So weird question. I always enjoy pushing the envelope a bit with my beers. Ale Apothecary out of Bend Oregon does an annual brew called Faerie Tears which is a wild ale with wild-harvested manzanita flowers. I am familiar with the typical ways to add flowers to beer - at flameout, as a tincture, and a flower version of dry hopping. I don’t think the dry-hop version will work because the manzanita flowers won’t likely make it through the drying process with much flavor. Sooo…does anyone have any experience using manzanita flowers in beer? How much and when did you add it? The flowers are only at peak use for a few days and I just ran across some so thinking of brewing Monday, but I am always interested to hear what you all have to say.
I haven’t made a beer with those, but I have with dried hibiscus flower. I’ve found I like the flavor best when doing some at flame out and a bit at dry hop. Try making a cup of tea and see how you like the flavor, then scale up for your beer.
I’d treat it like wet hopping and add them at flameout or hop stand. Have you tried reaching out to Ale Apothecary and asking for recommedations? Paul isn’t exactly cryptic about his brewing processes.
DEF reach out to Ale Apothecary! They are great people and helped me out with questions on inoculating a barrel. I’m sure they would be upfront and tell you their process. Or… make your own process? I think drying the flower and adding them like a dry hop was mentioned? I’m a fan of tinctures when it comes to things like this. Having a tincture of the flower lets you add it to other things too, and also gives you more control over flavor volume.
Be very careful. Some manzanita’s are poisonous. Also, some Mountain Mahogany’s used for smoking meat can be poisonous or give people a bad reaction. Best to ask a plant expert before boiling the tannins out of the plants.
There were a couple mentions of adding at flameout. Without more information, I’d go with that. I haven’t worked with the flowers you mentioned, but I’ve worked with heather a number of times. Steeping in hot liquid definitely seems to give better results than a “dry hop” technique with the brew at room temperature. The manzanita could be different though.
Also +1 to checking with seller to see if they have a recommendation.