I have one Question: Green Beer?

By Chris Katon, March 17, 2016

I’d call myself a beer purist. Some might say, a beer snob. Either way, I’ve always wondered why anyone would ruin a perfectly good beer with food coloring.

In honor of the holiday, I’m keeping an open mind this year and am doing a little research to see what other people are saying on the subject.

Alan Shaw of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune writes, “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.”

The recipe seems simple enough: Add a drop of food coloring to the bottom of a pint glass, Add beer and Stir. Prep time – 10 seconds. Festive meter – off the charts. And it works for any beer. If you’re going for Kryptonite Green, then light beer is best. Darker beers like stout will have a nice green head atop their normally dark bodies.

It comes as no surprise to me that the Sierra Club is continuing their annual Blogging about Going Green for St. Patrick’s Day. This year they’re promoting that party-goers should ride their bike to the bar to reduce the carbon footprint.

I scoured their 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: Works best in lighter colored beer
Fact: Any green food dye works
Fact: No change in taste
Fact: Best with chilled beer mug or glass
Fact: Ginger ale works for children
Fact: Doesn’t work well in dark beer, but turns foam green
Fact: Best when adding food dye first
Fact: Green Beer is most commonly associated with St. Patrick’s Day
Fact: Today is St. Patrick’s Day, honoring the patron saint of Ireland, who died exactly 1,555 years ago in 461
Fact: Four leaf clovers are indeed 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.

Have a Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Cheers!