INTERNATIONAL: 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. As a result, a blue beer is out of the ordinary.

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, has said after several test batches, the brewery had found a blend that appealed to customers.

He has 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 has 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, , an employee of Hoppy Urban Brew (HUB), Mathilde Vanmansart , which makes the drink, has 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 have rested 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 has said.

"Blue beer is out of the ordinary. We had to encourage people to have a taste and look beyond the appearance," Cardot has added.

The brewery can bottle and package around 500 litres of beer in one day.

Since the last batch sold out in December, a growing demand has led the brewery to find time to make more, employee Sebastien Verbeke has said, adding that the enthusiasm around the product is "encouraging .It's getting an enormous amount of interest and curiosity from the public.”

^{PHOTO: LINE BLUE BEER BEING SERVED, POURED INTO GLASS, BEING TASTED / FARM IN NORTHERN FRANCE GROWING SPIRULINA ALGAE, USED IN PRODUCTION OF BLUE BEER / INTERVIEW WITH FARM OWNER, WHO HAD IDEA TO START PRODUCING BLUE BEER / BLUE BEER BEING BOTTLED AT BREWERY NEAR LILLE / TIMELAPSE OF BOTTLING PROCESS / INTERVIEWS WITH BREWERS}