Sorrel Drink

[bethesdabakers]

I suppose this is the right section as sorrel is mixed with rum.

A friend brought me a pack of dried flor de jamaica (sorrel or rosella) back from Mexico. So I ran up a batch of Trinidadian Sorrel Drink which basically is just dried sorrel, sugar, orange peel and cloves with boiling water poured over, strained after a few days, a small amount of rum added, and bottled.

I've discovered that the first bottle to be broached has started to ferment after being open a couple of weeks. I'm not worried about it exploding - the cork is not too tight - but am I on the verge of creating a super-alcohol liqueur or does it have to go down the sink?

Best wishes,

Mick

[Ed Hamilton]

Fermenting sorrel sounds like you didn't add enough rum, or you've got too much sugar in the sorrel. Sugar in itself is a preservative. If the sugar content is high enough the mixture won't ferment. Or if the alcohol content is high enough, it won't ferment.

Fermentation is basically yeast turning free sugar into alcoho and carbon dioxide, the bubbles you see in a fermenting mixture. Bubbles in a rum and sweet sorrel mixture sounds like it will be sour, the sorrel wine will turn to vinegar if it is left too long.