tobacco in beer

[yesjenks]

Hi All,

Anyone ever put tobacco in beer? If so, how? Add tobacco leaves to secondary? Had an awesome stout a few weeks back that had tobacco. Paired really well with the chocolaty notes.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

Sounds really interesting. One concern might be ODing on nicotine.

 

[SlitheryDee]

My impression of tobacco is that it could take over the beer if used in too high quantities. For that reason I doubt there's much concern of a nicotine overdose due to drinking beer that used tobacco as an ingredient. I do wonder what the best kind of tobacco to use would be. Maybe a quality pipe tobacco?

 

[Morrey]

I am from SC where tobacco is grown, in fact tobacco farms surround my horse stables. Tobacco is harvested and dried in barns using propane gas as a heat source. The resulting smells are earthy, leathery and similar to a horse saddle. From there it is blended and flavored for various products.

I saw recently on a cooking channel where they made a tobacco infused ice cream they touted as outstanding. My guess is they took a very subtle pipe style tobacco (probably unflavored sans stuff like cherry or rum) and made a tincture by soaking the tobacco in neutral spirits to extract the essences. Strain the tincture and add the essence into your keg or bottling bucket. You can add a bit at a time as not to overdo the additions.

Conversely, you may think about adding a small sachet or muslin bag with tobacco into your secondary for infusion, but you'll lose infusion control with this method. Definitely not in the boil!!

This may be interesting, and until you (we) try it, I promise not to say it wont be tasty. It may be awesome in a well done chocolate stout.

 

[yesjenks]

I am from SC where tobacco is grown, in fact tobacco farms surround my horse stables. Tobacco is harvested and dried in barns using propane gas as a heat source. The resulting smells are earthy, leathery and similar to a horse saddle. From there it is blended and flavored for various products.

I saw recently on a cooking channel where they made a tobacco infused ice cream they touted as outstanding. My guess is they took a very subtle pipe style tobacco (probably unflavored sans stuff like cherry or rum) and made a tincture by soaking the tobacco in neutral spirits to extract the essences. Strain the tincture and add the essence into your keg or bottling bucket. You can add a bit at a time as not to overdo the additions.

Conversely, you may think about adding a small sachet or muslin bag with tobacco into your secondary for infusion, but you'll lose infusion control with this method. Definitely not in the boil!!

This may be interesting, and until you (we) try it, I promise not to say it wont be tasty. It may be awesome in a well done chocolate stout.

Thanks! Gonna try tobacco in vodka on the next stout I make. Thanks for your input!

 

[jan_b19]

Hi All,

Anyone ever put tobacco in beer? If so, how? Add tobacco leaves to secondary? Had an awesome stout a few weeks back that had tobacco. Paired really well with the chocolaty notes.

As long as you remember that tobacco is poisonous and that you will need to clean and rinse it very well.
Do not brew with commercial tobacco, because they add chemicals and other crap that will just kill you when you brew with it. Find some fresh organic tobacco leaves.
There is a Italian beer that uses tobacco leaves as an aroma during the final 2 minutes of the boil.
Here in Belgium the national cigar club drinks tobacco beer with leaves from different plants.
Some people suggested in the past to smoke some of your grains with tobacco smoke (because adding tobacco leaves to your boil can kill you if done wrong).
Adding an ounce to a 5 gallon batch has the potential to make you really sick or kill you because of an overdose of nicotine. Nicotine leaves plant during the boil but it's still present in your wort. The only way to get rid of the nicotine is to boil the tobacco leaves in water at 247°F or higher(or you can burn it and use the smoke)

Try this instead. And don't add tobacco to your boil cause it has the potential to make sure you'll never drink a beer again (death)

Commercial breweries have the tools and knowledge to remove nicotine from tobacco before brewing with it. The only way we homebrewers can do it cheap is by smoking some grains

 

[IchLiebeBier]

My first thought was to use some peat smoked grains because some whiskies have tobacco notes. Then I saw jan's link that uses peat malt, so that might work out for you.

While looking up what actually causes the tobacco flavor in whisky (which I haven't found yet), I came across tobacco bitters.

I have no idea if the bitters would work for you, but it might. But you'd probably have to be really careful as to how much you put into it.

 

[yesjenks]

Thanks for the info! I will do some research.

 

[Weezy]

I was going to mention the poison thing, but it's been covered nicely.

I had a commercial beer brewed with a portion of malt that had been smoked over hickory, that gave a near tobacco effect (and that was the intent).. I plan to try that. Say 10% of the malt bill, and I was going to use flaked barley to soak up more smoke.