Port Wine Magnolia Flowers

[rclemmett]

My folks in law have a port wine magnolia in flower at the moment and it has a huge aroma in the flowers. I was thinking of using them for the aroma addition in an ale. Probably aiming for an ale on the darker side with fairly low IBU, 20 or so. Questions:

1) Has anyone tried this, and could they offer advice?
2) If I were to add whole flowers, I would assume dry hopping is a bad idea as it would risk infecting the brew. Should I add them at flameout and let it sit for 10 mins?
3) Amount to throw in????????????? Has anyone used green hops, or even hop flowers, and how much of these would you add to get an APA level of aroma?

Cheers.

 

[neonmeate]

this sounds really cool! just do it.


for comparison, here is one of the craziest recipes i have ever seen on the net, some guy on ratebeer a few years ago says he brewed it with flowers out of his garden:

Jolie blonde
5 gallons
10 lb of pilsner malt dingemans
113 g of cara vienne malt
113 g of aromatic malt
113 g of biscuit
1 lb of Belgian white candi sugar
1 tsp of gypsum for mash
1 oz of kent goldings whole leaf 4.5% aa boil 60 min
14g of styrian goldings pellets 4 % aa boil 60 min
14 g of styrian goldings 4 % aa 30 min
14 g styrian goldings last 15 min 4% aa
14 g of orange peel
14 g of coriander
2 bay leaves
tbsp lemongrass
2 pinches paradise seed
14 g of styrian goldings for last min
tbls of elder flower
tsp of lavender
14 g sweet orange peel
1 gardina flower
1 rose flower
tsp of ginger
fantome yeast
ingredients for last minute soaked in vodka for 5 min, except hops.
mashed in with 1.25 gallons of water at 170. stabilize at 155. mash for 120 min add 1.17 gal to bring temp up to 170. sparge with water at 170. sparge up to 6 gallons. OG after mash was 1.051. start boil add hops at 60 , 30, 45 and 1. chill and transfer to glass.

OG 1.066 5/13/14

 

[reviled]

Do it! Give feedback, I want to know what it tastes like!

 

[ozpowell]

Steeping the flowers in vodka is a good idea. You can then add the flower/vodka mixture to the fermenter as the vodka will sanitize the flowers for you. If you've ever had a chance to read through Radical Brewing, there's plenty of these types of examples there. It generally recommends steeping for several days at least.

You may want to verify that the flowers and sap aren't in any way toxic to humans first though....

 

[sinkas]

Maybe do a bit of reseach as to any possible toxins in the flowers first

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

No just do it so we can read about it in the papers "Brewer dies from magnolia flower Beer" .Go on be a matar for the cause.Cant be any worse than Chinese baby milk powder beer. :unsure:
GB
Edit [sp]

 

[rclemmett]

Found online:

Uses of the Flower
The flower has a number of other cosmetic, medicinal and economic uses. Hair oils are prepared using a special technique of layering the fresh flowers between husked sesame seeds and allowing the fragrance to become absorbed into them over the course of a day. The flowers are then changed and new ones placed and this process continues for a number of days until the seeds have been properly charged with the fragrance of the flowers. Then the seeds are cold pressed and the resulting oil is used for perfuming the hair. The flowers are also used for producing a yellow dye for dyeing textiles. An infusion or decoction of flowers is recomended in cases of dyspepsia, nauseau and fevers; and these liquid elixirs have also been found useful in treating gonorrhea and renal diseases. Flowers beaten up or macerated in sweet oil form excellent external applications for diseases of the head, eyes and nose. This oil has also been found useful in treating sub-acute rheumatism, vertigo, and gout and is valued in relieving common headache.

A beer with these flowers in it will make me unstoppable :beerbang:

 

[rclemmett]

Well, I made it and physics and law enforcement still seem to apply, so it didn't make me unstoppable. However, I'm not writing this from hospital so I don't think it was a complete failure.

I threw 10g of flowers in at flameout, but I removed them the next day through fear that they might spoil the beer, maybe a little bit ironic.

I steeped another 40g in 120ml of vodka for a week and added that, minus the flowers, when I bulk primed.

Basically the flowers added next to no aroma, just a slight hot flavour, kind of a cross between an alcohol flavour and "it tastes like burning". It also seems to stick to the mouth and tongue. It would probably be right at home in early 19th century england.

If I was going to do it again I would dry the flowers, but I don't think these flowers are suited to beer.

I'll chalk this one up to experience. :icon_cheers: