Tea Beer?

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Maz91379

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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?
 
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?
 
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?
 
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..
 
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?
 
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.
 
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?
 
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.
 
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
 
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
 
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
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
Decided to first test it out with left over yeast slurry from a stout i bottled today and half the recipe. Should be interesting.
 
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.
 
Gives me a chance to spruke the new shirt the club has been working on!


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