Using hibiscus and hibiscus/rasberry tea for a PINK IPA... how and when...

[Garage12brewing]

Hi fellows,

sooo... My brother asked me to brew a 5gal. batch for his wife birthday and since she is very ''girlie'' I wanted to try out a Pink IPA. The recipe is a kind of NEIPA... so I could call it Pink NEIPA.

Here is my recipe so far.

10 lbs 2 row
1 lbs flaked barley
1.5 lbs flaked oat

1 oz Galaxy 30min
1 oz Glaxy 0min
1 oz Mosaic 0min
1.5 oz Galaxy whipool @80C 20min
1.5 oz Mosaic whirpool @ 80C 20min

Omega British Ale 5 / with starter

dry hop Galaxy and Mosaic 4-5 day 3oz each ( total 6 oz )

Now I read a lot about it and some people add 2oz Hibiscus at the end of the boil with 2oz in the fermenter with the dry hop... some only in the fermetor, some add an infusion while bottling and kegging...

I am sure that I want to add some hibiscus/rasberry tea during in the fermentor to add some taste to the beer but I dont want too much hibiscus flavor... only the color if possible.

So I need some more opinions and expeiences please.

Cheers !

 

[Dr_Jeff]

I make a tea from the hibiscus and add it to the keg at packaging time. I'll brew the beer to a higher gravity to account for it being "watered down" by the hibiscus tea. I'll bring the water to a boil and add the blooms, then turn off the heat and let it steep for an hour or more, then add it to the keg, then transfer the beer into the keg.

 

[McKnuckle]

I make hibiscus "tea" (it's not really tea) to drink by steeping dried hibiscus flowers. It is deeply pink-red and very flavorful, far more intense than a teabag with some bits of hibiscus mixed in. It's tangy like cranberry juice with a small hint of sweetness.

I would use these flowers post-boil like a hopstand, after chilling to 170 or so, similar to how I'd brew them in hot water for drinking straight up.

This is the product I buy. You can experiment with different concentrations, gauge how much color and flavor you get, and then decide how much to use in your wort.

 

[Garage12brewing]

I make hibiscus "tea" (it's not really tea) to drink by steeping dried hibiscus flowers. It is deeply pink-red and very flavorful, far more intense than a teabag with some bits of hibiscus mixed in. It's tangy like cranberry juice with a small hint of sweetness.

I would use these flowers post-boil like a hopstand, after chilling to 170 or so, similar to how I'd brew them in hot water for drinking straight up.

This is the product I buy. You can experiment with different concentrations, gauge how much color and flavor you get, and then decide how much to use in your wort.

Thanks ! Nice to see that you also use Braumeister !

 

[Garage12brewing]

I make a tea from the hibiscus and add it to the keg at packaging time. I'll brew the beer to a higher gravity to account for it being "watered down" by the hibiscus tea. I'll bring the water to a boil and add the blooms, then turn off the heat and let it steep for an hour or more, then add it to the keg, then transfer the beer into the keg.

Thanks for your input !

 

[bkboiler]

I just buy tea bags at the Mexican market and steep at the end of boil during the chilling.

 

[Dustin_J]

My wife and I are currently working through a Hibuscus Passionfruit sour - here's our experience. 3 oz at flameout got us a light pastel-like pink color, with only a slight amount of flavor and aroma. Another 2 oz of hibuscus made into a tea went into the fermenter after primary slowed down - that changed things to a medium-dark pink (not red), with some noticeably tartness and a light-moderate hibuscus flavor. We'll probably do another 1-2 oz in tea later on.

 

[day_trippr]

This is the first pour from a raspberry wheat I brewed in February. It needs a few more days for the carbonation to be right (it's been just two weeks on chart pressure to date) but it's pretty darned close and really tasty! Raspberry character is epic and dominant, there's a notion of tea flavor from the hibiscus, and there's the expected mid-palate tartness, but even with a bit of yeast (this was the first pour) the finish is very nice, nothing harsh or astringent about it. Couldn't be happier so far.

I used four ounces of dried hibiscus flowers in a steeped tea to produce roughly a quart of deep ruby liquid. I added that to 9 pounds of thawed raspberries, added a teaspoon of pectic enzyme, brought up to 140°F and kept it there for 12 hours. At the end it had been reduced to a puree with the seeds falling to the bottom or floating loose. I added the works to my ~9 gallons of wheat beer that I brewed a few points stronger than usual, let it sit for a week, crashed and racked it to kegs and set them to cold-carbonate...

Cheers!

 

[Garage12brewing]

This is the first pour from a raspberry wheat I brewed in February. It needs a few more days for the carbonation to be right (it's been just two weeks on chart pressure to date) but it's pretty darned close and really tasty! Raspberry character is epic and dominant, there's a notion of tea flavor from the hibiscus, and there's the expected mid-palate tartness, but even with a bit of yeast (this was the first pour) the finish is very nice, nothing harsh or astringent about it. Couldn't be happier so far.

View attachment 670492

I used four ounces of dried hibiscus flowers in a steeped tea to produce roughly a quart of deep ruby liquid. I added that to 9 pounds of thawed raspberries, added a teaspoon of pectic enzyme, brought up to 140°F and kept it there for 12 hours. At the end it had been reduced to a puree with the seeds falling to the bottom or floating loose. I added the works to my ~9 gallons of wheat beer that I brewed a few points stronger than usual, let it sit for a week, crashed and racked it to kegs and set them to cold-carbonate...

Cheers!

Wow that color is awesome ! I guess that with an NEIPA and lots of hops it will be hard to reach such a perfect pink color !

 

[Dustin_J]

FWIW, here's the color we got. The grist here is basically Beligian Pils & Wheat, so very light:

 

[jjw5015]

I wish you the best, but I don't think you're going to get the color you're hoping for with a NEIPA. Probably going to be more brown than anything. You need a lightish/clear base.

 

[day_trippr]

Right. I tried to keep the color as low as I could for the wheat beer grain bill, and of course one doesn't use much hops in a typical wheat anyway, so Beersmith calculated a 3.3 SRM finish...

Cheers!