Rosemary Rye ale/IPA - Sanitize Rosemary?

Hey everyone,
I am planning on adding some rosemary to my next extract batch,
its a Rye ale, IPA but hopefully more hoppy than bitter, it will be brewed with Centennial, Columbus, and Willamette Hops, and i'm planning on adding some rosemary during the dry hoping. I saw some posts on the forum regarding rosemary and it seems to vary widely in how much to add and at what stage.

the plan is as follows for the hops and rosemary:

½ oz Columbus bittering hops. (45 Minutes)
Add ½ oz Centennial hops (20 Minutes).
Add ½ oz Columbus and ½ oz Centennial hops (10 Minutes)
Add ½ oz willamette (5 Minutes)

Dry hop (for 1 week) ½ oz willamette, 1 oz centennial , add 1-2 sprigs rosemary

Im planning on freezing the rosemary to break the plant cell walls but im afraid of heating/boiling as i dont want to release any really bitter additives to the batch.

Any comments on the hop schedule, rosemary addition, and sanitation of the rosemary would be welcome, thanks

Rosemary IPA...you have my attention. I think something earthy like fuggles would be nice in there, too, but you're probably close enough with the willamette. .

I assume you're pulling the rosemary off the sprigs? If you're really worried about it, freeze it like you mentioned and add it to your beer. I don't see any reason to get any crazier than that.

Maybe give it a quick vodka bath after freezing it, to be sure. That's what I'd do, then toss in the sprigs along with the little bit of vodka.

eric_618 said:

Maybe give it a quick vodka bath after freezing it, to be sure. That's what I'd do, then toss in the sprigs along with the little bit of vodka.

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^^^ this because I have been called a "germaphobe", but if your putting it in with your dry hop addition you should have ample alcohol and alpha-acids to take care of any potential nasties.

That's not enough rosemary. I did Papazians Rosemary Oat Pale last summer. It calls for .5oz, which was quite a few sprigs. More like 10 or 12 if I remember. It was close to just.the right amount. I actually wanted more. I'm making it again this summer and going to do .5oz of just the tips, no sprigs. No need to do anything to it, I just threw mine in for "dry herbing."

Great thanks for the input.
Dale, did you put the 0.5 ounces in for the 'dry herbing' for a week? or shorter/longer?

A local brewery here in Denver did a rosemary pale ale with zythos last year that was both interesting and pretty good. I like the idea of going with CTZ and centennial - maybe Amarillo for later additions? How big are you planning on making this?

I dont want the hops to be overpowering, I'm hoping for more aroma than bitterness. This is going to be a ~4.5% ABV type beer, i want the rye to come through as well as hops / rosemary

11oclockBrewery said:

Great thanks for the input.
Dale, did you put the 0.5 ounces in for the 'dry herbing' for a week? or shorter/longer?

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I think the recipe called for a week. It will seem like a lot of rosemary when you put it in, but it doesn't transfer into the beer as much as you think.

Thanks to all for the help,
Ive tried a couple of the Rosemary Rye beers, theyve only been in the bottles for 1.5wks, but so far it came out fantastic. Pours a nice dark gold, with some faint hop aroma. Very nice spicyness from the rosemary and rye malt.
I cant specifically say I can taste the rosemary, but I only ended up putting in about 0.2 ounces of fresh rosemary leaves to dry herb for 1 week (which is what i could harvest without killing my plant).

Overall its shaping up to be an great beer!