Anybody Used Tea Leaves?

I tried to search but any 3 letter word automatically gets ignored on the search box. I was thinking about using some tea leaves in a brew. I enjoy the taste of the tea, but don't want to make it bitter. Anybody know anything about this. Surely someone acrooss the pond has thought about this.

Dont know anything about it but try a google search within the site.

I believe that Brewtoia has made some flavored teas and included them in brews before. I don't know how they turned out though.

http://homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=59496

You can use the "*" wildcard on short search terms...like "tea*" however in this case you will get a lot of results that don't match what you are looking for since it's a fairly common letter combination.

I have read that thread and the tea references mostly have to do with using herb/fruit teas for adding fruit flavor to a beer. If I understand correctly, BWRIGHT is talking about is getting black tea (or green tea) flavor into a beer.

There's one that a little closer: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=60344 Dude there brewed himself a green tea IPA a couple weeks ago. No results posted yet.

I haven't tried this, but it sounds interesting. I really like tea myself. Generally the best way to avoid bitterness (or astringency) is to use high quality whole leaf tea and limit the steep time to one to two minutes.

Some types of tea have qualities that might be interesting to add to a beer. Oolong tea for example has a bit of a toasted/roasted flavor that seems like it might come through nicely. Gen Mai Cha is a green tea (often served in asian restaurants) that has roasted rice in it. If you want to get way out there, Lapsang Soochong is a black tea that is smoked -- Asian-Style Rauchbier anyone? Slightly off topic but there's a recipe for tea smoked chicken wings that uses that tea to get the smoke flavor into the chicken. It's delicious.

If you're not familiar with Kombucha, you might look into that as well. Its a tea based beverage that is cultured with a yeast and bacteria "mushroom" (not really a mushroom). It makes a tangy and tasty beverage that according to some will cure everything from acne to cancer. There's been some discussion on this board about creating a Kombucha beer -- a prospect I find very interesting. I bring it up because having made my own kombucha, there are definite similarities to beermaking : you make a gallon of hot tea, add sugar, cool it down, add your "mushroom" and wait 2-3 weeks.

Finally, there was someone who was talking about their family's recipe for hard tea, but I never saw a recipe. I imagine it's a typical southern sweet tea which is simply fermented out.

Yeah, I'm not so much interested in adding fruit flavor as I am adding the tea flavor. I do enjoy tea but I have no idea what you're talking about Baker with all those different varieties. I just want a nice, smooth, tea flavored beer for August. Just as a nice glass of Iced tea is excellent in hot weather, I think somethin mild, low ABV, and some tea (maybe some Lemon zest as well) would be excellent in hot weather. I guess what I would like to try is a beer that has an Iced tea quality being the most abundant. Anybody has any ideas, let me have it.

I made a beer I called Chai-PA, which was brewed with Chai tea spices and darjeeling tea. The spices and hops were very strong and there really wasn't a noticeable tastes from the tea. If you do use tea, I would recommend steeping it after the boil for 2-3 minutes and then cooling the wort. If you add it into the boil it will DEFINITELY add a lot of bitterness, as tea should never be boiled if you want a smooth flavor.
For an easy drinking tea flavored beer with a theme, how about a British bitter with some English Breakfast tea? In my head those flavors might complement each other well...

My dad would love this! he averages about 20 cups of tea a day!

Maybe adding it at the end of the mash for a couple of minutes would work. I don't know how it would affect the pH, so I wouldn't add it until the end. I'd love to know how this turns out if you decide to try it.

I'm going to try this. I think I'm going to steep the tea along with some specialty grains. Maybe 160F for half an hour. I 'm also going to use some lemon zest and maybe some bitter orange peel. I'm going for an Iced tea type feel.

No, no. no. Like Sconnie said, you need to add the tea after the boil. You do not just want to boil tea leaves, you do not want to boil tea. I tried that before (trying to make a tea reduction), and it got nasty.

Toss in some tea leaves after the boil, if you want the leaves straight in the wort. Add some tea to the secondary if you want to keep more of the aromatics.


TL

I brewed a batch of Belgian wit ale a few months ago... and one of the ingredients I added in the last 15 minutes of the boil was chamomile tea. While it's not a true tea, it's an herbal tea, and it added a nice little accent to the taste of the citrus undertones of my white beer.

I'm sure the tea in certain quantities would add an interesting flavor... not to mention a kick of caffeine. Some of the spicier teas would probably be excellent in a winter style dark ale.

Alright, Tex you say not to boil the tea leaves. I'm not talking about boiling tea leaves. I was going to Steep the tea leaves at about 160F which is nowhere near a boil. So, are you saying that I shouldn't boil the wort after steeping with tea. Why not? The leaves will have been discarded by then. All I want to do is extract the most amount of tea flavor and aroma without any astringency. So why not steep, discard, then boil normally. Also, how much help would it be to add tea directly to secondary?

TexLaw said:

You do not just want to boil tea leaves, you do not want to boil tea.

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If you want to the greatest tea flavor and aroma from the tea leaves, then make a very strong tea and add it to the secondary. Boiling the wort after steeping the tea leaves will boil off much of that aroma and flavor, just as it does with hops.

Also, boiling tea (the extract, not just boiling tea leaves) by itself for a while makes for some nasty, bitter, astringent stuff. I ony extrapolated my experience doing so to the wort. Regardless, boiling the wort after steeping the tea will remove much of what you wanted.

You could, perhaps add tea leaves as a knockout addition, if you do not want to add volume to the secondary. You do run the risk of losing aroma to CO2 scrubbing during fermentation, though.


TL

Ok, that makes sense. I'm not sure how i would avoid losing aroma from CO2 scrubbing though. Wouldn't that happen no matter how I do it? Tex, being from Texas I'm sure you're aware of the art of making sun tea? This is what I 'm thinking now. Put a bunch of tea bags or leaves (haven't decided yet) into a small glass container. Let it steep in the sun all day and then add that tea "concentrate" to the secondary. Like I said before, what I really want is to just have the most tea flavor and aroma with none of the astringency. I think the tea flavor mixed with the added lemon will pair really well.

Why not just "dry hop" with some loose tea (in a sterilized bag) in secondary?

Sanitized bag, but how do I sanitize the tea. Actually how do I sanitize using any of these methods?

I don't know if just dropping the dry tea into the secondary would get you what you want. I do not know if you would get the flavor and aroma from the tea in the same way as if you brewed it traditionally.

The sun tea idea might work. However, making sun tea takes a while, and it is somewhat unpredictable (yeah, I do know a little about it ). One thing I did always hear, too, is that it is unsanitary.

If you brew traditionally (i.e., add boiling water to the leaves), you will sanitize everything. Do it in a mason jar or something like that. You could even sanitize the jar beforehand, if you want to be extra careful. Certainly, still make a concentrated tea. I have no idea how much, but I think the general rule is a tablespoon of loose tea leaves to roughly 18-20 oz of water and steep for up to five minutes, if you want to make a normal cup of tea. I imagine you would need to add three or four times the normal amount of tea, but I really have no idea there.


TL

OK Tex, I hate to keep questioning you because you've given me sound advice before, but I really want this to turn out well. Before you said not to boil tea leaves. My question is why not? Let's say I throw "x" amount of tea bags into the water with my steeping grains. I pull them out with the grains and boil as normal. How am I going to extract whatever it is that makes tea astringent if the tea is not actually boiling. Also, if there is a legit reason not to do this, than what is wrong with the "sun tea" approach. I'm not sure what makes the tea unsanitary, Tex. Is it the tea itself. One more option. What If I make a tea concentrate, and then sanitize this and add it to secondary. Couldn't I hold that at some temp under boiling for an extended period to achieve my sanitization? Anyway, if I throw caution to the wind the "sun tea" added to the secondary seems to be my best bet. Does anybody have any suggestions. I'm more confused than Miss Teen South Carolina over here, such as.

BWRIGHT said:

Let's say I throw "x" amount of tea bags into the water with my steeping grains. I pull them out with the grains and boil as normal. How am I going to extract whatever it is that makes tea astringent if the tea is not actually boiling.

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The thing is that you have already extracted that stuff. It just doesn't get as harsh and astringent until you boil it. And, if you haven't so extracted that stuff, then I do not know that you got everything you wanted out of that tea because you only steeped at 150-160 or so, which is far below the temperature of the water you would normally use to make tea. If you were to steep for a few hours or more, then you might be onto something (like how you go about making sun tea), but I do not know that a half hour will do it.

Keep in mind that, when I've said "I do not know" all these time, I mean it. I do not know because I have not done it or heard from some authority about it.

What I have heard about sun tea not being sanitary is that it just doesn't get that hot. You take these leaves that could have Heaven knows what on them, and then you add them to water that is lukewarm, at its hottest, and let it all sit around for a few hours or so. Those are unsanitary conditions. I do not know much about it, except that I haven't seen sun tea around here in ages.

If you make a tea concentrate in a traditional way (i.e., adding a bunch more tea leaves to the normal amount of water coming just off the boil), then you do not have to sanitize it any further. That water is hot enough to nuke anything. That's especially true if you go ahead and use a sanitary jar or something. Let that stuff cool, and then add it to the secondary. You do not have to use the sun tea method to make a concentrate, if that is what you are thinking.

I tell you what. This beer better rock!

I'll laugh about the Miss Teen South Carolina remark for a long time.

You're right, this better be one damn good beer. So, here's the plan. I'm going to make a concentrate by following the normal steps to make tea and just using a much larger amount (undecide as of yet). I will transfter this to a sanitized container and let cool. Then add this to the secondary. I'm set on using the lemon zest with this recipe. What do you think about some bitter orange peel as well, in the Iraq.

I would keep it simple, even if only for experimental reasons. If you start adding too much new stuff, you might find it hard to tell how each affects the final beer.


TL

Just to jump in on the end... I have done two successful brews with tea... a chai beer that was made with rooibos chai tea bags and more recently a honey raspberry that was made over a vary light pilsner.

The Honey raspberry was more recent... I was seeking a strong berry flavor and aroma, so I used rasberry zinger tea bags (celestial seasonings brand, I think?!). I steeped 9 bags coming off the boil, and I put 9 bags in the fermenter water (this was a partial volume boil). The last two bags were used to test the flavor and aroma profiles. I found I got good taste from steeping and good aroma from "cold" steeping...

This recipe also had 2 lbs of honey in the boil and 12 oz of frozen raspberries added post boil and left through primary ferment.

I heartily reccomend tea as a fun ingredient to play with for some unique flavor profiles... it may not be under purity laws, but that is the freedom of home brewing.

The honey raspberry turned out VERY well and is aging even better (honey is like that!) I ended up with less than 5 gallons, as I did not think through my straining process when racking the primary... though after much cursing I got through it!

So here is to the grand experiments... and the lates batch of tea I got from specialtea.com... I am thinking of doing an earl grey beer... somehow!

cheers!

Alright Tex, and anyone else interested. I'm going to brew this up tonight. I'm going to make an extract American Wheat w/ tea and lemon. I've got some tea bags I'm going to toss in at flame out. I've got some dried lemon zest to add to the end of the boil. And I've got some wheat to steep and wheat DME. Can't remember what hops I've got. I'd really like to try some Halleratu but I've got no time to go get them. Any last minute advice anybody. I'll keep you posted.

this guy makes some good beers (won a competition here in town with another one on his page)

http://www.aircrafter.org/boggs/homebrew/recipes/2001.02.10-Gunbarrel_Hippie_Beer.xml

Here's the final recipe. My ignorance may shine through as this is my 5th brew.

5# Light DME
1# Wheat (Steeped at 160F for 30min)
.5# Crystal 60 (Steeped at 160F for 30min)

.7oz Challenger Hops (60 min)
.5oz Hubshrucker Hops (30min)
.8oz Hubshrucker Hops (2min)

.5oz Dried Lemon Peel (10 min)
10 Luzianne Tea Bags (Flameout)

Safale US-04 Dry Yeast Packet

Full Boil. Steeped grains in 2G of water. Topped to 6.25G.

I don't know much about brewing, as I'm new here, but I do know tea. And I know it well.

And as far as that goes, I would not recommend tea bags. Bags typically (especially the big brands) contain the worst quality tea. It's practically dust, which means it will be bitter, astringent, and nowhere near smooth. I would recommend getting ahold of some higher quality loose tea, with some quality leaves in it.

Yeah, I hear you on that. I like tea but I don't know much about it. As you can see I was having trouble finding the best way to go about this. I knew teabags were inferior, but I was just trying to get a feel how I could do this best. I tasted the wort and it seemed to be near what I was trying to achieve. I think figuring this thing out (and converting the technique to AG) can produce some good results. I'll let you know in 6 weeks.

Just tasted the gravity reading for this one. i don't know what it is, but it tastes more bland than anything I've done so far. This is my first beer using no LME at all. I wanted the tea to be like a background flavor with the lemon barely noticeable. It seems that nothing is noticeable. It's only been 5 days which is much sooner than I've tasted a reading before. Its at 1.010 though. Started at 1.048. It's about done. I suppose I'll have to deviate from my original plan. I think I'm going to steep some tea bags in a little water. Not to hot as not to extract anything astringent. Let it go a couple hours, cool, and add to secondary. I guess the tea will have to be the primary flavor now. Anybody got a better idea?

For anyone thats interested, here's an update. I kegged this beer about three days ago. It's not a bad beer at all. It's crisp and tastes pretty good in this heat. Problem is, it's not at all what I was shooting for. I should have got some wheat DME instead of steeping. I'm not convinced steeping the wheat did anything. The lemon peel isn't showing at all and the tea is barely noticable. The tea is more of a slight after thought when I really wanted it to be in the forefront. Next time the plan will to be to brew a true American Wheat (AG, made the step) and figure something different for the tea. Probably mash some "good" tea leaves and add something to the secondary. Any suggestions? I think this has potential to be a damn good lawnmower beer. I'll keep on it.

It's been 2 yrs since the last post in this thread and I'm interested again. Sadly, I lost my notes for like the first 20 brews I made so this is from memory. I've brewed countless beers since then and I want to get back to nailing this recipe down. I moved on to AG shortly after my last post on this thread so it will have to be a different approach. My original recipe was better than I gave it credit for. The tea flavor came through after some time although the lemon did not. All in all, it turned out pretty good. So, 2 yrs. later, I really want to nail this down. I could use some advice, hoping that someone has played around with this idea a little. First, I'm wondering what style of beer would lend itself to the tea flavor the best. My goal is to have a low ABV, mild flavor profile, with a "distinct" tea flavor. I was thinking maybe a mild, an ESB, or just something very tame so that the tea flavor can shine.

The Plan: I think maybe some good tea leaves in the mash is a possibilty. If not, then just tea leaves at flameout worked pretty good last time. I just need to use more. If I can't pinpoint a solid way to mash the tea leaves then my plan is to add the leaves at flameout AND make a small amount of concentrated tea and add that to the secondary. The hop profile will have to be subtle so that the tea can come through. Tea leaves are delicious but they just cant compete with hop bittterness, flavor, etc. To me, iced tea is delicious and I think it would be very compatable with a mild tasting lawnmower beer. If anyone has any suggestions, let me have it. Like I said, it's been 2 yrs but I WILL make this work. I could really use some help though.

ALSO: Although IPA is not my favorite style, and I don't want THIS beer to be an IPA, I think that a tea flavored IPA might be very good with a tea flavor. It would just take the right hop schedule.........

I know this is a super old thread but I was wondering how the tea beer turned out?

I am planning a Green Tea IPA. First time brewing with tea. Whole leaf at flameout + secondary addition (after being steeped) seems to make sense.

You may want to PM brewtroll; he's pretty much nailed (with a lot of trial and error) a tea-infused ESB. He's brewed it a couple of different ways, I know; at flameout (for a short period) and dry-"teaing" after fermentation. It's an extremely good beer beer. The ESB is a nice base-beer, too; it's got enough of a backbone to balance out the little bit of astringency, and the tea flavor doesn't get lost in the hops.

Thanks! I PMd brewtroll but looks like he has not had any activity since 2012.

I did brew my beer a few days ago. Standard IPA recipe. For the tea, I added 4oz Sencha whole leaf and 2oz Mencha (approx) powder after flameout at 180 degrees for 2-3 minutes. Good tea aroma at that point! I re-brewed the same tea in a pot of water to get super dense tea liquid which I may add in the secondary.

Oh, he's around; I just saw him a couple weeks ago, and I know he's been on the forum.

EDIT: I must have his handle off a little bit, it looks like there's a "brewtroll" who I don't know that's someone else. Hmm... what the hell is his handle?

Made this again but went with a low IBU American wheat as the base. Basically doubled down on the tea and the lemon and added a lot of lemon zest to secodary. Much better. Been on quite a mead kick lately and have an "Arnold Palmer" mead in the works. We will see.

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BWRIGHT said:

Made this again but went with a low IBU American wheat as the base. Basically doubled down on the tea and the lemon and added a lot of lemon zest to secodary. Much better. Been on quite a mead kick lately and have an "Arnold Palmer" mead in the works. We will see.

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What's your current process for adding the tea flavor? I'd like to add tea either to one of my wedding beers, an APA (brewed and bubbling, so it would have to be secondary) and an American Wheat (Brewing in 2-3 weeks). My previous attempt, Pu-er Pale Ale, had no noticeable tea flavor, but your experience helps increase my confidence that it can be done.

I think it depends on what kind of tea you use. I'm used to drinking plain old iced tea and that's the flavor profile I was looking for. Green tea, earl grey, or anything else, I couldn't speak on. The lipton tea bags have a very subtle flavor. To get it to come through I threw a bunch of tea bags in at flameout (3/4 of a box if I recall). With the remaining 1/4 of the box I made about a quart of "sun tea." Let them steep in a powerade bottle for a couple of days out in the sun. I added that to my secondary. I'm assuming your wheat has lower IBU's than the pale ale so I would go with the wheat. I just don't think the subtleness of the tea can in any way compete with the bitterness of almost any hop. I threw most of my hop's in the last 15 minutes and at flameout.

I work at a tea shop and let me just give my 2 cents for anybody who is interested:

1.) Absolutely do not add the tea during the boil. It will be incredibly bitter. You will get little to no tea flavor. Just nasty harsh bitterness.

2.) Unless it is an herb, such as chamomile, do not steep it for longer than 4 or 5 minutes at most.

3.) Different teas will require different temperatures and steeping times. If you do a black tea, I'd recommend 3-4 minutes at 200-180 degrees. Green tea, 2-3 minutes at about 180 degrees. I wouldn't really recommend using green tea as it wouldn't have much of a flavor. I'd say stick to black tea.

4.) Don't use tea bags. The tea in tea bags is literally dust. If you want good tea flavor you need whole leaf loose leaf tea.

5.) I would recommend between 1-4oz of looseleaf tea. 1oz in a 5 gallon batch should give you a nice light accent, while 4oz will be a very bold predominant tea flavor. I'd say shoot somewhere in the middle.

Finally, I would definitely recommend using some lemon zest. If you are going for a lot of tea flavor, then don't be shy with the zest. Use a lot. It will go very nicely with the tea and will give you a nice Arnold Palmery taste.

Finally, someone who knows about tea. Sounds like wait a few minutes after flameout and throw it in...