Flowers in Beer

[dwollner]

Planning on brewing a Saison with edible flowers and was wondering safety issues when boiling and also when using dry flowers in FV. Anyone able to determine average usage i.e. pounds versus ounces. Boil times and contact in FV?
Thank you.

[Moonlight]

Depends on the flowers. Whatcha thinking?

[dwollner]

Southampton Cuvee de Flueres is one of my favorite beers and I am aware of some of the flowers they use. Lavender, rose buds, calendula, chamomile, sage, dandelions, etc, along some of those lines.

[youngbuckbrewer]

I have used flowers in beers before with great results. I have found the best way regardless of what flower you want is to use it in a hopback application as opposed to in the kettle. I think you could extract some unwanted tannins with a prolonged boil in the kettle. I assume you are just looking for the aromatics and light flavor characters of the plants. Chamomile works well in a Belgian Saison/Grisette style. Just my two cents.


Michael Uhrich
Carter's Brewing
Billings, Montana

[Moonlight]

Not sure if you mean safe to drink? If safe to eat, I would assume safe to add to wort.
I agree with Michael that it would be a waste to boil most any flower. Certainly alpha acids would not need to be extracted not isomerized. I have heard some of the best aromatics come from dry-flowering vs. hot usage. Maybe compare some hot and cold extracts in water or water/vodka?

[SRB]

Lilac....So much aroma.

[jjs]

Can you eat Lilacs?

[MikeRoy]

Dave, I've used Heather,Chamomile and Lavender in the past during the boil with success. I've also dry flowered with Chamomile in firkins....little can go a long way.

The one thing that I would be concerned with in adding them to the fermenter would be if they contained any active fungus that might impede fermentation. Unless of course you mean to add them post fermentation then like dry hopping I wouldn't see much of an issue as you're a brewpub and everything will be kept cold and served on premise. You could always try making a tea and blasting it in after fermentation, that way you don't have the issue of flowery bits in your FV.

Let me know if you brew this, I'll come up and try it and bring you my wares.

Cheers,

[Phil]

try Brian at Stillwater, he's into all this...

[SRB]

Can you eat Lilacs?

Im not sure. A quick internet search shows that lilacs are not considered poisonous. Though I did notice one plant with lilac in the name (which I guess makes it a lilac) did come up as poisonous. I know a herbal professional Im going to ask her.

[olllllo]

Jasmine and elderflower are good choices that haven't been mentioned, Avatar being the classic jasmine example.

[dwollner]

The beer is now on tap and it came out quite nicely. Used a combination of Chamomile, Calendula, Rosebuds, Hibiscus, and lavender in a hop bag for the last 10 minutes of the boil. Good floral aroma but not perfumey, mild taste from hibiscus and nice coloring too. Thanks for the input everyone.

[SRB]

The beer is now on tap and it came out quite nicely. Used a combination of Chamomile, Calendula, Rosebuds, Hibiscus, and lilacs in a hop bag for the last 10 minutes of the boil. Good floral aroma but not perfumey, mild taste from hibiscus and nice coloring too. Thanks for the input everyone.

Sounds Yummy!
That herbal professional let me know that lilacs are safe.
Im excited to try some flower additions! dwollner where did you source your flowers?

[dwollner]

Penderys.com was my source, pretty reasonable for 1lb bags around $9-$15.
They also sell herbs, salsas, etc.

[GeorgeJ]

we have made a beer using elderflowers for the past couple years. they just get chucked in to soak after the boil.

i'm happy i haven't been the one who has to go hand picking them in countryside hedgerows though.