aaronbeer

Recipes 

I have ordered a hefe weizen and had a crazy idea to use some passion tea for some fruit flavor. I work at starbucks, so I am able to get a lot of tea for cheap. I was wondering if anyone has any advise, warnings, or have done something like this already. I would love any information that you have to share!

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HOOTER

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I'm all for experimenting, just don't call it a hefeweizen if you do it, and be prepared to hate it, because you just might. On the other hand, you might dig it. I haven't done such a thing so I can't predict the outcome, but I guess one way to find out is by making it. Good luck.

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aaronbeer

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why cant you call in hefeweizen? isnt it the same as adding extract like raspberry?

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I cant stop buying supplies! It's a sickness!!!! First the beginner supplies, then some upgrades, then a fermentation chamber, and now all grain! When will it stop?

aaronbeer

Recipes 

also, i was wondering when to add it to the wort, or secondary?

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I cant stop buying supplies! It's a sickness!!!! First the beginner supplies, then some upgrades, then a fermentation chamber, and now all grain! When will it stop?

HairyDogBrewing

Recipes 

I would steep a small amount of tea in a finished beer.
Something you would want to dump anyway (Bud, Miller, Coors).
If that turns out OK, then steal a gallon from your hefe into a separate secondary and add your tea.
Wait a week and then bottle it and see what happens.
When you're in uncharted territory, try to minimize the risk.

malc

Recipes 

I have made what we call a tea beer. It was a light ale recipe. After the boil we steeped the tea(quite a bit of Constant Comment) for something like 5 minutes(like brewing a strong cup.) It turned out great. It has a great aroma, but the taste of the tea doesn't stand out too much. I would go ahead and try it.

COLObrewer

Recipes 

We use tea in our "Summer Pilsner", what we do is steep the bags in our strike water and pour it all in the tun when ready bags and all, doesn't affect the runoff whatsoever. In other words the tea "flavor" is in the wort from beginning to finish. I'm not sure what passion tea has in it but we use Earl Grey. It is a fine beer.

Vern

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pjj2ba

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The Tied House brewpub in Mountain View, CA makes a passion pale. It's been 14 years since we moved away, but I vividly remember that beer and have always had it in the back of my mind to try and brew it. They say it is based off their lager-like golden ale with passionfruit added. Hmmmmm.... maybe a passionfruit tea would be the way to go. Or maybe I could find some passion fruit essence.

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ArcaneXor

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Here is my suggestion (speaking from experience):

Use the tea bag with the finished beer, i.e. let it steep in about 4 oz of beer, remove the teabag, and pour the remaining 8 oz on top of that. I often do this with BMC beers to add some character to them, and have also done it with homebrew from time to time (especially witbier, which is a wonderful blending beer).

If you do decide to use the tea in the boil or fermentation, I would be very conservative. When I do that, I usually only use 1-2 teabags for the whole batch to give it just a hint of added complexity. It's very easy to overpower the batch with tea flavor.

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HOOTER

Recipes 

I'm a purist I suppose. Hefe's were never originally made with passion tea, so if you do this it would cease to be a hefe. If you were to enter this brew in a competition as a hefeweizen they would take one drink and tell you to take a hike. A true hefeweizen is made with wheat malt, barley malt, German noble hops, German wheat ale yeast and water. That's about it.

IMO, if you want to experiment with passion tea, make a small batch of an American wheat or light ale. Hefe's have a very distinct banana and clove flavor and aroma created by the yeast. This may or may not blend well with the passion tea. Start small, with a basic ale recipe so you can really judge what the tea is contributing to the beer. If you really dig it, move on to the next step. If not, you'll still have a perfectly good batch of hefeweizen to enjoy. Just my opinion, that's all.

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