# Tea Beer?



## Maz91379 (13/8/09)

Has anyone tried this before it might be a crazy idea but i imagine someone has done it before. Basically tea + malt or sugar + yeast + herbs or lemon+ 2 weeks= tasty fizzy alcoholic tea? Found this recipe while searching http://www.tastybrew.com/brews/view/15 and don't know what to think. Good idea? bad?


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## Kai (13/8/09)

I've played around with making tea-based alcoholic beverages before, including fermenting sugar-based mixtures as well as a project at university to make an alcoholic iced tea (black peach and guava green... both very tasty). I think it's a very doable concept, malt extract will work but why not also consider other fermentables such as honey, apples, grapes, plain old sugar, etc etc?


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## Tiny_Tim (14/8/09)

Lindemans make an interesting commercial example, way too sweet for me. If it was considerably dryer and had a fuller, maltier tea flavour it'd be a really refreshing beverage.
http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/lindemans-tea-beer/6377/


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## Maz91379 (14/8/09)

Kai said:


> I've played around with making tea-based alcoholic beverages before, including fermenting sugar-based mixtures as well as a project at university to make an alcoholic iced tea (black peach and guava green... both very tasty). I think it's a very doable concept, malt extract will work but why not also consider other fermentables such as honey, apples, grapes, plain old sugar, etc etc?



Does the mix retain some sweetness after fermentation? Do you still have a recipe?


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## Renegade (14/8/09)

No practical experience, but might you consider that many tea leaves are a subtle infusion, which might be easily buried under hop flavour. You didnt mention hops, so are you suggesting this _instead of_..


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## Maz91379 (14/8/09)

Renegade said:


> No practical experience, but might you consider that many tea leaves are a subtle infusion, which might be easily buried under hop flavour. You didnt mention hops, so are you suggesting this _instead of_..



Indeed no hops i guess what i'm shooting for is a hard iced tea?


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## newguy (14/8/09)

I brewed a chai tea weizen once before. Basically just an ordinary weizen with a concentrated ~1l super strength 10 chai tea bag tea added to the keg. It was actually really good. I've also tasted a couple of fruit meads that were made by adding about 10 herbal tea bags to ~20l of mead. One was based on a raspberry herbal tea and the other on a blackberry tea. They were both really good.


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## Maz91379 (14/8/09)

So in theory would this work?
28-30 earl grey tea bags
5 lemons-juice and zest 
1KG honey
1KG Raw Sugar or DLME
filled to 23 liters

Yeast Safale S-05 or Nottingham

Boil 15 liters +Tea+ Lemon zest/Juice 30 minutes 
Chuck fermentables into fermenter, cover with Tea mixture, stir
Top up with cold water till 18-20C
Throw in yeast
Let it ferment 2 weeks bottle etc?


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## Guest Lurker (14/8/09)

Plenty of threads on here about green tea lager and how to do it. I have made it twice and highly recommend it. Search on username Asher. He has also done Earl Grey versions, but I think he added pure bergamot rather than tea.


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## Screwtop (14/8/09)

I remember tasting a beer with tea added at Ross' place about 2006. Think it was a pilsner and if I remember Green Tea was added, nice.

Screwy


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## Ross (14/8/09)

not quite that long ago Michael  ... below recipe was inspired by Ashers creation.

Green Tea Rice Lager 

Type: All Grain
Date: 7/02/2008 
Batch Size: 27.00 L
Brewer: Ross 
Boil Size: 35.31 L Asst Brewer: 
Boil Time: 90 min 
Brewhouse Efficiency: 85.00 

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU 
3.00 kg Pale Malt, Galaxy (Barrett Burston) (3.7 EBC) Grain 54.55 % 
1.50 kg Jasmin Rice (2.0 EBC) Grain 27.27 % 
0.50 kg Munich I (Weyermann) (16.0 EBC) Grain 9.09 % 
0.50 kg Wheat Malt, Pale (Weyermann) (3.9 EBC) Grain 9.09 % 
30.00 gm NZ Saaz B [8.20 %] (60 min) Hops 22.9 IBU 
20.00 gm Cascade [6.00 %] (2 min) Hops 0.9 IBU 
1.00 tsp Koppafloc (Boil 10.0 min) Misc 
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 10.0 min) Misc 
125.00 gm Green Tea (China) (Boil 0.0 min) Misc 

Measured Original Gravity: 1.052 SG 
Measured Final Gravity: 1.012 SG 
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 5.21 % 
Bitterness: 23.9 IBU Calories: 487 cal/l 
Est Color: 7.3 EBC Color:

cheers Ross


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## Doc (14/8/09)

I've done a number of experiments trying to get Ice Tea to have a beer profile.
Not alcoholic though.
I've messed with steeping hop flowers in the ice tea at the same time the tea is infusing into solution, as well as using combinations of Ross's liquid hops.
The one step I never did, was to try and carbonate it.

The taste was good, but I've reverted back to my regular ice tea blend.

Doc


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## Renegade (14/8/09)

maz91379 said:


> So in theory would this work?
> 
> 28-30 earl grey tea bags



Don't keep them in the bags, you will end up with a nasty 'teabagged' flavour in your mouth. Some of the gay members here can tell you that this is not a very good experience. Take the herbs out of the soft, white paper-purse. For that matter, with such a quantity, why even use teabags ? Buy loose-leaf tea.


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## bum (14/8/09)

I'm thinking about what tea tastes like in a warm pot after about 30 minutes. What's it gonna be like after a week in the fermenter? 

Let us know how it works out.


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## Renegade (14/8/09)

TANNINS, PEOPLE.


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## Guest Lurker (14/8/09)

I bottled one lot with a green tea bag in each bottle. "Dry teaed" if you will. I really liked it, but no-one else did. When you pop the cap, the tea bag rises in the bottle and stirs in the yeast which is a bit annoying.


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## Maz91379 (14/8/09)

Decided to first test it out with left over yeast slurry from a stout i bottled today and half the recipe. Should be interesting.


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## Vlad the Pale Aler (15/8/09)

I tasted Ashers latest tea creation at WCB the other night, very good it was too. 
I wont say what it was in case its a work in progress for a comp.


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## randyrob (15/8/09)

Gives me a chance to spruke the new shirt the club has been working on!






Front




Back


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## Guest Lurker (15/8/09)

I'll take two.


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## Verbyla (15/8/09)

Just wondering what people thinks best, to lager the tea at 10-14C or just treat it like a normal ale and have it sitting at around 18C????


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## randyrob (15/8/09)

Guest Lurker said:


> I'll take two.



We have a special one made up for you  

Do i dare?


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## manticle (15/8/09)

Verbyla said:


> Just wondering what people thinks best, to lager the tea at 10-14C or just treat it like a normal ale and have it sitting at around 18C????




That would depend entirely on the chosen yeast and its relevant temp range.


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## Verbyla (15/8/09)

manticle said:


> That would depend entirely on the chosen yeast and its relevant temp range.



Fair enought. Let me rephrase the question  . What yeast would you suggest to use???


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## sinkas (15/8/09)

randyrob said:


> We have a special one made up for you
> 
> Do i dare?
> 
> ...




GL's dog are gettin'chilly in this weather, they need t-shirts


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## manticle (15/8/09)

Verbyla said:


> Fair enought. Let me rephrase the question  . What yeast would you suggest to use???



I would check with Ross what yeast was used in that posted green tea beer.

I've never done this kind of thing so my answer is entirely theoretical.

If you were looking for an alcoholic beverage based on tea as suggested in the first place, or if you were looking to explore the (sometimes extremely) subtle characteristics of many teas, I would go either a lager yeast or a very neutral ale yeast.


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## altone (16/8/09)

Verbyla said:


> Fair enought. Let me rephrase the question  . What yeast would you suggest to use???



I once experimented with a green tea mix, this is what i drink on my no alcohol days.

Consists of Green Tea, Ginger and young lemon leaves
I added some brew enhancer and used S04 yeast.

After a couple of weeks in bottles it tasted ok, but I thought the fizz actually detracted from the taste.
Left one in the fridge in a glass overnight to reduce the gas and much better.

I used S04 so I could brew fairly quickly whle not adding too much "beer" flavour from the yeast/brew process.
That's also why I used brew enhancer (that and it was sitting in the fridge unused) - so as not to
add too much maltiness.

So in summary I guess I'm saying that if you want the tea to taste like tea - 
don't use a yeast that modifies the flavour too much
and use those sugars AGB'ers roll their eyes at :lol: 

If you want it beery, there's a good few recipes above.
I'd think a green tea lager might be nice 
but for the brown tea, perhaps an ale or would a "steam beer" be the way to go


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## Gulf (17/8/09)

Since I'm waiting on some ingredients to arrive I thought I'd use up some leftover bits and try a tea beer. This is what I just put down:

```
Recipe: Tea Beer  

   TYPE: Extract  

	

   Recipe Specifications  

   --------------------------  

   Batch Size: 5.00 L		

   Boil Size: 5.50 L  

   Measured OG: 1.049 SG  

   Estimated Color: 12.9 EBC  

   Estimated IBU: 18.1 IBU  

   Boil Time: 15 Minutes  

	

   Ingredients:  

   ------------  

   Amount		Item									  Type		 % or IBU		

   0.55 kg	   Light Dry Extract (8.0 EBC)			   Dry Extract  68.75 %		 

   0.05 kg	   Cara-Pils (3.9 EBC)					   Grain		6.25 %		  

   0.05 kg	   Crystal (100.0 EBC)					   Grain		6.25 %		  

   18.00 gm	  Hallertauer Aroma [5.90 %]  (10 min)	  Hops		 18.1 IBU		

   11.00 gm	  Tea - Lapsang Souchong (0 min)			Misc						 

   0.15 kg	   Raw Sugar (3.9 EBC)					   Sugar		18.75 %		 

   1 Pkgs		American Ale (US-05) 

   

   Notes:

   ----------

   Steep grains in 65c water for 30 mins. Bring to boil 5.5L water, add liquid from grains, LDME and raw sugar, boil 5 mins. Add hops, boil 10 mins. Flame out, add tea. Chill, strain into fermenter, pitch yeast at 20c or under.
```

The tea was 5 Lipton Lapsang Souchong (smoked tea) teabags, tea removed from the bags. This was was just some random leftover tea from my cupboards but I thought the smoked flavour would add something interesting. Quantities of ingredients might seem a little strange since they were just leftover bits and pieces, even the yeast was some leftover slurry from another brew.
Although it was thrown together the taste from the hydrometer jar is really quite nice. I'm interested to see how it turns out.

Thanks for the idea guys.


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## Maz91379 (21/8/09)

Tell me how it turns out. Decided to do ginger beer instead this week but still think it's an achievable idea with some experimenting.


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