Fermenting Sweet tea

Since moving to the south everyone drinks sweet tea and the stuff is full of sugar. I got to wondering what would happen if you pitched some wine yeast on about 5 gallons of it. Would you be left with and alcoholic unsweet tea?

Anyone out there tried this or is this just a plain stupid idea

I say try it. Ya' never know.

There is this stuff called Kolmbucha (or Kombucha) and it is a lightly fermented tea. Pretty sour too.

I think it's horrble but a lot of folks who like the Gose/Geuze, Lambics, and Sours really seems to like it.

I think it would taste like ass. Probably easier just to mix some vodka in with the tea for the same effect.

But give it a try and let us know how it turned out.

look for this vodka called FIREFLY, it is infused with tea and tasted jsujt like sweet tea but its 70 proof. i think its made in charleston

heres the website Firefly Distillery - Wadmalaw Island South Carolina

I've had some homemade sweet tea sit a little too long and ended up fermenting with some wild yeast. Pretty terrible in my opinion, but maybe with some wine yeast the results might be better.

Weizenheimer said:

Since moving to the south everyone drinks sweet tea and the stuff is full of sugar.

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I have some family that live down south and I go to visit them every couple of years, the tea is the only bad thing about going down there (well, that and the abundance of sweet pickles, but I've learned to leave the pickles alone.)

GilaMinumBeer said:

I say try it. Ya' never know.

There is this stuff called Kolmbucha (or Kombucha) and it is a lightly fermented tea. Pretty sour too.

I think it's horrble but a lot of folks who like the Gose/Geuze, Lambics, and Sours really seems to like it.

Click to expand...

Yeah I was going to mention Kombucha. It's some form of Acetic acid producing thing I believe. I like it.

It doesn't taste anything like tea.

Surfman said:

look for this vodka called FIREFLY, it is infused with tea and tasted jsujt like sweet tea but its 70 proof. i think its made in charleston

Click to expand...

I had some of that a couple of weeks ago, GREAT stuff, smooth, and will put a hurtin' on ya real quick if you don't watch it.

Loup said:

I have some family that live down south and I go to visit them every couple of years, the tea is the only bad thing about going down there (well, that and the abundance of sweet pickles, but I've learned to leave the pickles alone.)

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You can still get that unsweetened crap... er, I mean stuff, if you ask for it.
Funny enough, that is the exact thing I don't like about visiting much north of Virginia, can't get sweet tea.... You can get that raspberry stuff, but it ain't tea!

Yea, just go with Firefly. Wadmalaw Island is about 45 minutes from James Island where I grew up. Its pretty good for what it is. If you do the recommended mix (1/2 water, 1/2 firefly) it tastes more like unsweetened tea. Add a small sprinkle of sugar and it will taste exactly like sweet tea.

As for fermenting sweet tea...sounds awful.