Dry Hopping with Herbs - Sanitary?

[mcphersonm80]

Hello All-

First post on these boards, they've been a great help in getting me started in this awesome hobby.

I have a question about dry hopping with herbs (dry herbing?). I've read in numerous places that it can be done, but nowhere do I see anything mentioned about risks of contamination.

I've seen several threads concerning the lack of a need to sterilize hops, but does that also apply to herbs?

I have an American Strong Ale that I'm getting ready to transfer over to secondary, and in addition to two hop varieties, I want to toss about an ounce of sage in there for the aroma that I'm looking for.

From what I read, sage has a lot of the same antibacterial/antiseptic/antimicrobial characteristics as hops (according to this site). Has anyone here dry hopped with it before? And if not, would it be considered safe due to the acidity, alcohol content, etc (much the same as hops are safe for dry hopping)?

This is my first brew I've created from scratch (all others have been recipes) and I really want to get that aroma in there, but not if I'm risking ruining the whole batch.

Thanks!

 

[BryceL]

Not to sure if you need to do anything special with the herbs or not. You could always split your batch in two to experiment. Dry hop one of them with and one without the sage. That way you can see what kind of flavors/aroma you are getting out of the sage.

 

[GreatWetNorth]

I've used herbs and spices in a couple of my Christmas beers. I used fresh mint leaves in a Chocolate Stout and fresh ginger, cinnamon and cloves in a Brown Ale. The first year I just threw them in and didn't have an problems. I just made sure that everything looked okay and was fresh, and I figured the alcohol (around 6 - 6.5% abv) would take care of anything.

The next year I did the beers again and even though they were stronger, I decided to play it safe and sterilize everything in a bit of vodka before adding it to the secondary (along with the vodka).

It's interesting that the link mentions that sage has some of the same anti-bacterial properties as hops. I guess my answer would be that you're probably okay just tossing the sage in, provided that it's clean and fresh, but if you want to be on the safe side then maybe put the sage in a cup with just barely enough vodka to cover it for a few minutes before adding it.

I can't definitively say how much the vodka helps or not, but I'm pretty sure the reason I did it was because I had heard of other people doing it. It seemed like a good way of sterilizing herbs and spices. There may be better methods out there (although anything to do with boiling or pasteurizing means you risk losing some of the flavour and aroma). But again, if it is in fact true that sage has anti-septic qualities, then you may be okay simply adding the sage on its own. And since this is in the secondary rather that the primary, the alcohol already present in the beer, along with the hops, will also help. Either way, I wouldn't worry too much about it as long as everything else is clean along the way.

 

[mcphersonm80]

I thought about soaking the leaves in vodka for a bit, but decided against it. After all I read about sage, I felt pretty safe just tossing them in. Took one ounce of sage (weighed with the stems), pulled the leaves and tossed them in. Worked out to be about a handful. I'll reply to this thread to update on how it works out.

If the aroma is anything like the hop/sage mixture I tossed in there, it's going to be awesome.

 

[cvstrat]

I think it has more to do with when you add them. Pre-boil is no concern since it's getting boiled. Post fermentation isn't that big of a deal either since the alcohol will likely kill off any bacteria.

The main area of concern would be additions done post-boil but pre-fermentation. There just isn't anything in there to ward off infection. You would either need to soak in alcohol, or very hot water/boil it.

 

[11oclockBrewery]

How did this sage beer work out??