Can I add food colouring to beer?

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Rob25

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Hi all

A friend and I are brewing a golden ale, it's currently fermenting in the bucket, we're going to transfer it to bottles soon. I am hoping to make a few of them bright green as a novelty. If I added food colouring to a few of the bottles at the bottling stage, will this negatively affet the brew at all? People's thoughts would be much appreciated! Cheers
 
Quite a few St. Patrick's day beers have green food colouring in them. And loads of recipes have gravy browning. Beer recipes. Seriously.
 
Hi all

A friend and I are brewing a golden ale, it's currently fermenting in the bucket, we're going to transfer it to bottles soon. I am hoping to make a few of them bright green as a novelty. If I added food colouring to a few of the bottles at the bottling stage, will this negatively affet the brew at all? People's thoughts would be much appreciated! Cheers

I worked as a dishwasher several decades ago and the chef added a blue liqueur to beer, it became green.

Drinkable, made it green, added some sweetness but other than that: nothing special.
 
And loads of recipes have gravy browning

It does seem like a strange ingredient, but really only because it has the word ‘gravy’ in its name. In reality it’s just caramel (and probably some E numbers too), something brewers have been adding as a colouring for centuries. You can buy brewers caramel, but it’s likely more expensive, and is essentially the same thing. Or just make your own.
 
It's worth noting that although gravy browning is mostly caramel as in what British brewers have used for over a century to colour their beers - it also typically has a lot of salt, NaCl. The popular Sarson's one is about 16% salt - and also has some glucose as well.

You may be fine with that given the amounts that are typically added, but you should be aware of it.
 
When I was in Berlin earlier this year I had a Berliner Weisse - I was asked which colouring I wanted in it, red or green? (I went green)

I like sour beers as they come anyway, but apparently this is common, I think it's raspberry (red) or woodruff (green) syrup to take the edge off the sourness.
 

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