Sassafras root in secondary?

A neighbor asked this morning about tapping a sassafras tree for sap, like is commonly done with maple trees, for maple syrup.

My twisted mind then went to adding sassafras root to the secondary fermenter, on the principle of dry hopping.

Any thoughts/ideas/smart remarks?

Was wondering the same thing!? Why not make a sassafras ale.

If you're buying a processed safrole-free root I'd say go nuts, if your buddy has a sassafras tree and you're looking to use pieces from it, you might want to reconsider.

We used to make sassafras tea all the time from sassafras root. I just learned recently that they say it may contain carcinogens. I am probably already doomed in that case. Didn't they use to say that about peanut butter too?!

Safole Oils contain quite a bit of carcinogens and was taken out of root beer in the 70s. It is used as a precursor to make MDMA so not something I would want to add to any beverage I make , but hey I had sassafrass root as a child too.

Yes makes sense the more I read. So maybe the safrole free stuff like Pappy's sassafeas extract would be safer. Good input guys.

I don't know much about this, but a lot of the time when they test this stuff on rats they extract just the compound (safrole) instead of the whole plant. This is from wikipedia: "It naturally occurs in a variety of spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, black pepper and herbs such as basil. In that role safrole, like many naturally occurring compounds may have a small but measurable ability to induce cancer in rodents. However, the effects in humans if any are similar or less than risks posed by breathing indoor air or drinking municipally supplied water."

Well, I'm trying it. Made a root beer-ish imperial stout (gruit really) with mugwort, sarsaparilla root, and licorice root in the boil (no hops). Store didn't have sassafras root when I brewed so I left that out, but now they got it so I'm throwing it in as a dry "hop" along with a little more indian sarsaparilla (this stuff smells amazing). It's got a couple more weeks in the primary before I rack and "dry-root" it for a week. Will post how it comes out. I'm sorry but I just don't trust the FDA to tell me what's safe to put in my body, I'll do my own research...

ChessRockwell said:

Well, I'm trying it. Made a root beer-ish imperial stout (gruit really) with mugwort, sarsaparilla root, and licorice root in the boil (no hops). Store didn't have sassafras root when I brewed so I left that out, but now they got it so I'm throwing it in as a dry "hop" along with a little more indian sarsaparilla (this stuff smells amazing). It's got a couple more weeks in the primary before I rack and "dry-root" it for a week. Will post how it comes out. I'm sorry but I just don't trust the FDA to tell me what's safe to put in my body, I'll do my own research...

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Please let us know how that turns out.

I've been wanting to make exactly what you just made for a long time, but only recently started making beer. I think I would probably boil the sassafrass, but maybe it will work in the secondary too.

ChessRockwell said:

Well, I'm trying it. Made a root beer-ish imperial stout (gruit really) with mugwort, sarsaparilla root, and licorice root in the boil (no hops). Store didn't have sassafras root when I brewed so I left that out, but now they got it so I'm throwing it in as a dry "hop" along with a little more indian sarsaparilla (this stuff smells amazing). It's got a couple more weeks in the primary before I rack and "dry-root" it for a week. Will post how it comes out. I'm sorry but I just don't trust the FDA to tell me what's safe to put in my body, I'll do my own research...

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That sounds awesome. Subscribed. Let us know how it turns out.

BaronVonMeisterburger said:

Please let us know how that turns out.

I've been wanting to make exactly what you just made for a long time, but only recently started making beer. I think I would probably boil the sassafrass, but maybe it will work in the secondary too.

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Yeah I'm not sure how much it's going to get out of it with no boiling, but I figure the high level of alcohol should do some extracting. Next time it will definitely go in the boil with the other roots. It's got a REALLY strong smell so I'm gonna go pretty light on it, I don't want it to overpower the Sarsaparilla aroma. Will post updates in 2 weeks when I rack to secondary and taste. I've got a little less than 2 gallons in a Mr Beer keg so I plan on racking one gal. to a jug for dry-hop and bottling the remainder with no dry hop.
I'll post how both turn out!

Transferred a gallon over to secondary today, on top of .4oz sarsaparilla and .1oz sassafras. Bottled the rest, so I'll have a nice comparison of "dry-rooted" vs. not. Should be interesting! Will report back in about a month when I can do some taste tests.

I bet it will taste good.

Ugh, I don't know what happened, but it's nasty, as well as completely un-carbonated. Neither batch shows even a trace of carbonation, and I've done this recipe before several times, the only difference being hops vs. herbs, and it's never had a problem being fully carbonated in 3 weeks. Over a month now and nothing in either the dry rooted batch or the other. I could see myself being an idiot and forgetting priming sugar for one or the other, but they were bottled on two separate occasions a week apart and I distinctly remember weighing out the one ounce of priming sugar for the dry rooted batch. Also tastes completely awful, sour and overly (tangy?) completely devoid of any sweetness despite finishing at 1.026.
Not sure if it was an infection - I'm not an expert but don't infections usually result in OVER carbonation, not under? Or is there something that can completely kill the yeast resulting in no carbonation, anyone know? I'm at a loss here...

hoppymonkey said:

Safole Oils contain quite a bit of carcinogens and was taken out of root beer in the 70s. It is used as a precursor to make MDMA so not something I would want to add to any beverage I make , but hey I had sassafrass root as a child too.

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Eugenol is a precursor for MDMA and it comes from cloves.

Fenugreek is both a faux-maple flavoring and a precursor for many drugs.

Being a precursor isn't an indication of anything but being a handy molecular structure.

Safrole is considered a weak carcinogen in rats, only because it is metabolized by rat digestive systems into metabolites that are carcinogenic. Research has not found the same metabolites in human consumption.

The stuff was banned because it's way easy to turn it into methamphetamines (of which MDMA is a close relative). No other reason.