This Bellingham brewery is brewing magic. It’s not a potion, but it is purple and sparkly
It’s purple, it sparkles, and it’ll make you feel happy.
No, it’s not a unicorn or mystical potion that’ll turn you into Prince Charming. It’s a new kettle sour ale at Menace Brewing in Bellingham, but it looks like something that belongs in fantasy land.
Dubbed by Menace Brewing as “The Beer Formerly Known As,” the new brew is infused with butterfly pea flower and topped off with edible glitter, giving it a sparkly purple appearance not often seen in your typical beer.
“This is a beer you won’t want to miss,” Menace Brewing wrote on its Facebook page on Monday ahead of the beer’s release.
The butterfly pea flower used to turn the beer purple is a Southeast Asian flower commonly brewed in teas and featured in cocktails to provide a bright blue or purple hue.
According to the online health provider Healthline, the butterfly pea flower is known for several health benefits, including skin and hair health and promoting weight loss. The flower may not be in its healthiest form when mixed with alcohol, but at least know that some good may happen to your body when drinking this beer — perhaps it’s turning you into Prince Charming after all?
Meanwhile, edible glitter floats throughout the drink, giving it an unusual shine. Edible glitter is primarily made up of sugar, cornstarch and color additives to give it that unique glow as it floats through the liquid.
Coloring beer
For as long as humankind has been fermenting beverages — potentially up to 12,000 years ago — beer has been within the color spectrum of pale yellow to orange to jet black.
But there’s been an influx of weirdly-colored beers in recent times.
Enter any bar on St. Patrick’s Day, and there will be no shortage of green beer. Many bars achieve this by adding green food coloring, but it is also possible to create green beer by adding a tablespoon of wheatgrass to the glass before pouring the beer.
French brewers have also recently started making blue beer by brewing the beer with algae called spirulina while brewing a beer with the flower hibiscus can give it both a nice tart flavor and a pink hue.
