Two MSU cultural staples — the color green and beer — are combined to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

Adopted and altered by Americans more than 100 years ago, St. Patrick’s Day has acquired the new tradition of consuming green beer on the holiday.

According to an article by foodandwine.com, Thomas Hayes Curtin, a coroner, first presented the green fermented beverage on St. Patrick’s Day in 1914 at a Bronx social club.

Curtin credited the green coloration to one drop of “wash blue,” an iron powder solution used to whiten dirty clothes, in a certain quantity of beer.

The contribution of blue coloring yields the best results because it naturally balances light beer’s yellowish hues.

East Lansing and Lansing bars and pubs participate with the green theme, celebrating St. Patrick’s Day one beer at a time.

General manager of Claddagh Irish Pub Patrick Connolly said the colored cups are a top seller and a nice addition to the day.

Born and raised on the west coast of Ireland in Galway, Connolly said if someone was offered green beer in Ireland it would be considered very strange.

“Traditional Irish don’t accept color-dyed beer because it is tainted of something they’re unsure of," Connolly said.

Connolly appreciates the festivities Americans have adopted to celebrate his heritage back home.

“It’s great to see Chicago dye the river green, Boston and New York celebrate with parades and everyone get together," Connolly said. “Everyone’s Irish for the day.”

Claddagh Irish Pub prefers to sell green cups each individually dyed green for the occasion. The Riv purchases the green beer by the keg.

“We ordered 20 kegs,” The Riv's manager Mike Ferry said.

Each keg serving roughly 82 12-ounce cups, The Riv expects to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day serving over 1,500 cups of green beer.

When most bars participate with Americanized culture of St. Patrick’s Day, Dublin Square Irish Pub prefers to stay traditional to Irish culture.

Manager Tim Kole said Dublin Square Irish Pub doesn’t serve or approve of green beer.

“It’s dirty,” Kole said. “The food coloring stains everything.”

Kole said Dublin Square Irish Pub plans to play traditional Irish music all day and serve traditional Irish-made food and beer, including corned beef.

“We are Irish every day,” Kole said.

As America celebrates the green beer’s 101st birthday, some brewers are going outside of the traditional food-dye by using natural ingredients to organically dye the carbonated beverage.

According to Time magazine, professional and home brewers alike experiment with spirulina, matcha green tea powder, chlorophyll, wheatgrass and squid ink to achieve the right color of green to “bottoms up” on St. Patrick’s Day.

Finance junior Roger Barber doesn’t let the green stop him from celebrating St. Patrick’s Day a little harder this year.

“I will consume a lot of green beer, not that I want to, but I will,” Barber said.

Barber turns 21 the night leading to St. Patrick’s Day and plans to celebrate his birthday and his Irish heritage with friends.

“It has turned into an Irish-American holiday that everyone else celebrates too,” Barber said. “It’s more ethnic and not religious. Everything we do is against the actual holiday and I’m OK with it.”

Barber and his family make their own beer throughout the year with family recipes, but they have never steered away from tradition into green territory.

“I won’t say no, but I won’t go out of my way to get green beer,” Barber said. “The only thing that matters to me is if it’s good beer.”

In addition to a few cups of green beer, Barber plans to celebrate both occasions with traditional Irish beverages including Jameson and Guinness and eating a lot of traditional Irish food.

“Green doesn’t matter to me in a drink,” Barber said.