I have read that thread and the tea references mostly have to do with using herb/fruit teas for adding fruit flavor to a beer. If I understand correctly, BWRIGHT is talking about is getting black tea (or green tea) flavor into a beer.
There's one that a little closer:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/tea-recipes-60344/ Dude there brewed himself a green tea IPA a couple weeks ago. No results posted yet.
I haven't tried this, but it sounds interesting. I really like tea myself. Generally the best way to avoid bitterness (or astringency) is to use high quality whole leaf tea and limit the steep time to one to two minutes.
Some types of tea have qualities that might be interesting to add to a beer. Oolong tea for example has a bit of a toasted/roasted flavor that seems like it might come through nicely. Gen Mai Cha is a green tea (often served in asian restaurants) that has roasted rice in it. If you want to get way out there, Lapsang Soochong is a black tea that is smoked -- Asian-Style Rauchbier anyone? Slightly off topic but there's a recipe for tea smoked chicken wings that uses that tea to get the smoke flavor into the chicken. It's delicious.
If you're not familiar with Kombucha, you might look into that as well. Its a tea based beverage that is cultured with a yeast and bacteria "mushroom" (not really a mushroom). It makes a tangy and tasty beverage that according to some will cure everything from acne to cancer. There's been some discussion on this board about creating a Kombucha beer -- a prospect I find very interesting. I bring it up because having made my own kombucha, there are definite similarities to beermaking : you make a gallon of hot tea, add sugar, cool it down, add your "mushroom" and wait 2-3 weeks.
Finally, there was someone who was talking about their family's recipe for hard tea, but I never saw a recipe. I imagine it's a typical southern sweet tea which is simply fermented out.
Anybody Used Tea Leaves?
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