Passion tea in my hefe weizen

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aaronbeer

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

18gal Primary: Mace Barleywine
6gal Primary: 1st wort hop small beer (test)
6gal secondary: Pastime Pilsner (Earl Grey)
On Deck: Scotch Ale, Rabbit Brush Wheat? More Pine Stout!
Bottled and drinking: Pine Stout, CPA (Colorado Pale Ale), Sage Mead.
Bottled and not drinking: Corn Stalk…..Beer? Poison? Brat Boil? 2007 vintage.
Reserve: Monkey Sauce Porter (Banana bread porter), Pine Stout, CPA, Sage Mead, Moscato Allegro.
 
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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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!

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

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.
 
I am going to the beer store today and buying some bottles of hefe and I am going to steep some tea with it. That way I can get some idea what the flavors will be. I think I might just brew the hefe normal and then pull off a gallon to a secondary and add the tea and leave the other four gallons in the bucket. I don't need to really secondary a hefe right? So leaving the 4 gallons in the bucket for two weeks or so should be ok right?
 
I am going to the beer store today and buying some bottles of hefe and I am going to steep some tea with it. That way I can get some idea what the flavors will be. I think I might just brew the hefe normal and then pull off a gallon to a secondary and add the tea and leave the other four gallons in the bucket. I don't need to really secondary a hefe right? So leaving the 4 gallons in the bucket for two weeks or so should be ok right?

Good plan. Secondary is for aging and clearing, neither of which are necessary for a hefeweizen. Two weeks in primary before bottling should work fine. When you rack the 1 gallon, do so in a smaller container if you have one to reduce head space. Just pay close attention to how much tea you use so if you ever do a full five gallon batch you'll know how much is appropriate. Let us know how it goes.
 
Good plan. Secondary is for aging and clearing, neither of which are necessary for a hefeweizen. Two weeks in primary before bottling should work fine. When you rack the 1 gallon, do so in a smaller container if you have one to reduce head space. Just pay close attention to how much tea you use so if you ever do a full five gallon batch you'll know how much is appropriate. Let us know how it goes.

I don't have a small secondary. All I have is a 5gal better bottle. Will that be a problem?
 
I don't have a small secondary. All I have is a 5gal better bottle. Will that be a problem?

Well from what I read you really want to minimize the amount of air getting to the beer. So that much extra space might be a problem.

Besides that I think the beer idea sounds great, and if it works, I will try it too. Thanks for taking the plunge! :rockin:
 
i brewed the hefe yesterday! I will add passion tea to 1 gal of the brew after fermentation. here is my question after fermentation, should i secondary the whole batch or just pull off the gallon i need for passion tea and leave the other 4 gal in the bucket?
 
i brewed the hefe yesterday! I will add passion tea to 1 gal of the brew after fermentation. here is my question after fermentation, should i secondary the whole batch or just pull off the gallon i need for passion tea and leave the other 4 gal in the bucket?

Not being an expert - I assume if you want to compare them 100% side by side, then secondary both, but I would just pull the 1 gallon and add it. Saves some cleaning.
 
that is a good idea. If i dont second them both, then i will be tasting another difference besides the tea. I am going to secondary them this weekend. I am also brewing some cider in 1 gallon glass jugs (came with apple juice in them!) andI am adding passion tea to one, bangel spice to one and leaving one alone!
 
I think you are on the right track.

Tea is going to mainly contribute one of two things to a brew; bitterness/tannins or aroma/flavor. Most tea is made hot to a)dissolve tannins, caffeine and color into the hot water and b) volatilize nice smells. Most brews would not benefit from the tannins (think red wine) or if they had enough body, alcohol and bitterness to take it the beer would probably be better getting that component from hops and specialty grains.

To get the aroma from tea in your finished beer you need to not volatize it away. That means don't add the tea during your boil and dont add the tea to the fermenter or your delicate tea aroma will go out with your CO2.

I think I would try cold steeping a strong tea sealed in the fridge for several days and then adding that to the brew at bottling. Let us all know how it turns out!
 
Then I guess my plan is to just leave it in the fermenter till next weekend. I was going to secondary it this weekend to get off a gallon, but I think i will just do like you said and cold brew some tea and add it to a gallon of the brew at bottling. I am also making 3 and 1/2 gallons of cider
1 gal of cider
1 gal of cider with passion tea bags in the primary
1 gal of cider with bangle spice bags in the primary
1/2 gallon of half apple juice and half blueberry juice (just for kicks)
 
ok so i bottled tonight. I bottled 4 gal of hefe with no tea then I added a cup of tea that had steeped 4 bags of passion tea and then cooled. I tasted the mixtuer and it had a very interesting flavor. I am very interested to see how this will turn out in three week in the bottle!!! I will keep you updated!
 
ok so i bottled tonight. I bottled 4 gal of hefe with no tea then I added a cup of tea that had steeped 4 bags of passion tea and then cooled. I tasted the mixtuer and it had a very interesting flavor. I am very interested to see how this will turn out in three week in the bottle!!! I will keep you updated!

Keep us up to date.
 
Ok so i tried both beers today after they were in the bottle for 17 days. The tea flavor is very mild from the passion tea. I think it actually takes away from the original flavor. I think i will give it another week and see how the flavors have changed. I will brew with tea again, but next time i will be using some sort of spiced tea closer to Christmas!
 
So after about 5 weeks in the bottle, the tea has mellowed out and is pretty good!
 
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