anyone try it? I love the smell of fresh tomato leaves and it might make an interesting aromatic quality to a farmhouse-style ale.
Interesting idea. I don’t know if they are safe to consume, might be poisonous, so be careful!!! IF they are safe (that’s a big IF), go easy on them since they are very pungent.
The tomato plant is a member of the nightshade family, potatoes, peppers, eggplant, belladonna, tobacco, etc…
Most of those plants contains toxins like nicotine, atropine, solanine and of course tomatine.
Tomatine appears to be relatively benign and folks do add leaves to various dishes and cook with them. Generally 10 - 15 minutes of cooking time with the dish and of course making sure to remove the leaves when finished cooking.
I would say try it, starting with 2-4 leaves per litre and move up to 4-8 leaves per litre if you’re not satisfied with the flavor.
Keep in mind that everyone is different and some folks may react differently to the tomatine in you beer, so if you share the beer with someone be sure to tell them what’s in it.
Good luck and let us know how it turns out.
I have a thread going in the ‘All Grain’ forum regarding doing a home garden-themed brew with dried homegrown tomatoes, basil, and possibly some homegrown habanero or superhot chilis in secondary. I’m thinking about incorporating this idea as well as that summer tomato smell is something I’m aiming for. Has anyone actually tried this?
Btw, here is a pretty comprehensive discussion on the topic
http://www.gardenbetty.com/2013/08/toma ... oxic-myth/My takeaway there is that tomato leaves have not more tomatine than do green tomatoes which we readily consume. So I don’t think there would be any issue with using tomato leaves as a dry-hopping ingredient.
I’m guessing one would dry the leaves and then use them? Or do you think using green leaves would be the better option?
I would do a wet hop technique with tomato leaves…I’d be afraid to lose some of that vibrant tomato leaf flavor I’m after.
so did anyone try? please post about how it came out.
My buddy tried it; now he’s six feet under… 
