I know cabbage flavors in beer are typically associated with DMS. I am experimenting with natural dye in beer. I'm hoping to take a beer that would typically be light in color, and give it a purple tint. A friend of mine is a cancer survivor and has a life-long story of battling cancer with friends and loved ones. She is part of a Relay for Life team, which is a charity for cancer research. I want to support that, and their "thing" is purple. So...
Red cabbage makes a fine purple dye, but what does it do to beer? I took 5.7 lbs of chopped red cabbage and boiled it in 15 gallons of water for 20 minutes. This was the result. I intend to use this as my mash water. What do you guys think? What should I look out for? Can you think of other natural ways I can add a purple hue to the beer? I'm brewing tomorrow morning and looking to get some input. I figure, if this fails (which it probably will!), I can just brew a normal beer with purple food coloring... but that wouldn't be very fun, would it?
I found that the mixture comes out blue with the pH level that my water supply is, but with a couple drops of lactic acid, the solution turns a beautiful shade of purple.
My intention is to mash with this solution. The taste of the cabbage definitely comes through, but I wonder how it will play with the malty-grain bill I've chosen. I'm not very optimistic after tasting the water... but it might work. Thoughts?
Topic: Brewing with cabbage (say what?) (Read 5904 times)
