(Mexican Farmhouse Ale)
I have always toyed with the idea of using Jamaica flowers in some kind of brew for flavor and a touch of color. In working up ideas for a Saison recipe I thought about adding Jamaica and then kept progressing the idea into "If I am going to make a Farmhouse Ale with something associated with Mexican food and drink, why not make a Mexican Farmhouse Ale." and Cerveza de Finca was born. In addition to the pale malt, I decided to use only flavors associated with south of the border. I ended up with Flaked Maize, Cane Sugar, and the Jamaica flower (Recipe can be found here). I wanted to use the more exotic Piloncillo Sugar but I could not find any in the two days between concept and brew. I also decided to use Cluster hops which originate in the Americas as well as California Common yeast. After all, Mexico did own California at one point and a farm in Mexico would probably be a warm place without the capability to lager.
I mashed the malt and the flaked maize at 150F to keep the fermentables high. I want the brew to finish somewhat light.
Being so light with only pale malt, this brew looked like a Belgian Wit in color so a good rolling 90 minute boil was no problem. I decided to go with just one hop addition at 60 minutes and keeping the bittering low (20ibu's) so as not to interfere with the flavor of the flowers. At flameout, I steeped the flowers for about 10 minutes. Using the grain bag made it much easier than just tossing them in like hops.
The beer came in with an OG of 1.054 and has quite the rose color. The sweetness of the wort currently overpowers the Jamaica, but it will be interesting to see what develops over the next couple of weeks during fermentation.
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Follow-up After a couple weeks of fermentation, the beer dropped to a gravity of 1.008 and was kegged up. The color held pretty well and is a bright rose hue. The aroma seems controlled by the hops and yeast, but the taste carries a nice floral and tart flavor from the flowers. The low finishing gravity keeps it dry. It's kind of like a beer Cold Duck. It's one of those beers everyone tastes and says.. "Interesting...." I will definitely use the Jamaica flowers again. Next time will be in a Belgian Wit with a bit of sweet orange peel and maybe a hint of corriander. I think the lighter brew and other spices will complement it well. I highly recommend experimenting with your brews. 
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