St. Patrick’s Day is the one time of year where you’re allowed to turn everything green, including beer. If you’re out at a bar celebrating the holiday, you will likely see green beer being served by the pint to festive patrons. Often, these bars will just color whatever light beer they have on tap to serve the masses quickly. But if you appreciate quality beer, try dyeing your own at home. Columbia Distributing has put together a list of some beers that will show off the green dye well but taste great, too.
How to Make St. Patrick’s Day Green Beer
Before you choose which beer you want to turn green on St. Patrick’s Day, it’s helpful to know the best dyeing method to get the color you want. All it takes is a few drops of food coloring and a good pour. Grab a glass and put a couple of drops of dye at the bottom. Holding the glass at an angle, slowly pour the beer in down the side. The food coloring will naturally mix around the glass because of the carbonation, but you may want to stir the drink to ensure consistency. While green food coloring will be the choice for light beers, blue dye actually creates the appearance of green in dark beers. If your beer straddles the middle, do some tests to see which color works best.
Best Beers to Use
Peak Organic Brewing Co. American IPA
This IPA features an aggressive hop taste with floral and citrus notes. You should be able to pick up pine, resin, and herbal flavors from the generous mix of hops in the brew. The beer has a light color, so you will only have to use one or two drops of green food coloring to achieve a bold color that will fit the theme. At 7.1% ABV, you will only need a few of these IPAs to get the festivities started.
This pale ale is the staple of Sierra Nevada’s lineup, which was one of the first craft breweries to make it big. Its award-winning formula includes piney and grapefruit aromas created from whole-cone American hops. As an added bonus, the label is green, making it perfect for St. Patrick’s Day.
This West Coast-style IPA attempts to mirror the grassy and earthy flavor of English hops for a subtle flavor that won’t overpower your taste buds. These hops create a bold citrus and grapefruit flavor that features notes of pine. This beer has a light golden color that will create a rich, dark green color when using drops of green dye.
Ales are not the only type of beer that can be dyed green. Wheat beers work just as well, and the Blue Moon Belgian White is a great choice. Brewed with orange peel and coriander, the citrus flavor and smooth finish make this beer easy to sip. The beer has a slightly orange tint to it, so blue food coloring reacts the best to create a bright green color.
Drink Green
Green beer is one of the many fun traditions associated with St. Patrick’s Day. This year, take matters into your own hands and experiment with dyeing beer yourself. At Columbia Distributing, we keep a large variety of alcohol brands that includes domestic, imported, and craft beer, so you can be sure to find your favorite. With branches in Washington, Oregon, and California, contact the one nearest you to find out more.