Brewed a wheat based beer with hibiscus and grains of paradise. The results is this pretty red tart wine like tasty and refreshing beer.
Ingredients for 5gal batch:
- 7lb Great Western Superior Pilsen malt
- 2lb Great Western Wheat malt
- 1/2lb Dextrapills
- 1lb Vienna malt
- 2lb Flaked oats
- 1lb Flaked barley
Yeast: Fermentis S05 at 67F
Spices:
- 7 1/2oz dry hibiscus flowers, added to keg (dry hop) for 2 weeks.
30min Boil schedule:
- 2oz Cascade 4.4% for 30min
- 5g grains of paradise, crushed, for 10min
- 2 TBS corn starch for 10min
Original plan was to use WY1028 London Ale yeast, but after 2 days with no signs of fermentation (and pack didn't inflate as much as expected), decided to dump a package of S05, that took off in few hours.
Final numbers:
OG=1.049
FG=1.011
ABV=4.8%
IBU=23
SRM=5
The first week or two in keg and it tasted very sour. I thought I have ruined the batch with too much hibiscus. I think there was a lot of sediment on bottom that had most of the hibiscus flavor. After pouring couple glasses and couple more weeks later, it tastes quite nice, tartness reminds me of a sparkling red wine. This will mostly fade out some but I think this is a keeper.
