Mint Beer, Inspiration Needed.

[bennyc]

I made a peppermint dunkel a while back - didn't have any fresh peppermint but used some high quality peppermint tea (loose leaf), a dash of star anise and some raisins (the raisins and star anise didn't really come out in the flavour profile, but may have added some complexity) added at flameout. Went down a treat - everyone I gave some to loved it. Like brushing your teeth with beer

Basically followed Jamil's dunkel recipe with a few adjustments based on my inventory.

 

[newguy]

A friend of mine made a mint stout just before xmas. I'm not exaggerating when I say it turned my stomach - I seriously had a hard time keeping everything down for the rest of the night. It could have been the strength of the mint too. He used 10 herbal tea bags (some kind of mint tea) and "dry hopped" the keg with them for 2 or 3 days. In a much lower concentration it probably would have been okay.

 

[Fermented]

Give the tea-bags a big miss.

Most of it is just tea that either has been stored with some mint so that it absorbs the flavour and fragrance or with a small amount of mint tossed in with ordinary but very low grade tea. After all, it's a good way to get rid of the tea someone has grown and processed that no one wants to buy "as is".

Not to mention the tannin from the tea itself...

Probably better to make a small amount of sugar syrup and infuse fresh mint into that. Pretty much the way you make a mint syrup for desserts or cocktails.

Cheers - Fermented.