Blue Lily Wine Infusion

[Green Osiris]

groan* Another Blue Water Lily thread, I hear you all say. However, I don’t know if this enquiry has been discussed.

Awaiting some dried flower from the wonderful Herbalistics, and the planned method of ingestion will be a wine infusion. Quantity ratio will be 750ml red/white wine, 10 grams of the lotus, plus a further 5 grams of old (12+months) lotus that may or may not be viable anymore.

Although many threads speak of soaking for hours/overnight, my approach is always of the ‘longer is better’ mindset, and I have the patience to do so. Therefore the initial idea is to steep in wine for up to two weeks.

Now, my enquiry is whether, due to the oxygen in the water content of the wine would cause the flowers to rot/mould over such a long period in a corked bottle.

The idea we’re throwing around if this poses an issue is to bring the (unadulterated) wine to a heat source, and allow to simmer - not boiling furiously - for, say 10 minutes, in order to reduce the oxygen level - then allow to cool and add the flowers afterwards, and reseal.

My only concern with this approach is that too much of the alcohol content may also evaporate, and if this is the key to extracting the goodies, not be a practical end-substance for a steeping medium. This is probably a basic chem question to do with boiling point of water vs alcohol, so forgive my ignorance.

Keep in mind that we will only be using wine, not spirits, also not interested in a high-po ethanol extract for this moment. Anticipating that one bottle would like to be consumed between two people, to avoid the potential experiences being clouded by the grog (the two participants in this are moderately tolerant to wine, so ½ bottle is no problem for us this regard).

Also well aware of the reported increased effects after time, so will be repeating a week apart, and perhaps continue to do so if there is noticed potential - and we have the money to spare to but more flowers

[Μορφέας]

hmmm hmmm interesting question you pose

I tryed soaking some in hot water to make a tea and it was bitter as anything. And the smoke from the dream herb was bitter too. Does soaking lily in wine stop the bitterness??

[noun]

Yeah, the longer the infusion time the better. One month with wine is fine. Have had Blue Lotus infusing with vodka for several months.

BL still imparts bitterness to red wine. I prefer a sweeter shiraz as a base for infusion.

[bandario]

Does anyone have any idea the effects blue lotus may have on the liver?

I have pondered this as a christmas gift for my parents; they really like a drink, but it would be nice if it didn't take so many glasses to get where they want to be...

[nothinghead]

RE: evaporation, if you keep a lid on the vessel you are heating the wine in you will catch the condensation which you can add back in. Lots of colder countries drink heated wine in the winter months so you should have no problems with the heating side of your experiment.

[Conan Troutman]

Maybe a simple reflux could be in order with straight vodka?? actives in lotus seem to be fairly stable at high temps eg.they can be smoked and soluble in water and alcohols

So even if you were to boil the alcohol there should be very little degredation...saving loads of time

just my two cents

[mu!]

I've had nice results from 2 grams of blue lilly stamens with 3/4 of a bottle of vintage (ha! vintage..) red wine (a Merlot to be precise), steeped and shaken regularly for 2 weeks. A very mellow drink, and the blue lilly isnt really noticable at all (or maybe i was too far off my chops to notice ;))

[Green Osiris]

Bitterness is of no great concern to me. And anyways, if it was too overpowering one could always load it up with honey

Thanks for the first hand reports on bottling in wine over a period, I'll give them a good couple of weeks infusion.

[mescalito]

Just watch you're not introducing contaminants from the flowers.

I've found beer with active yeast worked well as the yeast becomes the dominant contaminant...the alc does the extn

[John_Barleycorn]

Now, my enquiry is whether, due to the oxygen in the water content of the wine would cause the flowers to rot/mould over such a long period in a corked bottle.

Not in the presence of alcohol. With well-ground material, the bulk of the extraction should occur in two days. Watch how the colour deepens as a guide.

[MORG]

How'd the wine go GS?

I recently steeped 3 chopped whole Nelumbo nucifera flowers in a bottle of wine. There was no evidence of mould or rot after 2 weeks when we drank it.

I had two glasses and the effects were very mild. I laughed and smiled with a bit more vigour than usual. Some say its one you have to familiarise yourself to. I think I've still got a bit of work to go before I really feel full effects.

[Avaricial]

Just curious

I know wine is the standard practice for blue lotus, but... why? Why not whiskey or some other liquor?

[MORG]

I see no reason why not. Vodka is commonly used.