Rooibos Ale

So i am wanting to make a rooibos flavored ale. Rooibos is a African red tea for those of you who may not know. I'm wondering what the best time to add this is? should i steep the tea with crushed grains in the beginning, during the last couple minuets of the boil, or should i try to do it in the secondary?? the tea is kinda a delicate flavor. Just wondering
what you think?

Once in the last of the boil, and once in the secondary.

Thanks man, i have 30 min left in the boil so your just in time. I was planing on doing it in the last of the boil. cause i could always add it again if it didn't taste right.

I never thought of using red tea, but that sounds like it might be great in a beer with a supporting hop bill.

I agree with snick, if it is really delicate flavor, then you won't want to boil away the esters, so I would add it under 5 minutes. Then I would steep and cool some more and add it in the secondary....and if it still wasn't enough, I would add more at bottling time...I would steep more of it in the priming solution and add it as I would my normal priming solution.

i get the same type of tea from my local tea shop. It steeps hot but you don't really want to boil it. I would add a fair amount at the time when you flameout. Adjust the flavor later- how strong were you thinking you would make this.

Well, rooibos isn't actually tea. Where tea leaves will become bitter if they're boiled, rooibos can probably stand a minute or two of boiling without throwing off bitter flavors.

Still, if it were me, I'd use the sam regimen that I use to infuse coffee flavors.

After flame-out, let the temp drop to the 205-210*F range and then add your coffee/rooibos to steep. This approximated the temperature at which you would ordinarily brew coffee or rooibos at. If I were using black tea, closer to 200-205 and real delicate stuff like green tea as low as 175-180*F.

Steep for five minutes for coffee, probably closer to 3.5-4 minutes for rooibos.

Then chill the wort down and pitch as normal.


I also like to add whole coffee beans to either the secondary, keg or in the bottles themselves. Puts a little cold coffee flavor in there as well after a few weeks.

With rooibos, I'd make sure to do that in either mesh strainer ball or a satchel of some sort just so it doesn't get messy inside the keg.

I went with 1.5oz in the last 5 mins of boil. then i went with another 1.5 oz at bottling time to make it a more prominent flavor in the beer. My first attempt with the ale from this post i used far to little so it was barely noticeable. My second attempt at it i used a pilsner base, the rooibos gave it perfect red/brown tint and it tasted awesome. definatly saving that recipe. thanks for all your help guys!

JunkMunky have you had any luck with your second try? I was going to boil a <1/2 gallon of water then as its cooling down steep the Rooibos (at recommended temp) and add to bottling bucket to desired taste.

Teavana.com says:
For Rooibos Peach Bloom
"Use 1.5 teaspoons of tea per 8ozof water to 208f and steep 5-6 min. 2oz of tea equals 25-30 teaspoons."

If that helped at all...

I've wanted to do this for a while now but I'll be using a 30/70 wheat/2 row malt base. The red in the Rooibos should adjust the color nicely.

Old thread I know, but how did this go? It does sound like a good pairing for beer.

Here's to hoping this post reminds OP to post back results.

OP will surely deliver!

It's been more than two years though. I'd say it's not likely.

I blend it with my kombucha - it's my favorite so far.

Actually wow, yeah, that would be quite interesting. Have you tried putting JUST the rooibos in there instead of regular tea to see if it has the nutrients that the culture can use? That could be an interesting side experiment; take a chunk of your scoby and put it into a sugar-rooibos mixture and try and maintain it on just rooibos.

I had always thought a sour Rooibos Red would be interesting; you could either add Rooibos to a Flanders Red, or similar to your idea, you could siphon off some Rooibos kombucha, kill the bugs in it with heat or campdens, add it to a basic ale/lager, then carbonated with the lager/ale yeast. OR, you could inoculate a lambic wort with a scoby for a low alcohol lambucha. xD It may finish sweet if the scoby can't eat all the malt sugars but a complex sweetness wouldn't go astray.

Rooibos tea pairs well with kombucha. For years my grandmother only used rooibos tea for kombucha. The kombucha grew very well on the tea. I cannot remember how much tea she used though.

I did a rooibois cream ale, where i brought a quart of water to boil and sanitized a box of rooibois tea.then stuffed the tea bags and poured tea in secondary.. Beer was excellent. Very pretty color.

came across this thread and i know its a lil bit older but don't know anything about tea im more of a coffee drinker. but i wanna give something a shot my brother will be in town and wants to brew a beer with me and he is an avid arnold palmer drinker.

so one i'm totally open for thoughts concerns and any ideas.
this is a 6 gallon batch
i wanna do
10 lbs pale 2-row
.5 lbs carafa 1
and use motueka hops @ 60,20,10,5 minutes .5oz additions
throw in rooibos tea in to whirlpool for 1/2 hr
and toss some cold pressed rooibos tea in secondary now i dont know anything about the amounts of tea to add so i would really love some help hope i hear back from more knowing tea or brewers thanx

oh and was thinking cal ale yeast something nice and clean hoping to let the hops really shine through and compliment the tea flavor but i have also noticed people using pilsner malt and or lager yeast but im afraid that will give me and ester profile i dont want and ive never brewed a lager as i have just gotten a chest freezer for fermentation temp control

Sils13, did you ever try this? I'm interested to see if it turned out well!