I’d classify myself as a beer purist. My wife calls me a beer snob. Either way, I shiver to think of someone pouring green dye in my Guinness.

In honor of the holiday, I decided to keep an open mind and started wondering what other people thought about the subject.

Armed with information from a quick Google search, I asked a guy named Bob at Mellow Mushroom and he told me he’d never touch the stuff.

Bob’s friend Rocky and I agreed. We wondered aloud why anyone would ruin a perfectly good beer by adding green food coloring.

Alan Shaw of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune summed up what I’d been thinking when he wrote, “I don’t understand the green beer thing. Sure, I guess it’s just supposed to be fun, but can’t we have a little respect for beer? At least don’t put green dye in craft beer. That would be like pouring sugar in good wine or ketchup all over a gourmet meal.”

I read a story saying that the Sierra Club had continued their annual Blogging about “Going Green for St. Patrick’s Day”, promoting that party-goers should ride their bicycle’s to the bar to reduce the carbon footprint.

I scoured the archives to find a 2008 Blog about some of the up and coming “Green Breweries,” including New Belgium, CO; Sierra Nevada, CA; and Otter Creek, VT – all of which utilize solar, wind or water to power their machinery and thus produce their own version of Green Beer.

10 Green Beer Facts

• Fact #1) Works best in lighter colored beer
• Fact #2) Any green food dye works
• Fact #3) No change in taste
• Fact #4) Best with chilled beer mug or glass
• Fact #5) Ginger ale works for children
• Fact #6) Doesn’t work well in dark beer, but turns foam green
• Fact #7) Best when adding food dye first
• Fact #8) Green Beer is most commonly associated with St. Patrick’s Day
• Fact #9) St. Patrick’s Day honors the patron saint of Ireland, who died 1,552 years ago in 461
• Fact #10) Four leaf clovers are rare, but they aren’t exactly one in a million. It is estimated that there is one four leaf clover for every 10,000 three-leaf ones.

OK, here goes;

The Green Beer Recipe 

1. Add a drop of food coloring to the bottom of a pint glass.

2. Add beer.

3. Stir.

Prep time – 10 seconds.

If you’re going for Kryptonite Green, light beer is best. Darker beers like stout will have a nice green head atop their normally dark bodies.

Personally, I still can’t wrap my head about green beer. Although even I have to admit that the festive meter is off the charts.

Cheers!