dummkauf

Recipes 

So I've been researching hibiscus mead recipes, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of info out there, so I'm looking for help to formulate a recipe.

Honey Supplies
I've got 10Lbs of Citrus Blossom honey for this, as well as a 2lbs jar of local stuff I picked up at the local pumpkin place last weekend that says it's a combo of clover and basswood honey. I've also got a 2lbs jar of buckwheat too.

I'm thinking 12-14Lbs of honey plus the hibisus, but I am unsure if I want to include that 2lbs of Buckwheat or not, any thoughts on adding that to this?

Hibiscus
I have 6oz of dried hibiscus flowers from the tea shop as well, but could always pick up another bag if needed too. What I have found online seem to suggest everything from 1-4oz of hibicus per gallon of mead, which seems to be quite a large range.

My main concern is around how to use the hibiscus, and I am hoping someone with experience making a hibiscus wine/mead could offer some advice. I've seen some recipes online saying to just add the dried flowers to the primary, some saying to add it to secondary, and others saying that I should boil the flowers 20 min in a gallon of water to make a tea and then mix the "tea" into the must when I'm done. Anyone ever tried this?

How much hibiscus would be good? And should it all be used in a tea, added to primary, secondary, or some combination of those options?

My inspiration for this is StoneKeep Meadery's hibiscus mead I had last year. I'm not necessarily looking for a clone, but just something similar.

Any advice from you experts out there would be greatly appreciated!

calicojack

Recipes 

i was passed a link to a shop that sells it for like $6 a pound. I use the actual flower, not the septals.

the way i do it, and i'm by far not the be all and end all of this, is to put the flowers in a muslin bag and steep them just like you would tea. I steep mine for about 30 minutes. then i put it in my vessel, add my honey, and then fill to whatever volume i'm doing. Keep in mind, the larger the batch, the more you need to steep to begin with. I generally do 1 gallon batches. we steep in a 1 quart pot.

i too am looking to perfect my recipe and technique, so if others could chime in, i too would greatly appreciate it

dummkauf

Recipes 

Just out of curiosity, what amount of flowers to batch size do you use? Or how many oz's per gallon. If you have tried different amounts, what sort of notes do you have on the differences between them?

calicojack

Recipes 

okay. so i made the mistake of drying my flowers on wax paper, so they ended up shredding when i tried peeling them off of the wax paper. So that being said, I used 2 cups of crushed/shredded petals in 1 gallon.

I've since learned from my mistake and am drying them on parchment paper. I have a large tupperware container full and am still collecting for the 5 gallon batch. I'll try and find you the link to that site with them by the pound.

dummkauf

Recipes 

Ok, well I figured I'd just give this a shot and made this one tonight!

Ingredients
6.3oz hibiscus tea
12Lbs orange blossom honey
2Lbs Buckwheat honey
2.8Lbs Clover/Basswood blend honey
2tsp yeast nutrients

Brought a gallon of water to a boil and turned off the heat, added hibiscus in a muslin bag and steeped for 30 min.

mixed some water in with the tea to cool it a bit, dumped honey and tea into my carboy and shook to mix. Topped off with water and shook for a while to mix and aerate. Added the yeast nutrient and the yeast, placed in downstairs closet.

I'm starting to think that I may not have mixed the honey in well enough as my measured OG was 1.062, where as BeerSmith predicted 1.106. BeerSmith is usually never completely accurate for mead, but I've also never seen it this far off. Either my honey was seriously lacking in sugar, or I didn't get it mixed well enough

I also think I should have skipped the buckwheat, this mead got much darker due to that and looks almost like a beer in primary.

Either way, we'll see how it turns out in 6-12 months