Sisanie

Sisanie

Sisanie is co-host of Ryan Seacrest's show On Air With Ryan on KIIS FM Los Angeles' Hit Music radio station from 5am-10am.Full Bio

 

So How Is Green Beer Even Made?

Ah, St. Patrick's Day

The day of dressing in green, trying not to get pinched, drinking whiskey and consuming beer (unless you're me and you're very, very pregnant. Or unless you're underage, obviously!).

But typically St. Patrick's Day doesn't mean just drinking any old beer - it usually means at least a pint or two of GREEN beer. 

So here's how it's made...

Well, green beer has been a March 17th tradition for at least 100 years now, so the ways that it has been made over the years has changed. 

It started with Dr. Thomas Curtin, a coroner’s physician and eye surgeon, making the first green beer in 1914. But he didn't get specific about his recipe, unfortunately for the rest of us. 

But apparently, green beer started because of a tradition called "drowning the shamrock." And it's exactly what it seems: adding shamrocks to your regular beer in celebration of the holiday, apparently the shamrocks turned the beer a green hue.

But these days, shamrocks have nothing to do with it!

It's just plain old blue dye (because when combined with the yellow-ish hue of your average beer, the drink turns green.)

If you're not into using food dye, some brands make green beer with spriulina, a blue-green algae that is very bright.

But if you're drinking that plain old green beer made with food dye, you might want to be careful. Ingesting a lot of blue dye can make you feel pretty terrible, so just don't go overboard!

But hey, don't let this news get you down. Just, you know, maybe have ONE green beer as a celebration of the holiday and then switch off to your regular beer, it's still beer! And you won't feel as bad. 

Hope everyone has a safe and fun St. Patrick's Day! I will be celebrating sans alcohol this year, and I'm looking forward to NOT having a hangover on Sunday.


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Photo: Getty Images


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