True Blood Party

[stanley1271]

So my friend is having a True Blood party for the premier episode coming up and has asked me to bring some of my beer. Now I have the stuff to make an Irish Red, but I thought I would like to have it look more like blood red. So I figured I would add food coloring to it. I think I can just rake it to another carboy and add food coloring till I get the color I want, right?

I will be kegging this beer to take over to the party. Is there anything I should be worried about with the food coloring added to the beer in a keg? I cannot really think of anything that could be an issue, but then again I did not think there was anything wrong with dumping all of the hops into the boil at 60 mins on one of my first batches either. Damn was that ever a hop bomb.

Also, anyone have any other ideas for other drinks or food for a party like this? We are trying to keep it themed to the show.

Thanks all,
-Stanley

 

[Ziggybrew]

I spent a whole summer trying to brew a blood-red beer for Halloween called blud Lyte. I tried heavy concentrations of red beets in an Irish Red. That was my best attempt at a "naturally red beer". Just pink.
Then I went to the craft store. Wilton's make icing dye that is EXTREMELY potent. It's like a paste in a little jar about the size of a tea candle. Get the "flavorless red". Made a pale ale. It worked.
As an added bonus, I bought those little "chemical lights" that you break and they glow in red. One for every glass. Three for a buck at the Dollar Store. We had Blud Lyte for the Halloween party.

 

[stanley1271]

Actually I have some of that icing dye sitting at home. I tried to take up doing extreme cake design for a hobby a while back. I had not thought about using them. I'll have to give that a try. Thanks.

-Stanley

 

[CHefJohnboyardee]

depending on the lines for your kegs, you may get some red staining but if you run a lot of darks through it afterward you probably won't notice.

 

[usfmikeb]

My wife wants to know if she can come to the party!

 

[jbrookeiv]

One thing to note, someone tried to do the same thing, except a green beer for St. Pattys day. I forget when he added the food coloring, but the coloring completely disappeared. Might be easiest to add a few drops to the bottom of the pint glass before pouring.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

Did anyone else on seeing the title of the thread think this was about an even more radical offshoot of the tea party?:cross:

 

[hillhousesawdustco]

slightly off topic and slightly unpleasant but does food coloring give anybody else the runs? after every st. patty's day....whew, that's a rough morning. of course it could be all the other stuff i'm doing by food coloring in beer always seems to have a poor influence on my system.

 

[CHefJohnboyardee]

slightly off topic and slightly unpleasant but does food coloring give anybody else the runs? after every st. patty's day....whew, that's a rough morning. of course it could be all the other stuff i'm doing by food coloring in beer always seems to have a poor influence on my system.

why i make it a habit to drink beer that food coloring wouldn't show up with, no matter how much!

 

[jigidyjim]

I made a beer I called "True Blood" that was the blood orange hefeweizen from Extreme Brewing. it was a crowd pleaser, but definitely wasn't red. The blood oranges I used weren't very dark though, but even with darker oranges I don't think the beer would get very red.

Regardless, putting a label on the beer that looked just like the True Blood drink labels was fun