Sacrebleu! French Brewers Use Algae to Make Blue Beer

Hoppy Urban Brew worker Mathilde Vanmansart pours a bottle of the Line blue beer, which is made with spirulina algae, into a glass during an interview with Reuters inside the brewery in Roubaix near Lille, France, on Jan. 31, 2022. Ardee Napolitano/Reuters

ROUBAIX, France—A French brewer has started using algae with a naturally-occurring pigment to turn their beer blue.

The beer, with the brand name “Line,” is the result of a tie-up between a firm that wants to popularize the algae as a dietary supplement, and a nearby craft brewery that was looking for a way to make its beverages more distinctive.