Rose beer and pesticides

Hey Guys,

First post here but have been lurking. Currently have a Raspberry Rose Saison in the secondary with the raspberries. Bottling tomorrow.

I boiled with roses, and then dry hopped with roses. Got the roses from florist at the grocery store. Just realized that might be an issue. I did not even think about pesticide issues with flowers. Soaked in vodka (and others were boiled), but did not rinse.

Should I dump the batch? Seems like the pesticides could be enough to be bad news. 3 gallon batch and a dozen roses worth in total.

Any thoughts?

 

I would definitely ask the store about the flowers. where they got them & get a hold of them with your concern.

 

I'm not a florist or in the industry, but I did read an interesting book a few months back called "Flower Confidential" by Amy Stewart. The book is about commercial flower growers (most are in Ecuador) and the large flower auctions in Amsterdam. My bet is that the store has no idea where these particular roses came from since they went through auction.

If what she says is true, commercial roses are bathed in pesticide while growing and then cut and dipped in fungicide right before shipping to the US. Apparently the flower inspectors at customs won't let them in the country if they show any signs of fungus.

I would wait for further confirmation, but based on that knowledge, a couple of roses could potentially add both pesticide and fungicide to your final product.

 

and that scares me. this might be a live & learn lesson. grow your own roses & use no chemicals.

 

Was thinking i messed up and this is certainly a "live and learn." Sad, as I took the rose dry hop off today and the stuff in my secondary smelled amazing!

Oh well. $25 down the drain. Not too bad of a hit...more upset about the waste of time :-(

 

brutha, don't give up. just give it another go. only next time make damn certain of your rose source. as I always tell our 5 y/o: We're "Klubbs", we don't give up.

 

No worries. Grabbing ingredients for a rebrew today. Just need to find some non-pesticidey flowers. Will report back on how it worked out in a couple weeks.

 

Turned out nicely this time. Only used 6 oz. of raspberries, will have to go bigger on the fruit next time. Thanks for the responses!