Don’t use poppy seeds in your homebrew.
Mercury News reported an interesting tidbit this weekend.
A PhD student in Santa Cruz was arrested for making a poppy beer on the charges that it was a controled substance.
Police raided a Westside house Friday morning where they suspected people were producing opiates and arrested a UC Santa Cruz PhD candidate who said he used dried poppy pods to flavor home-brewed beer a month ago.
“All I did was make a poppy beer,” said Chad Renzelman, 28, who was arrested at his Bay Street home Friday. “I spent all morning in jail for brewing beer. I had no idea what I was doing was illegal.”
Now, I don’t mean to be a cynic here, but a PhD student who “studies chemistry” and doesn’t know where opiates are derived from is a bit far fetched. Its possible the press is over exagerating or under researching since its been known to happen before, but I’ll lean on their side on this one.
It should be interesting to see how this plays out. I have to admit to laughing, imagining some poor schlubs in hazmat suits scooping up the spent grains from a few batches worth of brewing!
Cheers!
Tony
That is funny. That would probably be a weird buzz. I ran across another interesting beer article today..this one is made from the actual residue of beer found in King Midas’ tomb. It dates back 2,700 years, but now a company by the name of Dogfish Head is marketing the finished product. It is definitely an interesting read.
http://tinyurl.com/52×7wr
September 26th, 2008 at 1:18 pm