Cider's with Floral Tea Infusion? Recommendations!

[October88]

Hey All,

I've recently started my adventure in cider making and am already thinking of several different ideas. I've recently brainstormed a tea infused cider for summer enjoyment. Here is my idea;

One Gallon Test Batch;
1/2 Gallon fresh pressed cider
1/2 Gallon fresh pressed raspberry juice
6oz of Agave Nectar

1. Combine cider & raspberry juice - bring to boil.
2. Steep Hibiscus & Rose hips in juice for 1-2 hours.
3. Let cool to room temp
4. Add agave nectar
5. Add to primary - pitch yeast (Lavlin EC-118)
etc etc

Questions;
1. When is the best time to add Hibiscus/Rosehips? Prior to Primary or during bottling?
2. Is it better to leave the Hibiscus/Rosehips in the primary?
3. How are cider's with these infusions? Do they turn out?

 

[lucienpower]

Hi,

i have played around with adding to simple ciders. Usually in the secondary, I have added blackberries, elderflower, oak chips, cinnamon, hops, and all were wonderful. I especially enjoyed the oak aged one and the blackberry. I harvested fresh blackberries, froze for 48hrs and put into secondary. I am interested in how your rosehip comes out. I always brew cider with 2 litre of very black tea in the primary.

 

[CKuhns]

Questions;
1. When is the best time to add Hibiscus/Rosehips? Prior to Primary or during bottling?
I have used both Hibiscus and just plain old Black tea steeped in the water for primary only.

2. Is it better to leave the Hibiscus/Rosehips in the primary?
I do not leave tea or flowers in primary. Again steep the flowers or tea with the water and cool for primary.

3. How are cider's with these infusions? Do they turn out?
I enjoy the flavor addition especially for store bought juice vs. pressed apple cider. Very interested to hear how your recipe turns out. Please keep us posted.

 

[October88]

Right!

I ended up adjusting the recipe slightly, as raspberry juice was too hard to find at our whole foods and raspberries were too expensive.

New Recipe - One Gallon test:
1/2 Gallon fresh pressed cider
1/4 Gallon fresh pressed pomegranate juice
1/4 Gallon Tea (Hibiscus, Gayusa, Marigold, Black berry)

I ended up steeping the tea for an hour and added the tea to the primary. I ended up adding 4.5 oz of sugar to bring SG to 1.051. Used Lavlin EC-118 and yeast nutrient.

Fermentation took off right away, blow off tube bunking every second. Will try and post photos shortly!

 

[bembel]

I find that adding anything other than sugars to any stage other than post fermentation is a crap shoot. You have little to no control over the outcome. Make your cider straight, ferment till its dry, then stabilize and adjust to taste with whatever floats your boat. I have little mason jars filled with alcohol tinctures of all kinds of herb and spice and dried fruit mixtures for creating specialty flavored ciders. The exception would be black tea in a primary, I find the fermentation process softens the tannins a bit

 

[raypost]

I have raspberry flavoring to add to secondary. What do you think adding raspberry tea bags to the secondary will do to the flavor??? BTW...I have already racked this twice.