and foamy. However, The color was a disappointment to me but the beer itself was good. I took the beer that wasn't drank yesterday and put it back into the boxes, and back in the closet for some more aging.

What I learned was that over time food coloring will settle out of the beer if you add it at any stage of the process. I lost color with each stage but the most was during primary fermentation. If I swirled the sediment at the bottom of the bottles into suspension before pouring the pour it had a more green color. So my final opinion is that it is a waste of time to add food coloring to beer at any point before it is poured

I think my next experiment is going to be trying to change the color of a light beer with a natural source.

Thanks!
Jimmy

 

[TwoFortySX]

Nice. I have a German Vienna I'm kegging today, but I'll be adding food coloring to each pint glass rather than a whole keg.... Because let's face it, who wants green beer after st pattys day??

So if I remember correctly, blue and yellow make green right? So what about using blue food coloring in my yellow beer?

That is the best way to add coloring to be beer. I really do not mind drinking green beer after St. Patty's Day, because in the end it is still beer BUT I can see that some might be turned off by the color.

I would say that you could add blue coloring to make it green. It would probably take much less blue coloring to make it green than it would green coloring to make it the same color green.

 

[jhenderson27]

Glad to hear it was good. Brewing it this weekend time permitting between my allgrain pale and finishing up racecars.

 

[bmantzey]

I think my next experiment is going to be trying to change the color of a light beer with a natural source.

Try mold.

 

[rycov]

as a response to some of the earlier ****** baggery. whats wrong with green poop? wipe it off, flush and forget it. unless im missing something.

 

[DrNuBingTon]

I think my next experiment is going to be trying to change the color of a light beer with a natural source.

I made a recipe for a St. Patricks day Light Lager that I never ended up brewing that used Blue corn in hopes of creating green beer. I think you've inspired me to try it for next year!

 

[TwoFortySX]

I decided to cool some of these down to drink today. They have been conditioning since March 12th so they have had 10 days plus an addition 20 so one month of conditioning at this point. I am pretty excited to see I have in these bottles of mine.

I will update this again in a couple hours when I crack some beers open to watch Pittsburgh Pirates start their domination

EDIT:

here is that she looks like cracked open in the bottle. Nice and Clear!

 

[TwoFortySX]

Here is the pour! A shot glass you ask? well I am playing power hour this afternoon. I am about 30 minutes in.

The beer is alright. It has touch more bitterness than a typical BMC. I will say that the Brewers Best American Light kit was made to resemble Miller Light except it is an ale and not a lager.

To be honest, as far as taste, color and carbonation and the whole deal coming together this is my best beer yet.

 

[rycov]

i like to drink from a shot glass too. makes me feel like a giant. plus i can drink like a hundred of them.

 

[jhenderson27]

Brewed this awhile back minus green color. Beer is perfectly clear, crisp and refreshing. Just in time to mow the lawn