not jamaica - hibiscus and mint

[calicojack]

Size: 1 gallon
Ingriedients:
3/4 of a 44oz jar of Gillies Honey
1 gallon Dried Hibiscus Tea
1 packet Lavin EC-1118
12 leaves of mint (varying sizes)

OG: 1.08


Ingredients and preperation of "tea"
1.5 cups dried purple hibiscus PETALS
8 Cups of water
Honey to taste (substitute for cane sugar)

Directions:
Heat 8 Cups of water till almost boil
Add 1.5 cups dried hibiscus petals
Let simmer for 25 minutes (or to taste)
Strain into to gallon jug (make sure you get as much of the petals as you can)
Top to 1 gallon
Put in fridge to bring back to room temperature

Mead Directions:
Introduce Honey to Gallon jug
Fill to 3/4 with hibiscus tea (save what's left for secondary top off)
Shake, shake, shake, shake. Dissolve all honey
Pitch Yeast
Top and wait

I have a concern. actually two. the 1118 is foaming.... ALOT more... than the other yeasts i've used. Secondly I put 12 leaves of varying size in it.... think that's going to be to much? i don't want it to over power the primary flavor

 

[MeadWitch]

Can I give you a bit of well earned advice on your hibiscus mead? Top it off to the top. I made a 3 gallon carboy of hibiscus mead about 5 years back and it was beautifully coloured and very pleasing, but after several rackings, I was down a quite a bit in the carboy and my lovely hibiscus turned a pale golden colour. Still lovely to look at and quite tasty but the colour is off. Lesson learned, oxidation is not our friend.

 

[Lunchbox201]

With the 1118 it does tend to foam a lot and you tend to lose a lot of the subtle flavors through the air lock with that yeast as well. It's a good yeast for sweet meads with a high ABV or carbonating your wine

 

[RadicalEd]

Please, let me know how the mint turns out. I'm thinking of a strawberry-mint mead myself, but I think I'll be making a mint simple syrup to add at bottling...Much easier to control the mint levels .

 

[calicojack]

so i racked this to the secondary a few days ago. Let me put it this way. I'm now trying to source enough petals to make a 5 gallon batch. Just at about 3 weeks it was flavored very well and had a GREAT taste to it. i can't wait to bottle it and then drink it at a year. If i did my math correct it came in right at about 9%

 

[KevinM]

Which species did you use? I know that the jamacian varietal's palps(?fleshy bit) is used for many teas, but you specifically indicated petals.

 

[calicojack]

from what i understand the "Jamaican" hibiscus recipe actually calls for the "septal" or the part that holds the petals onto the plant.

however, this was a spur of the moment throw together and i did not research the physiology of the plant prior to making it; so i just used the petals. My fear was that if you cut off the sepals of the plant that it would stunt the growth for the season. to an extent it will. Normally hibsicus plants drop their petals every 3-4 days. if you cut off the sepals it takes about a week to 10 days for it to grow back.

I am going to do 2 1 gallon batches this coming week. I am going to do one gallon the same way i did this one; to see if i can produce the same results consistently. The other batch will be with the sepals.

I will probably update this thread with both of those. One thread just for hibiscus.

I will also attempt to answer your question; but i have to call my cousin the flower expert.