The hot weather is here, and it’s got me thinking about a beach vacation. But sandy sunsets and bouquets of tropical flowers aren’t quite in the cards for this summer, so instead I’m going to bring the tropics to your door, by way of homebrew.
Say hello to the hibiscus flower. Its bold flower petals aren’t just eye-catching; they’re also edible when dried, which means summer beer brewing just got a lot more colorful.
At Night Shift Brewing in Everett, Massachusetts, Brewer Vincent J. Tursi III has used hibiscus both late in the boil (in the last five minutes or less) and as a dry hop additive during secondary fermentation (for twenty-four to thirty-six hours immediately before packaging). “We’ve never mashed with hibiscus,” he says, “My thought would be that you would lose a majority of the flavor via boil-off.”
The flavor derived from hibiscus in beer is berry-like, fruity, and of course, very floral.
"With boil additions [of hibiscus] we’ve noticed a subtle berry/fruit flavor and bitterness. We’ve also noticed a darker, more vibrant pink/red color [in the beer]. With dry-hop additions, we’ve noticed a softer flavor and color addition, with no bitterness and a bigger hibiscus scent on the nose,” says Tursi. “I'd say the harsh temperature of the boil drives off more nuanced oils present in the hibiscus petals, whereas the cold conditioning in the tanks and extended contact time allows for those subtle nuances to come through more pleasantly.”
The Night Shift Brewing Ever Weisse is a Berliner Weisse-style sour ale aged on strawberries, kiwis, and dried hibiscus flowers. It’s sold exclusively at the brewery’s new location in Everett.
Another brewery experimenting with hibiscus is Grassroots Brewing, a label brewed at Hill Farmstead Brewery in Greensboro, Vermont. “We have attempted both post-fermentation and pre-fermentation techniques [with hibiscus],” says Brewmaster Shaun E. Hill, “which include adding the flowers into the whirlpool or using our lauter tun as a flower steeping device.” His Convivial Suarez saison is brewed with hibiscus and lemon.
Sixpoint Brewery out of Brooklyn, New York, included a Belgian-style Hibiscus Ale in their experimental Mad Scientist Series in 2011. The beer was brewed with American pale ale barley malt, Canadian wheat malt, German Munich malt, crystal malt, and flaked oats. Also in the boil were Citra and German Hallertauer hops, and fifteen pounds of organic dried hibiscus. Read more about how this beer was brewed.
Looking for more hibiscus beers to try before you brew your own? The canned Rosa Hibiscus Ale from Revolution Brewing in Chicago is steeped in the flowers; and the bottled, unfiltered Hibiscus Wheat Ale (pictured below) from Aztec Brewing Company in Vista, California, is a hefeweizen brewed with hibiscus petals, ginger, and allspice.
Some of the bigger brewers are trying their hands at brewing with hibiscus: In 2012, Widmer Brothers Brewing Company created a Marionberry Hibiscus Gose, and the Sam Adams White Ale has traces of hibiscus in it, in addition to orange and lemon peel, dried plum, Grains of Paradise, coriander, anise, rose hips, tamarind, and vanilla.
Find out more about brewing with spices, then tell us how you’re experimenting with hibiscus or spices in your homebrew this summer.