A blue beer to celebrate International Women’s Day
Men, in case you did not know: International Women’s Collaboration Brew Day (WCBD) took place on 8 March 2016 and ladies from all over the world got together to create unique and challenging recipes.
In Adelaide, at the Wheaty Brewing Corp, the publican and brewer Jade Flavell mashed a brew designed to produce a blue beer.
Called “Bluestocking” in reference to the educated, intellectual women who were the members of the 18th century Blue Stockings Society in England, the beer at 4.5% ABV was to have the same colour as the IWCBD logo. In other words, it was to be a visually striking, lean, aromatic and sessionable Blue Ale. As says Ms Flavell: “a beer that looks outrageous but drinks easy.”
In terms of style, the beer is a Blue Ale (ie a hoppy American Wheat infused with dried Butterfly Pea Flowers).
To give it the blue hue, Ms Flavell added 1kg dried Butterfly Pea Flowers (Clitoria ternatea) in the hopback and 1 litre Blue “Tea” in secondary conditioning. Native to Thailand, the flowers have long been used to colour some foods and beverages in Thailand and elsewhere in southeast Asia.
The beer will be released on 7 May 2016 for the Adelaide Roller Derby after-bout party (Salty Dolls Vs Road Train Rollers) and proceeds will go to a charity.
In case you have never heard of Roller Derby (like me), it’s an all-female contact sport played by two teams of five members roller skating in the same direction around a track. It originated in the U.S., but today there are leagues in many parts of the world.
