Sacrebleu! French brewers use algae to make blue beer

Record ID: 1657914

  • Title: Sacrebleu! French brewers use algae to make blue beer
  • Date: 3rd February 2022
  • Summary: ROUBAIX, FRANCE (JANUARY 31, 2022) (Reuters) VARIOUS OF GLASS OF LINE BLUE BEER, MADE WITH SPIRULINA ALGAE, DISPLAYED ON TABLE BOTTLE OF LINE BLUE BEER / GLASS OF BLUE BEER VARIOUS OF HOPPY URBAN BREW (HUB) BREWERY EMPLOYEE, MATHILDE VANMANSART, TASTING BEER VILLENEUVE D'ASCQ, FRANCE (FEBRUARY 1, 2022) (Reuters) BOTTLE OF BLUE BEER AND SPIRULINA POWDER DISPLAYED AT ETIKA S
  • Embargoed: 17th February 2022 09:59
  • Keywords: Etika Spirulina France Line alcohol blue beer bottles brewery
  • Location: ROUBAIX AND VILLENEUVE D'ASCQ, FRANCE
  • City: ROUBAIX AND VILLENEUVE D'ASCQ, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe
  • Reuters ID: LVA001FX4E9ND
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A French brewer has started using algae with a naturally-occurring pigment to turn their beer blue.
    The beer, called Line, is the result of a tie-up between a firm that wants to popularise the algae as a dietary supplement, and a nearby craft brewery that was looking for a way to make its beverages more distinctive.
    Line Beer's blue tint comes from spirulina, an algae that is grown in basins by a company called Etika Spirulina in northern France. The component of the spirulina that gives the blue colour, called phycocyanin, is then added to the beer during the brewing process.
    Xavier Delannoy, whose farm provides the spirulina, said after several test batches, the brewery had found a blend that appealed to customers.
    He said 1,500 bottles of the blue beer were sold between October and December last year, and the brewery is now preparing to ramp up production to meet demand.
    "That's really what interests us - to try to democratise this so that it not only concerns particular types of people," Delannoy said. "We thought that one great way to democratise a product in northern France is to make beer."
    Tasting a freshly produced bottle of the beer, Mathilde Vanmansart, an employee of Hoppy Urban Brew (HUB), which makes the drink, described it as hoppy, light, and with fruity notes, while the only evidence of the added algae was the distinctive colour.
    The challenge for the producers lied in achieving a blue hue, since many brewers who have tried to use spirulina in beer production have ended up with a green colour due to the naturally yellowish tint of beer, brewery worker Alexis Cardot said.
    "Blue beer is out of the ordinary. We had to encourage people to have a taste and look beyond the appearance," Cardot said.
    On Monday (January 31), the brewery worked all morning to bottle and package around 500 litres of beer.
    Since the last batch sold out in December, a growing demand has led the brewery to find time to make more, employee Sebastien Verbeke said, adding that the enthusiasm around the product is "encouraging."
    "It's getting an enormous amount of interest and curiosity from the public," he said.
    (Production: Ardee Napolitano)
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