I love homebrewing, but it can also be a pain in the ass. Planning, cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning. As enjoyable as that sounds, I sometimes need a little motivation and inspiration to get things going.

Inspiration!

I normally don’t brew clones, so It’s rare when another beer gets me inspired. So I was surprised when my newest inspiration hit me, it was a beer….Well a photo of a beer.

While cruising my instagram feed, I found this post from my friend @_eima of this lavender, purplish beer from Tired Hands Brewing called Prismatic Sea. I made a note of the post so I could come back to do a little investigation. The beer is described as an IPA brewed with oats and Butterfly Pea flowers, using Hull Melon and Simcoe hops.

 

I looked on-line and even emailed the brewery to find out more about using the Pea Flower. Mostly tea recipes came up in my on line searches and the brewery never responded to my email. So I was basically on my own.

Rainbows & Butterflies

Robert French

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer
Boil Time: 90 min
Batch Size: 4 gallons (fermenter volume)
Boil Size: 5.78 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.037
Efficiency: 79% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.054
Final Gravity: 1.012
ABV (standard): 5.5%
IBU (tinseth): 11.28
SRM (morey): 3.76

pH 5.28 Post Boil
pH 4.07 Post Fermentation

FERMENTABLES:
3.5 lb – American – White Wheat (50%)
3.5 lb – German – Pilsner (50%)

HOPS:
0.25 oz – Simcoe, Type: Pellet, AA: 13, Use: First Wort, IBU: 10.48
0.25 oz – Denali, Type: Pellet, AA: 13.9, Use: Boil for 1 min, IBU: 0.8
0.7 oz – Denali, Type: Pellet, AA: 13.9, Use: Dry Hop on day 7 for 5 days
2.0 oz – El Dorado, Type: Whole Leaf, AA: 15.2, Use: Dry Hop in keg

OTHER:
50 g  – Whole Butterfly Pea flowers (dried)

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Temperature, Temp: 122 F, Hold for 20 min
2) Temperature, Temp: 154 F, Hold for 40 min
3) Fly Sparge, Temp: 168 F, for 60 min
Mash Thickness: 1.25 qt/lb

WATER:
909 Pale
Glacier Vending Reverse Osmosis
Gypsum 13.5 g
Calcium Chloride 5 g
Lactic Acid 7 mL
All added in the mash

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale – American Ale Yeast US-05
Yeast Pitch Rate 1.15M cells / mL / °P
Starter: No
Form: Dry
Attenuation: 78%
Fermentation Temp: 68 F
After 3 days, allowed the temperature to rise, and topped out at 72 F

BATCH NOTES:
10/2/16 – Brew day
10/9/16 – Cold Crashed
10/14/26 – Kegged
10/14/16 – Added 50 g whole Butterfly Pea flower in the keg
10/14/16 – Added 2 oz whole leaf Galaxy hops in keg

TASTING NOTES:
Color – Purple to lavender to blue, it really depends on lighting. The head has the slightest purple tinge.

Aroma – Fruity citrus with hints of candy.

Taste – Soft bitterness up front. An easy drinking malt sweetness, but finishes dry with a slight lingering bitterness in back of your mouth.

Overall Impression – This drinks like a dry blonde ale. Some of the dryness might be due to the Butterfly Pea Flower, but it’s not enough to really worry about.

This might be more of a gimmick beer than a style. That being said, the color really throws you out of whack.  The beer looks sweet, like candy. The El Dorado hops also gives off that “candy like” hop aroma. The beer has some sweetness, but not worthy of the color. Would I brew it again? Not any time soon.  If I did, I would bump the IBUs to the mid 40’s.  It will be interesting to see how this beer ages in the keg. I will post updates if there are any significant changes.

Cheers!