Huna Red – Hibiscus Ale

[guyb]

I had a few jars with some of my colleagues after work yesterday, and being local to the Sheffield Tap, we all went there > a cunning plan of mine! :grin:

I sampled the above ale - Huna Red – Hibiscus Ale brewed by http://www.sunnyrepublic.com in Dorset.

Wow, we supped the last five or six pints in the barrel it seems, as they ran out not long after..gutted!

There is a thread on Jim's Beer Kit about it, and I was wondering if there is an easy way to work out what kind of quantities of ingredients to use.

This is the spiel on their website: "A beautifully red hued ale with fruit and berry aromas. We are the first brewery in the world to brew with Hibiscus Flowers (Hibiscus sabdariffa). The hibiscus is designed to lift the drinkability of the beer and add to the red hue provided by the Munich and Chocolate malts. We made a cracking malt base using Pale Malt, Roasted Wheat, Munich Malt, Dark Crystal and Chocolate Malt. A range of hops are added throughout the boil including Motueka, Willamette and good old English Brambling Cross giving blackberries and citrus fruits in the nose. 14 days cold conditioning with Brambling Cross rounds off the smoothness of the beer…..If you’re a hop head you might not get this one – it’s a little more subtle than our Beach Blonde."

I recently downloaded a trial of Beersmith2, and so far I am getting to grips with it, but not entirely sure what I am doing with it. Although I guess that in time I will work it out better.

I have the Wheeler book and wonder if I could adapt a recipe or something like that?

Brewlength would be 25L and I don't have any of the hops required, although these I can source through Rob.

Anyone got any tips?

 

[jonewer]

The shortcoming of brewing software is that you never quite know what the colour will be......

 

[guyb]

Well I emailed the brewer in the hope that they would let me know the ratio of hibiscus to grain bill, and they replied same day:

Thanks for your support Guy

The hibiscus is ridiculously expensive so we can't afford to use much as no one would pay £10 per pint!

About 700kg malt. 5kg hibiscus sab differa into whirlpool brew kettle at flame off and stand for 20 mins. We also use pressed hibiscus flowers extract 10kg into conditioning tanks for 2 weeks.

Aroma hops are Cascade & Willamet

Good luck with the brewing


Got a bit of maths to do, but it is interesting seeing the quantities needed for a commercial scale brewery, off to work out what I need - might have to have a best guess in terms of the grain bill ratio.

I found a supplier of hibiscus flowers at a reasonable price, and as I am in London regularly over the next few weeks / months, I can pick them up from here at St Pancras:
here

700kg of malt!!!!!!!! :shock: :grin: heaven!

 

[memit]

Had this back in the summer. It was a great pint, so thanks for reminding me that I wanted to try to do something similar one day.

I reckon you'd be able to use hibiscus tea bags...

 

[puravida]

That is so great of them to give you that info! :thumb:
I will hunt out there beer !