Colorants? Anyone experiment?

[Vaureywwc]

So I was looking to use beets as a colorant for a Porter, hoping the red would transfer to the head when poured? Has anyone experimented doing this? I know when using food coloring (which I will NOT be using) that you can get some strange looking beers. Anyone have an idea on how to go about this? I was thinking about juicing the beets (1lb) than bring to a boil, then add the juice to 5 gallons of my next batch of porter.

 

[quincy07]

I'd be worried about the beet flavor, which I personally don't care for, being too prominent. As far as the color transferring to the head, I don't know.

 

[Teromous]

I'm curious about why you're adding this to your beer. Is it a planned Halloween beer? True Blood premier party? Red velvet cake beer recipe?

I haven't used beets in beer but I've extracted color from them before using salt water (don't think you'd want salt in your beer using that method). It was more of a pink-purple than red though. CaraRed works nicely but it's more of a reddish-brown color.

 

[Vaureywwc]

I'm curious about why you're adding this to your beer. Is it a planned Halloween beer? True Blood premier party? Red velvet cake beer recipe?

I haven't used beets in beer but I've extracted color from them before using salt water (don't think you'd want salt in your beer using that method). It was more of a pink-purple than red though. CaraRed works nicely but it's more of a reddish-brown color.

No nothing really, it's something I've just wanted to try. I am also not a fan of beets, but I have founds certain things really pop out in beer, especially when used with the right ingredients.

 

[MNSmitty]

I hope you find a way to make a beer with a red head. I want to make one too! Even a deep red brown head would work for me. That really would be perfect in fact

 

[Teromous]

Hibiscus is another alternative. It's not deep red; it's more of a pink color.

 

[Vaureywwc]

I hope you find a way to make a beer with a red head. I want to make one too! Even a deep red brown head would work for me. That really would be perfect in fact

I'll probably be giving this a try in 2 weeks. Tuesday I'm brewing a blonde, so in two weeks I should be going in to brew with the beets. I'm going to try extracting the color similar to how you would make organic food coloring, and I'll either brew with it, or maybe slide it in during secondary(?).. From what I understand if I make it into the coloring, I'll have slight note of beets but still get the full color. Unfortunately I have a feeling it will come out to be a deep purple/Brown instead of red. But it's worth a try.

 

[FarmerTed]

I have a bottle of sinamar that I play around with occasionally. I've added 0.5-1.5 ml to bottles at bottling to darken a few bottles of beer. Add 2 mL's to a glass, pour in an ipa, and you have a black ipa. It's kind of cool. There's not much flavor or aroma from it.