We brewed a winter ale with a large grain bill yesterday. Added the usual Christmas spices near flame out, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and ginger. We also added Christmas tree branches from my family tree this year, mostly tips and needles on the branch along with Sorghum/Molasses at the same time. The wort was a bit bitter, but we expected that. My question is about toxicity. I've read that these trees can be toxic to small pets eating them, but this came from an organic farm. Is there anything that could be pulled from the tree that could be toxic in the finished beer? Any advice would be appreciated.
There is a local brewer here in Harrisburg PA who brewed using a whole christmas tree in the boil - the picture is on their instagram profile, pretty amusing. As far as toxicity I am not sure. I was wondering how the sap would work in the finished beer.. why not give it a small taste to find out?
Best advice I can offer would be to research such things BEFORE you toss stuff into your beer! Do you know what kind of tree it was (e.g. Fir, Spruce, Pine?) Fir oils can be irritating to the mouth and stomach in pets who consume the needles, causing excessive drooling and vomiting. Spruce tips have a long (and presumably safe) history as a brewing ingredient - originally as a substitute for hops. However, most often *fresh* tips (new growth) are harvested and promptly used. I'm not sure of any tangible benefit to tossing dried out needles or branches from a dead tree (or even a balled live tree mid-winter) into a brew. Not saying there are *none* - it's just outside my personal realm of experience. Pine essential oils seem to be widely available for sale and those who use them tout several 'health benefits'. Can't speak to the truth of such claims, but at least it seems like ingesting small quantities won't do much more than serve as a diuretic. In short? I'd say as long as you're 100% sure the tree was never sprayed with anything (pesticides, etc) then you're *probably* ok unless you boiled half the tree. In the future though, I'd probably stick to spruce tips. Harvest them in the spring while they're still bright green, brew your big winter beer then and let it condition until winter arrives. Chances are you'll make better beer AND have it ready for consumption during the holidays instead of months afterward. $0.02
Making teas and brewing with fir is fine. It's been done for a long time and is not going to hurt. There are some oils in there that if you consume a crap ton everyday for extended periods of time might be harmful, but for a 10 gallon batch your in the clear.
Not for nothing, searches are useful, too. http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/brewing-with-pine-or-fir-needles.360806/
If you can throw meat in a beer what can't you put in there. I suppose rabbit might work if you prepared the meat
Good advice about researching BEFORE tossing stuff into one's beer. Surprising advice since this is not considered best practice.
Sorry. Because I didn't say 'avoid the newest of the new'? In either case, I'd sooner see someone chuck some too-green spruce tips that don't add a ton of flavor into their beer than add entire branches from a Christmas tree. But that's just me
Now I've gotta see this. Do you remember the name of the brewery? Only successful spruce beer I've had was Pennsylvania Tuxedo by Dogfish
