Hibiscus Saison Cider

[jdford]

Hi All,

First post here but have already learned a lot so thanks to everyone for contributing to such an awesome community!

I made a hard cider in December from local raw cider using S-04. I dry hopped for 48 hours using Galaxy hops and bottle conditioned. Turned out pretty dang good! Dry, good carb and some nice floral notes on the nose.

I'm now experimenting with an old world blend of Saison yeasts with cider from the same local producer. I've got a couple questions for my next steps on this batch:

-Should I make a tea of the hibiscus leaves and add that post fermentation or steep the leaves right in the cider?

-I went from 1.05 to 1.02 in 4 days using this yeast (I am keeping it beside a heat register and my house is usually set to 68-70F.) The S-04 took almost a month to ferment out, am I correct in assuming this Saison could only take a week?

My initial thoughts are to wait until it get to 1.01 or 1 and then rack it into a carboy and add the Hibiscus at that point. Cold crash for a couple days to help clarify and then bottle?

 

[CKuhns]

I can't speak to the saison yeast have never used it and have no idea how it will work / pair with Hibiscus.

I have used Hibiscus and other teas in ciders and meads. Hibiscus ads some great mouth feel and color when steeped in your juice for 10 -15 minutes prior to your ferment. If you want more of a delicate flavor and lighter color then add the tea after your ferment and before bottling.

 

[thaymond]

My experience with Belle Saison yeast (for saison and belgian beer) is that it will ferment fast, and eat all of the sugars. All of them. My belgian APA with BS went all the way down to 1.004. I was shooting for 1.012. I can't speak for a saison yeast in a cider, but it should eat up all your sugars. Depending on the strain, be careful of stalled fermentation.

I would add a hibiscus tea at bottling. The combo of saison flavors (possibly) and hibiscus flowers sounds very interesting. Keep us posted on your tasting results!

 

[MarkKF]

I always shoot for 1.004 (better than 0.990 with EC-1118!) Then I backsweeten with fresh juice or concentrate to hit 1.008 or so. Gonna try Bell Saison with the latest juice. Basement temp. is above 60 but not much. I have a small heater to help if it slows.

 

[thaymond]

I always shoot for 1.004 (better than 0.990 with EC-1118!) Then I backsweeten with fresh juice or concentrate to hit 1.008 or so. Gonna try Bell Saison with the latest juice. Basement temp. is above 60 but not much. I have a small heater to help if it slows.

BS is a monster. It also is subtle in flavors too, not too crazy belgian-y unless it ferments super hot.

 

[jdford]

1.004 today. Seems to have slowed down a good amount based on airlock activity and visually when I open the bucket. I think I'm going to rack into a carboy today, and keep it near my back deck door to cool it down and hopefully slow down the yeast. Apparently this yeast just keeps going and going so not sure if I'm even going to prime before bottling (which I may have to do soon!).

 

[jdford]

So I racked into the carboy and added about 1.5 litres of cold brewed hibiscus tea. Left it overnight by the cool back door. Yeast dropped out quite a bit, clarified big time. Pulled a sample to taste. Tasty, pleasantly tart, but a bit....thin. Tastes like the tea watered it down quite a bit. The wifey described it as being "awesome on a hot summer day" which is what I was going for but I'm hoping for a bit more apple flavor. Can I add a couple litres of fresh cider and hope for the best or what is my best option here?

 

[thaymond]

So I racked into the carboy and added about 1.5 litres of cold brewed hibiscus tea. Left it overnight by the cool back door. Yeast dropped out quite a bit, clarified big time. Pulled a sample to taste. Tasty, pleasantly tart, but a bit....thin. Tastes like the tea watered it down quite a bit. The wifey described it as being "awesome on a hot summer day" which is what I was going for but I'm hoping for a bit more apple flavor. Can I add a couple litres of fresh cider and hope for the best or what is my best option here?

You can add K. Sorbate and Camden tabs to neutralize any remaining yeasts to prevent fermentation. I will do this to backsweeten ciders with good success. Wait a day or two after adding these to make sure theyve had enough time to work. Then add one to a couple cans of frozen concentrate to taste. Concentrate adds the apple flavors without adding a lot of volume, better preserving your ABV.

The color on your cider looks great! I'm dying to know your end result for my own hibiscus cider try.

 

[katzgejm]

So I racked into the carboy and added about 1.5 litres of cold brewed hibiscus tea. Left it overnight by the cool back door. Yeast dropped out quite a bit, clarified big time. Pulled a sample to taste. Tasty, pleasantly tart, but a bit....thin. Tastes like the tea watered it down quite a bit. The wifey described it as being "awesome on a hot summer day" which is what I was going for but I'm hoping for a bit more apple flavor. Can I add a couple litres of fresh cider and hope for the best or what is my best option here?

A good solution for future batches is to make your hibiscus tea real, REAL strong -- like 4x strong. all the flavour, 25% of the water