So I'm a tea guy. I have a large tea collection that is in the region of 15 to 20 varieties (most loose) and a green brewer. My first batchs (a 5 gal Honey Red Ale and a 2 gal Green Tea Honey Wheat) has been bottled and is carbonating so we'll see how those turn out soon enough. I've already successfully combined tea with vodka (with devastatingly fantastic effects) and I'd like to bring the full collection to beers.
After doing some light beer related reading while waiting on my little yeasts to do their magic, I know that bittering hops don't add much flavor and to get hoppy flavor, you have to add it at the end or dry hop during fermentation. I have never boiled tea for an hour so I don't know if it will also boil out or how that would go. Some teas do get bitter if you steep them too long, so it might be a cool bittering agent. I was wondering if you guys had any experience using tea in beer and I'd also like to bounce a few brew ideas off you guys (and get some suggestions as well).
So far, I think a lot of teas would go well with wheat beers but I think cool beers would be a Chi Stout, a Hojicha or Genmaichi Brown Ale (Hojicha is a roasted Japaneese green tea that has a very earthy almost burnt grass-like aroma while Genmaichi is a mixture of green tea (also Japaneese) and puffed brown rice that smells similar to popcorn), and perhaps a black tea with an ale of some sort.
So thoughts? Tips? Experience (and stories/pictures)? Funny jokes?
P.S. as soon as my green tea honey wheat is done conditioning, I'll be sure to share the results with you guys
After doing some light beer related reading while waiting on my little yeasts to do their magic, I know that bittering hops don't add much flavor and to get hoppy flavor, you have to add it at the end or dry hop during fermentation. I have never boiled tea for an hour so I don't know if it will also boil out or how that would go. Some teas do get bitter if you steep them too long, so it might be a cool bittering agent. I was wondering if you guys had any experience using tea in beer and I'd also like to bounce a few brew ideas off you guys (and get some suggestions as well).
So far, I think a lot of teas would go well with wheat beers but I think cool beers would be a Chi Stout, a Hojicha or Genmaichi Brown Ale (Hojicha is a roasted Japaneese green tea that has a very earthy almost burnt grass-like aroma while Genmaichi is a mixture of green tea (also Japaneese) and puffed brown rice that smells similar to popcorn), and perhaps a black tea with an ale of some sort.
So thoughts? Tips? Experience (and stories/pictures)? Funny jokes?
P.S. as soon as my green tea honey wheat is done conditioning, I'll be sure to share the results with you guys
