Aussie brewery releases ‘whale vomit’ beer

An Australian brewery has released a beer brewed from the highly-prized but rather unpleasant ingredient ambergris – otherwise known as whale vomit.

Ambergris is a solid, waxy material formed in the intestines of whales, believed to aid digestion, that is regurgitated into the ocean once the mammal dies.

This makes the substance very difficult to come by, as balls of the substance so rarely wash ashore, and therefore very expensive. In 2012 a one pound piece sold for US$63,000. The substance is used by perfumers to make scents last longer and is also said to be an aphrodisiac.

Raw ambergris being sliced up. Credit: Robe Brewery

A handful of bartenders have been known to play around with the ingredient in the past, including Ryan Chetiyawardana. He launched The Moby Dick Sazerac several years ago, a cocktail made with ambergris, Peychaud’s bitters and served with a strip of edible, absinthe-infused rice paper. The ambergris is broken down in neutral grain spirit with the tincture then aged and used as part of the pre-batched sazerac recipe.

Now craft brewers are edging in on the bizarre trend, with the Robe Town Brewery in Australia releasing its Moby Dick Ambergris Ale – an imperial 7.5% amber ale infused with ambergris – after one of its brewers found a 400g lump of ambergris washed up on a beach.
“When I heard that ambergris was used in the perfume industry, I thought ‘I wonder if that could be used to flavor or spice up a beer’,” brewer Maris Biezaitis told ABC.net. “It was a relatively fresh piece, quite a smelly piece, so it was airing and curing in the backyard before I got hold of it.”

Biezaitis extracted its aroma by soaking small sections in alcohol to create a tincture that could be used in the brewing process to flavour the beer.

Ambergris tincture after two months. Credit: Robe Brewery

The brewery described the resulting beer as: “pungent, animalistic aroma, musky ethereal perfume, full body, caramel malt and fruity flavours, very balanced bitterness.”

“Though the aroma may not be for the faint-hearted, and the beer isn’t exactly vegan-friendly, the ambergris perfume adds another dimension to this unique tasting experience,” it said.

The brew was created as a special edition for a beer festival in Melbourne, Australia earlier this month and appeared alongside fellow Aussie brewery 7 Cent’s Belly Button Beer, in which brewer’s used human belly button lint as yeast.

Brewers at 7 Cent swabbed their belly buttons and grew unique strains of yeast from each sample. These yeasts were then used to make several different belly brews, from which the best was selected.

The addition of hops and other flavourings has resulted in a beer that is “in the style of a new world-ish Belgian-ish Witbier” according to its makers, with “the key characteristics being spiciness, clove and light banana esters.”