Hibiscus wine homebrew free#

When Erlend gave me a sip of his home-brewed hibiscus ginger ale, however, I was enthusiastic. ThereвЂ™s a reason why you donвЂ™t often see that combination, let me tell you. IвЂ™m not the worldвЂ™s biggest alcohol drinker, and in my defense, heвЂ™s quite adventurous and often combines ingredients in his alcohols that are, uhhh, shall we sayвЂ¦ unique? Like that time he made banana-rhubarb wine. Conversely, I wrinkle my nose at some of ErlendвЂ™s home brews. ErlendвЂ™s not the worldвЂ™s biggest sweet tooth - often times, heвЂ™ll have a bite of my desserts and thatвЂ™ll be enough sugar for him for the next few days. ItвЂ™s rare that we make things that actually interest the other. He even did a stint as a pre-brewer at the famed Rogue Brewery. Whereas I like sugary baked goods and complicated pastries, ErlendвЂ™s more interested in brewing and fermentation - things like curing his own salami and making his own beer and wine. As youвЂ™ve probably figured out from this blog, IвЂ™m the exact opposite - IвЂ™m lost without clear and concise directions, like the baker that I am.ДЄlthough weвЂ™re both really into food and love a lot of the same kinds of food, we ended up on the opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to actually making the food itself.

Hibiscus wine homebrew free#

When Erlend cooks, he likes to free fall and fly blind with no recipes, throwing everything in a pot and adjusting things to taste. The hibiscus and fruit are there to add color and complement to the mead, not to overwhelm it.The following is a guest post by my boyfriend, Erlend.Д«efore I let him begin though, allow me to share just a little bit of background about him, us, our relationship, and our hobbies.Д®rlend and I are pretty opposite in a lot of ways, but I think our differences tend to show the most in the kitchen. The goal with this recipe is for the honey to be the forward component, not the flavoring adjuncts. The hibiscus was then strained out and the tea added to primary. We brought it just up to boiling in a gallon and a half of water, then cut the flame and steeped for 30 minutes. We attempted to avoid this in our recipe by doing a hot steep. If steeped too hot or too long, you will find bitter tannins overwhelming your palate. Hibiscus can be a temperamental tea component. This is a honey-focused recipe, so we wanted to do all we could to highlight it as our base. For our video, we chose D47, which is better at creating and maintaining floral, fruity, and delicate flavors from the honey. Yeasty BeastiesДЇor the yeast, you may want to use the failsafe EC-1118 that we recommend for beginner homebrewers. Since we wanted the recipe to be made from easily obtainable ingredients, we omitted the hops from the typical Viking BlГёd recipe clones. We included pectic enzyme to help break down the fruit, which can be omitted if necessary. Sweet cherries usually extend the amount of time you need to bulk age the product - the flavor can be sort of вЂњcough syrupyвЂќ at first. To reduce the amount of aging time needed, we picked a blend focused on tart cherries rather than sweet. For added color, complexity, and acid, we also included a pound of mixed berries per gallon. Readily available in the Hispanic section of most supermarkets, we decided to go the hibiscus route. Many beginner mead consumers start with one of two meads: ChaucerвЂ™s (blech) andВ Dansk Mjod Viking BlГёd. If you canвЂ™t make it to the grocery store for the honey we purchased for the video, hereвЂ™s a great option on Amazon.

We crafted the recipe around a fifteen-pound quantity of honey, so youвЂ™ll have no reserves leftover. This honey is nothing fancy, but it is inexpensive, flavorful, and did we mention inexpensive? At $2.60 per pound, it gets the job done. We opted for inexpensive bulk Grade A honey. Designed for a five-gallon batch, the ingredients list for this recipe cost about $80. For this purpose, we set out to build a beginner mead recipe compiled from ingredients that can be found at your local grocery store without too much up-front investment.

Complex recipes might be too daunting - discouraging even.

As weвЂ™ve started putting mead how-to videos on YouTube, each installment has certainly fallen into the vein of вЂњdoinвЂ™ the most.вЂќ But for the beginner mazer (mead maker), getting into the world of homebrewing should be a fun, creative, and fascinating endeavor.