Essential oils.

[Clandestine]

I manufacture beard oil and as a result I have hell of a lot of essential oils laying around.

the vast majority are very pure/steam pressed, everything from cedar/rosemary/peppermint/grapefruit/sweet orange/ Lemon ect ect.

some of the citrus ones have piqued my interest.

I am aware oil and water does not mix, but does anybody have any experience using essential oils.




(as a note to the clean shaven, beard oil is a facial product used to condition/tame and enhance a beard)

 

[Duxuk]

Water, or in this case beer, is a polar solvent. It will only dissolve things which will become ions in solution. Common salt will become Na+ and Cl- ions which will attract opposite ends of the polar water molecules. An oil in water will form an emulsion which is composed of tiny droplets. Something like that anyway! It's over 30 years since I studied chemistry. I'm amazed how little I now know.
I just don't think you could use an oil to flavour a beer. Get your citrus flavour from Citra hops, added at flameout, cooled to 80C and steeped for 30 minutes.

 

[BeerCat]

I just bought some citra essence and grapefruit extract. I presumed it was extracted with oil but after reading your post I presume it's all done with water?

 

[Sheepish]

Its quite popular to use pure essential oils as an attractor in fishing baits (black pepper EO being a prime example), and a lot are very small molecules that will disperse as tiny droplets quite happily in water. They do have varying densities so may naturally rise or sink accordingly, which may or may not be a problem?

 

[IainM]

Water, or in this case beer, is a polar solvent. It will only dissolve things which will become ions in solution.

Not quite true. It will also dissolve other polar things, like alcohol. It can even sparingly dissolve non-polar things like oxygen. Aromas tend to be pretty potent so they only need to dissolve in small amounts.

 

[Duxuk]

I'm learning things here! I do remember that alcohol (ethanol) also is polar so easily mixes with alcohol without separating. Being an organic compound maybe it can also dissolve oils? Here's the result of 30 seconds research.................

"Since alcohol is amphipathic (contains polar and nonpolar ends), it can mix with water (which is polar). This explains why a mixture of alcohol and water can dissolve oil. However, the amount of oil that will dissolve depends on whether there is more water or alcohol to the mixture."

Maybe this means that oils will dissolve in spirit strength alcohol, like Cointreau, but I suppose there's a chance in beer. Especially if it's a strong beer. What if you add the oil to vodka to dissolve it then add it to your ale?

 

[terrym]

Why not just pour a beer, taste it, put one or two drops of the oil into the beer stir it in, and then taste it again. You will either notice a difference or you won't. Then take it from there. And irrespective of how the physical chemistry works you should have a practical conclusion of some sort. :thumb:

 

[BeerCat]

I dosed a Lager with grapefruit and a fee drops in a glass made lots of difference. Lovely aroma and nice clean taste. Added a few more drops and was over bitter.