Thai Iced Tea Beer

I occasionally have some off the wall ideas, but this one comes from SWMBO.

She wants a Thai iced tea beer. I was thinking to do it, I'd make 4 gallons of a base beer and a gallon of the tea and blend it at bottling. I'd add some lactose to keep it sweet and creamy-ish.

I can't decide what would make a good base for this beer. Thai iced tea is flavored with anise, clove, cinnamon, vanilla, orange, and black tea.

The two ideas that I've come up with are saison (you can do practically anything to saison) or an American lager because it's light on flavor.


Help me Obi-Wan-Kenobi. You're my only hope.

It sounds like a milk stout would be a good fit for the lacto and potential astringent tea. I say potential because I have never had that type of tea, so I have no clue of the flavors.

It's a good idea. But I don't want the coffee-espresso flavor of the roasted barley to compete with it.

Maybe I could substitute Carafa II & III for the chocolate malt & roasted barley if I go that route. Keep each of them in the 2 - 4oz range.

There's a cream stout in the recipe section that looks like it could be a good fit for the beer base. Maybe sub the roasted barley like you said above, bump up the lactose, and add the spices to that? This sounds like a very interesting endeavor

I like the idea. Lactose is the clear sub for the sweetened condensed milk that makes Thai iced tea so delicious (although realistically, you won't want the same intense sweetness in beer).

As for what beer style, I'd go with either of your original suggestions. An American lager will let the tea/spices/lactose really take the fore. A saison would contribute its own flavors, so you'd have to choose your yeast accordingly (I'd go with a more spicy, less fruity one).

To be honest, going with one of the heavier styles like a stout/porter would support the adjuncts, but IMO would get in the way of the original idea of a Thai iced tea. I'd stick to a lighter style, like the ones you suggested.

I also recommend making a batch of sun tea, rather than hot-brewed tea, to cut down on astringency.

I recently made a blonde ale and added green tea. It came out really good.

I started working on a Saison recipe but my wife thinks it might be too peppery. So now I'm working on a blonde ale recipe.

I'm trying to decide if I should go with 4 gallons of beer and 1 gallon of tea or 4.5gallons of beer and 0.5 gallons of tea. I would prepare the tea right before bottling and add only the liquid to the beer.

Here's the tea portion recipe I'm working with, it makes a quart:
Ingredients
1 quart water
1-2 star anise
1/2 vanilla bean
6 whole cloves
1/2 stick Ceylon cinnamon
2 Tablespoons or two bags black tea (preferably China black)
Zest of one orange

Preparation
Add whole spices and tea to 1 quart water and bring to boil. Allow to boil 5 minutes, turn off heat, and steep until it cools to room temperature. Add orange zest.

Beernik, I would go and buy a blonde ale that closely resembles your base beer, and mix it with your tea first. That way you can confirm that it is the right style for you, and the exact ratio of both to use.

UPDATE:

Here is the beer portion of the beer I am brewing for this:
Size: 4.5 gallons, assumed efficiency: 66%

Grains
7.25lb 2 Row
2.25lb Wheat
1L Munich 10L

Hops
1.5oz Cascade for 60 minutes
0.5oz Cascade at flameout

Yeast
Wyeast 2565 Kolsch

Pre-blending
OG: 1.062, FG: 1.015, ABV: 6.1% IBU: 32

After primary fermentation, I will pull a 10oz sample and blend with the tea mixture until I get the desired flavor. Then I'll mix the right proportions and bottle. I'm anticipating it to be 0.5 gallons of tea.

Post-blending
~ABV: 5.5%

I am thinking about brewing it on July 24. Which means I need to pick up a new burner and a BIAB bag so I can test out my new keggle.

I'm bottling today. I have the Thai spice tea steeping right now.

The Thai Tea recipe I modified for this beer is:
Put 4 cups of water into a stock pot. Add 5 teaspoons of anise seeds. Split and scrape the seeds from one vanilla bean and add to the water. Boil for 5 minutes covered.

Chill to lukewarm. Add 4 more cups of water. Add 15 teabags of Earl Grey. Steep at room temperature for 4 hours. Remove teabags.

Bring back to a boil and add 1/2lb of lactose and bottling sugar. Strain and add to beer for bottling.

That will give me a ratio of .5 gallons tea to 4.75 gallons of blonde ale. That's about 9.5% tea and 90.5% beer.

I'm not adding any orange peel to the tea because I'm hoping the citrus of the cascade hops will come through. The lacotose is taking the place of the cream and sugar in the regular tea recipe.

In the bottle.

It doesn't taste like Thai Tea, but it is still awesome. Part of the problem is I forgot the cinnamon.

The anise creates a slight warming on the tongue and lips.

The Earl Grey tea is very refreshing, kind of shandy like.

The cascade hops shine through grapefruity.

The lactose offsets the tannins in the tea but doesn't make it creamy.

So, next time: add some cinnamon to the tea mixture and some wheat and/or oats to the grain bill.

When we do Thai Tea at our house, we brew it. Here is the product we use: Thai Tea Leaves

The flavors are super. No extra spices needed, just add the condensed milk

Anyhow, Love what you have done. I would aim to sub coffee with this tea in a Coffee Beer Recipe to get that authentic Thai Tea taste.

Hmmm... inspired...

Nice, I have several beers in line to brew. I might add this to the line up.

Sorry I couldn't resist. Here is fresh Thai Tea from the leaf I just poured for SWMBO (see why I though coffee recipes would be great?) and then after with the addition of condensed milk. It lightens up either way with water or milk but the milk white makes the beverage smoother.



Yum!

Cheers. That means a lot to me.

I make some unusual beers. But this one was weird even for me. I had no idea what it would turn out like and almost chickened out of making it a couple times.

I think I'll re-dub this Spiced Tea Beer.

cannman's Thai tea looks like the Thai tea that I know. I'm half Thai. My mom is from Thailand. When she makes it, it looks just like that. It's orange in color and is quite strong. We take the edge off with a little bit of half and half. I may have to try this idea. I'd start with my brown porter recipe. It isn't thick or intense. It's nice and roasty but a dry roast. Very biscuit like. It's actually very smooth. I may add some lactose to give it some body and a bit of sweetness and then add the Thai tea bags straight to the boil. No flavor or aroma hops which that recipe doesn't have anyways. This one could be fun.

Roundhouse said:

cannman's Thai tea looks like the Thai tea that I know. I'm half Thai. My mom is from Thailand. When she makes it, it looks just like that. It's orange in color and is quite strong. We take the edge off with a little bit of half and half. I may have to try this idea. I'd start with my brown porter recipe. It isn't thick or intense. It's nice and roasty but a dry roast. Very biscuit like. It's actually very smooth. I may add some lactose to give it some body and a bit of sweetness and then add the Thai tea bags straight to the boil. No flavor or aroma hops which that recipe doesn't have anyways. This one could be fun.

Click to expand...

Wow ok. Would you mind sharing your hopless porter? sounds exciting.

It's not hopless. It's got bittering hops at 60 minutes. Just nowhere else.

Roundhouse,

I used a 1/2lb lactose.

My pre-blending FG was 1.014.
My post-blending FG would have been 1.013.
Adding a 1/2lb of lactose made the FG 1.016.

If I added a full pound, it would have brought the FG up to 1.020. That's getting into a sweet stout's range for FG and might make the beer thick and syrupy.

I'm thinking a creamier mouthfeel might be better obtained with wheat or oats rather than from more lactose.

Here's the recipe I would like to try this with. I was thinking about adding a quarter pound of lactose to it.

Brown Porter O.G. 1.050 IBU: 29 SRM: 25.28 EFF: 75% Batch Size: 5.5 gallon post boil

59.80% American 2-Row (6.25 lbs)
35.90% Brown (3.75 lbs)
1.90% Carafa III (.25 lbs)
2.40% Flaked Oats (.50 lbs)
.50 oz Magnum @ 60 min
English Ale Yeast @ 68° until F.G.
Lager @ 32° for 1 week

RO water in mash. Carafa III does not get mashed. Add it during beginning of mashout.
Mash @ 155° for 60 min
Mashout 20 min @ 168°
Recirculate until clear
Sparge at 168° with RO water treated to 5.5 ph.
½ tsp Calcium Chloride in mash after rest temperature is hit.
1 tsp Calcium Chloride in boil.
90 min boil

I doubt you'd need lactose when mashing at 155F. Maybe wait until bottling or kegging to decide if you want to add it.

I'd also up the ABV so that it's 5% after blending with the tea instead of 5% before blending with tea.

I don't think I'd blend it. I think I'd add the tea bags straight to the boil. The lactose isn't as much for body and it is for a touch of sweetness. This is a dry recipe although it would add a little body.