There's no better way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day than enjoying a cold pint of beer in your greenest attire. Actually, maybe there is one way — make the beer itself green. If you want to get in on that action, here's where to buy green beer for St. Patrick's Day.
But first, a little history about this uniquely colored brew. Green beer is generally credited to an Irish-American physician, Thomas H. Curtain, who apparently created it by adding a touch of blue dye to the beer for his New York clubhouse in 1914. Eventually, the concoction took off and became a mainstream symbol of the Irish holiday — even though green beer isn’t an Irish tradition, per se. According to United Press International, people in Ireland were still being introduced to green beer as late as 1985.
Since St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Tuesday this year, you might want to have a brew or two before March 17. Thankfully, there are plenty of bars getting the party started the weekend of March 13. Here are a few ways you can get some green beer to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day.
It may seem obvious, but the most reliable way to get green beer this St. Patrick's Day is to call up your local bar and check if they'll be serving the festive brew. If you're in South Florida, there are a ton of spots letting the green beer flow, including Waxy’s Irish Pub in Fort Lauderdale, O’Shea’s Irish Pub in West Palm Beach, and Finnegan’s Way in Miami. The Tilted Kilt restaurant chain features an Irish Hooley menu for the entire month of March, which includes green beer. You can find a location near you on the website. You can also check the social media accounts of your fave spots to see if they’re slinging green brews to celebrate.
It's seriously so easy to make your own green beer at home. Green beer is typically made with a mixture of beer and blue food coloring, which mixes with the beer's natural yellow color for a green look, but green food coloring can help you achieve the same look. All you need is your favorite kind of beer (IPAs, pilsners, and other light-colored beers work best) and green or blue food coloring. Mix the beer together with two drops of food coloring and voila! Green beer galore. A Betty Crocker recipe suggests adding the drops of food coloring first to watch the color mix as the beer goes in.
If no nearby bars have green beer and you don't have food coloring handy, you can always opt for beer in green cans or bottles. Heineken, Rolling Rock, Stella Artois, and Genesee Cream Ale all have green-hued containers to keep you in the St. Paddy’s spirit. It might not feel as festive as drinking green-colored beer, but at least you can't get pinched!
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