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What would St. Patrick’s Day be without green beer? Here’s how to make it—with and without food dye.

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  Step 1: Chill beer mugs

  Chill some 16-ounce beer mugs in the freezer.

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  Step 2: Add food coloring

  When the glasses are nice and frosty, add a few drops of green food coloring to the bottom of each.

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  Step 3: Substitute curaçao

  If you’d prefer not to use food dye, add of shot of blue curaçao liquor to each mug instead of the coloring.

• Tip

  Be sure to add the coloring or the liquor before you pour the beer, or else you’ll have to stir it.

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  Step 4: Add beer

  Pour light-colored ale into the chilled mug, since beer that’s dark to start will just get darker when dyed. Add more food coloring if necessary.

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  Step 5: Raise your glass

  Raise your glass and offer this traditional Irish blessing: “May the road rise to meet you; May the wind be always at your back; May the sun shine warm upon your face; And rains fall soft upon your field; And until we meet again; May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.”

• Fact

  When St. Patrick was 16 years old, pirates captured him in his native Wales and sold him as a slave in Ireland.