Adding Hibiscus?

[jimfire85]

I've had good experience with stuffing about 3-4 oz into my cream whipper with 1 cup of vodka and doing a n2o infusion. Strain the liquid and add to the fermenter.

 

[greywolf]

Has anyone tried using fresh hibiscus flowers? I have lots of blooms right now. Never tried doing anything with them.

 

[bkboiler]

I added it to a Czech lager by purchasing a box of hibiscus tea at the Latino market around the corner. I used several bags in a 2.5 gallon batch, during boil, until I got the color I wanted (pink). Turned out really well!

 

[Dgallo]

Has anyone tried using fresh hibiscus flowers? I have lots of blooms right now. Never tried doing anything with them.

Potentially you could if it’s one of the varieties that you can eat. Hibiscus sabdariffa is the variety specifically breed for edible use. If it is this or the other ones then you can certainly use it but if you’re tossing in you’ll have to greatly up your amount of using fresh vs. dry. I would think you’d need to atleast use 3 times as much.

 

[smashysmash]

Most ethnic grocery stores (Mexican / Latin / etc) should have dried petals. I've "dry hopped" with hibiscus and had great results.

I have a recipe I want to dry hopping with Hibiscus. How are you making sure the flowers are free of anything that could infect the beer?

 

[Dgallo]

I have a recipe I want to dry hopping with Hibiscus. How are you making sure the flowers are free of anything that could infect the beer?

If you have alcohol and hops in, your infection risk will be lowered greatly.

That said, if your still nervous you can set your oven to 200 (lower if capable), put them on parchment, and place them in there for 20 mins