Recipe For Green Beer

We've been independently researching and testing products for over 120 years. If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Learn more about our review process.

It may not be traditional, but a pint of good 'ol green beer is a festive way to toast to St. Patrick's Day. There's nothing fancy to it — yes, it's just green food coloring and light beer — but it makes a shockingly fun sipper that's tasty, too. Plus, it's easy to make right at home.

While the Irish still stick to Guinness, Americans love a good color scheme and the practice of dyeing a plain pint green in honor of St. Paddy's is nothing new. Green beer has been written about as early as 1910 in a

How To Make Green Beer For St. Patricks Day

Headline, Green Beer Be Jabbers! Many people, however, credit it to Professor Thomas H. Curtin who made the drink for his New York clubhouse in 1914. By the mid-1900s, the drink was a staple at St. Patrick's Day parties around the United States. As luck would have it, the drink didn't make its way to Ireland until 1985 — and it's still not very popular in the homeland.

If you ever hear your bartender talk about green beer in a negative way, he's probably not talking about the St.Paddy's version. Brewers use the term green beer to describe beer that's too young. It has a bad taste since it hasn't fully fermented and contains acetaldehyde.

If you're excited to deck your house in vibrant green St. Patrick's Day decorations and feast on an Irish dinner (corned beef and cabbage, anyone?) then green beer is a must. Because everything tastes luckier when colored green.

Green Beer Recipe

Three words: green food dye. For a deep green, add two drops of green food coloring in one bottle of light-colored beer (any brand will do). If you want a lighter hue, stick to one drop. Keep in mind the more dye you add, the more likely it is that your beer will turn your mouth green. Start small!

If you're not a fan of artificial dyes, use wheatgrass, spirulina, or matcha to give your drink a green hue. Unlike green food dye, these all-natural options

Alter the taste of your drink slightly, and may not be as vibrant as its artificial alternative. Here's the difference between the three options:

Leprechaun Beer Shot Recipe

, where she covered all things home and holiday, including the latest interior design trends, inspiring DIY ideas and gift guides for any (and every) occasion. She also has a soft spot for feel-good TV, so you can catch her writing about popular shows like

Samantha (she/her) is an Assistant Editor in the Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen, where she writes about tasty recipes, must-try food products and top-tested secrets for home cooking success. She has taste-tasted hundreds of products and recipes since joining GH in 2020 (tough job!). A graduate of Fordham University, she considers the kitchen to be her happiest place.

59 Best St. Patrick's Day Quotes and Blessings 90 Best St. Patrick's Day Captions for Instagram Traditional Irish Desserts for St. Patrick's Day Delicious St. Patrick's Day Food Ideas

Three Ways To Make Green Beer

28 Fun St. Patrick's Day Activities for All Ages 45 Best Irish Songs to Play on St. Patrick's Day 50 Easy St. Patrick's Day Crafts for Kids 30 Fun St. Patrick's Day Games

Shepherd's Pie These St. Paddy's Appetizers Have Us Feeling Lucky 45 Lucky St. Patrick's Day Desserts to Make ASAP 25 Party-Ready St. Patrick's Day CocktailsAs a freelance writer, lecturer, and homebrewer, Bryce Eddings has been writing about beer and brewing for online and print publications since 2005.

A fervid lover of the culinary arts and all things Instant Pot, Laurel has been writing about food for 10 years. One of her cookbooks was the #2 cookbook of 2017.

We Tried 5 Ways To Make Green Beer: Here's The One We Liked Best

Is your St. Patrick’s Day incomplete without a pint of green beer? If you have been enjoying an emerald-colored beer at the bar year after year and now want to make it at home, it may surprise you how easy it actually is.

Green beer is a novelty that American drinkers have latched onto and it has quickly become the drink to have each and every St. Patrick’s Day. There is something appealing about turning everything green on the Irish holiday and beer just happens to be one of the most popular items to play with. There is no trick to making green beer and it requires no special bartending skills. It is, quite simply, a light-colored beer that has a drop of green food coloring added to it. The flavor does not change, only the color.

Rumor has it, a doctor created green beer as we know it.Dr. Thomas Curtin, a coroner's physician and eye surgeon, first colored beer for a St. Patrick's Day party at the Schnerer Club of Morrisania in the Bronx in 1914.

St. Patrick's Day Recipes: From Green Treats And Green Beer To Beer Based Dishes

There is even a Green Beer Day if you need another reason to drink green beer. Green Beer Day is a day-long party where celebrants drink beer dyed green. The tradition started at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and was first celebrated in 1952. It is celebrated annually on the Thursday before spring break. Students begin to drink in the early morning on Green Beer Day; bars in Oxford open at about 5 a.m. 

It should be noted that if you want to drink like a real Irishman and celebrate the Emerald Isle’s heritage, nothing is more appropriate than a pint of Guinness or a shot of Irish whiskey.

You can't have St. Patty's Day without green beer! I love using an Irish pale ale or pilsner, like Harp. You can even make a cider version using Magners! Just be sure to use liquid food color and not gel, since it won't mix as well. —Laurel Randolph

How To Make Your Own Green Tea Beer

Liquid food coloring works best for this recipe. Avoid gel and paste food colorings since they won't readily mix into the cold beer.

*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2, 000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

I don't like this at all. It's not the worst. Sure, this will do. I'm a fan—would recommend. Amazing! I love it! Thanks for your rating!

St Patricks Day Drinks

When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site.