Eucalyptus Pale Ale

[Droopy Brew]

Personally I reckon it would be bloody awful. But I dont like the taste of eucalyptus- a koala I aint.

 

[Mick0s]

Why not use some Eucalyptus Honey in the mix?

I imagine that'd impart some of the flavor (not used honey in a brew before thuogh, so have no idea)

 

[Taylor]

Why not use some Eucalyptus Honey in the mix?

I imagine that'd impart some of the flavor (not used honey in a brew before thuogh, so have no idea)

That actually sounds like a good idea...

 

[paulyman]

I thought about this - and my idea was to use some of those eucalypt lollies as carbonation drops. That way you can try it out on one or two bottles and if it's terrible then at least the nice pale ale isn't all wasted.

My other idea was to smoke some malt using eucalyptus wood/leaves. Obviously this would give more of a bushfire taste to the beer rather than the oil.

I know a guy new to Aus who bought eucalyptus drops instead of carb drops, they looked like carb drops he said... Only put it in one bottle before he realised.

I don't think he's opened the brew yet, I'll ask him and see.

 

[chrisluki]

Bloody good idea!

I think that was how we got the smokiness into the MB Scribbly Gum Lager?

 

[droid]

after reading this I imagined a white wine barrel - hosting some eucalyptic solution for a time and then later maybe once dried out, having a beer lagered in it long term. a beer high in abv would be suitable, since most koalas like to be comfortably numb.

funny how you were prompted to think of it in the first place, hehe

how would it go with some noble hops in a lager - horrid? spectacular?

i see a huge overseas market, you shoulda kept it quiet

 

[Dunkelbrau]

Grab some leaves and make a 'hop tea' out of it. Brew a beer, and then add some to see the ratio you like.

A friend asked me to do the same a few months ago, just waiting on the beer and time to taste!

 

[quadbox]

I'm picturing that this'd taste a hell of a lot like Wigram's Captain Cook, if you've tried it. Kiwi no-hops ale spiced with tea-tree and spruce. It's quite nice, if very different

 

[droid]

any updates?

 

[Taylor]

any updates?

Nah not yet. I haven't had time. Was hoping to do it this weekend

 

[TimT]

Eucalyptus honey was what I was going to mention too. In meadmaking everyone says 'don't use eucalyptus honey, the mead will be no good' which I find a bit weird - the honey tastes good, but presumably what you're left with after fermentation is just a bit of eucalyptus bitter and some eucalyptus smell? I suspect the rule may not be as hard and fast as all that, but any way, in beer it would probably be fine.

The pleasant part of eucalyptus, I find, is the leaf smell, which would probably be lost if you added it during the boil or even at the start of fermentation. if you added a leaf in secondary fermentation you'd be able to take small samples every day and remove the leaf before the smell/flavour became too intense.

Alternatively you could prepare a eucalyptus leaf essence separately to capture all the volatile smells, and use it to bulk prime your batch.

Another thought is this: eucalyptus honey comes from nectar, which comes from eucalyptus blossoms. Some trees are in bloom at the moment - if you collected a bunch of fresh blossoms you could throw them in the brew at some point.

 

[TimT]

I'll be very interested in the results of this experiment as one day I'd quite like to do a similar experiment at home. Watching this one closely!

 

[klangers]

I'll be brewing my house APA soon (citra/cascade/Amarillo) so I'll try out a couple bottles with the eucalyptus drops and report back.

 

[droid]

obligatory pic of face when tasting pls

 

[talco92]

*MASSIVE BUMP*

Why not use some Eucalyptus Honey in the mix?

I imagine that'd impart some of the flavor (not used honey in a brew before thuogh, so have no idea)

In 'designing great beers', ray daniels mentions that eucalyptus honey gives a 'bitter, medicinal taste'... but if someone has actually tried it i'd love to hear about it.

Re: lethal dose that was posted on page 1 of comments:
cineole (main oil in eucalyptus leaves) has an oral LD50 (lethal dose in 50% of instances) of 2.4g/kg body weight in rats. If thats taken to be equivalent, then it'd take around 144g of PURE CINEOLE to kill a 60kg person. That was for PURE oil, and it's worth noting that eucalyptus leaves have typically an oil content of 3 to 7mg/g leaf fresh weight.
I'd worry more about effect of the oil on the yeasties. Probably better to add eucalyptus once fermentation has finished (dry hop?) OK if you're kegging, but if bottling, might have to re-pitch yeast.
Also worth noting that oil is non-polar, and so is soluble/miscible in ethanol (also non polar), and so adding the oil post-fermentation would yield higher assimilation of oils (in theory).

Cineole is a monoterpene, and is much more volatile than the heavier di- or sesquiterpenes also in the leaves which tend to want to remain undissolved. These heavier compounds are responsible for most of the antifungal and bacterial defences of eucalyptus trees, whereas cineole is an aromatic defence compound. This might mean that there is an upper limit to the amount of time you'd want to dry-hop eucalyptus leaves for. Perhaps extracting them in vodka could be a way to test or control the outcome?

but again, results speak for themselves. Has anyone tried anything at all to do with eucalypts in beer???

As far as how much to use in your recipe, "0.002% is the allowable limit for 1.8-cineole content in foods" according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists

I'll be brewing my house APA soon (citra/cascade/Amarillo) so I'll try out a couple bottles with the eucalyptus drops and report back.

Interested to know how it turned out!

EDIT: spacing

 

[TimT]

The alleged poor quality of eucalyptus honey is greatly overemphasised, probably because in America dodgy products like honey laced with eucalyptus oil were sometimes sold. Fact is many mead makers seem quite happy to use it, so if it works well in mead.... well, it'll be fine as an adjunct in a eucalyptus beer.

 

[Vini2ton]

Wasn't that US eucalyptus honey a wound dressing product? Eucalyptus leaves in billy tea brews were once the rage, but to be honest, anything to do with that stuff reminds me of illness or gum removal. There are far better flavours to imbibe in our beverages.

 

[TimT]

Yeah the flavour may not be so good, the beautiful thing about eucalyptus is the smell. If you can capture that in a beer you've got it made. Love to do it myself. One simple way might be by making a eucalyptus essence.

 

[flano]

hi haven't posted in yonks

computer died ...forgot password etc.

anyway ..ages ago I tried a rosemary beer.
I used only a couple of sprigs of fresh rosemary in the end of the boil.

It was undrinkable.
way way to over powering.
I'm thinking eucalyptus would be a similar scenario.

good luck.