BeerLogic

Recipes 

Hibiscus flowers will do the trick. Plus they're pretty tasty.

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Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.

starrfish

Recipes 

Very Interested in this! I'm a Hawaiian Shirt guy...

Just how much Hibiscus flowers will do the trick to fully color and get a taste? Can the flowers be ordered online or do they need to be used fresh? I may be able to grow some here in SC. Specific variety needed?

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“Son, you are a walking violation of the laws of nature, but you’re lucky, we don't enforce them laws.”

BeerLogic

Recipes 

You can order them online. If you search for hibiscus tea you'll be directed to sites that sell the dried flowers by themselves along with herbal tea blends containing them. You need less than 1/8 oz. for a cup of the tea, so if you were brewing this as a full strength tea, I'd say half a pound for 5 gallons would be way more than enough.

The idea came from Jolly Pumpkin - they do a red saison called Baudelaire brewed with rose hips and hibiscus. They're usually pretty secretive about their recipes, but you could try to find out from them how much they use.

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Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.

xjmox14x

Recipes 

I'm searching for the thread, but there's a gentleman on here who makes a hibiscus saison. He uses 2 oz. in the boil and 2 oz. dry hop if I believe. Supposedly a great deep red color.

Ceetar

Recipes 

Hibiscus sounds interesting.

but beet juice will definitely work too. That's how Red Velvet cake used to be colored as well, traditional red velvet anyway, before it came to mean the rich chocolatey awesomeness it is now.

trent

Recipes 

I do a hibiscus wit. I use 4 oz at 5 min in the boil and the beer turns a beautiful deep red/purple. It definitely has a flavor however, not just a color addition.

T