Beermaker
The NAVY WALRUS
Has anyone thought of adding Vanilla Chai to a Sweet Stout or a Brown Ale or something?
Chai?
- Thread starter Beermaker
- Start date
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Kayos
Well-Known Member
Ooooooooooo...that sounds good in a sweet stout or cream ale. Lemme know if you come up with something.
LouT
Can't wait to go AG...
Been a few discussions on here I think, I was wondering about Chai beer, too, a while back. Search with the words Chai and tea in this forum, you'll get some hits. Let me know if you find someone that's tried it. I think I did see something when I googled, and also heard that one of the breweries up here (maybe in Maine or NH) did a chai beer, but have never gotten any feedback from anyone that has tasted it or brewed it....
Repost if you come up with anything "good"!
Repost if you come up with anything "good"!
Kayos
Well-Known Member
Found this:
http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator?group=55&item=4219
I was thinking maybe a wheat chai.....
http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator?group=55&item=4219
I was thinking maybe a wheat chai.....
LouT
Can't wait to go AG...
I came across this thread this morning, from an older use-group thread, late 90's, but looks like a decent recipe for a chai beer:
...and David Johnson <dmjalj`at`inwave.com> wrote:
> My comment would be that we could request that the recipe
should be shared
> with all of us especially with that kind of praise having been
heaped on
> it. Although I may never brew a curry beer, I am interested in
how Brian
> might have used his spices. In fact, I am interested in
learning how to
> used spices better and read posts on this subject closely here
and on the
> Mead Lovers Digest.
Wow! Thanks George, for such praise. I'm always happy to share
recipes. Actually, I think I may have shared this one with some
of you already during the thread on Anchor's 1997 Our Special
Ale. I think that there is a strong resemblance albeit not an
exact duplicate.
As my brother-in-beer, Mike Bardallis, pointed out, it is in
Amahl Turczyn's book, A Year of Beer, (It's the last recipe.),
but here are some better directions for brewing this recipe.
First of all, the recipe is based on an Indian spiced tea called
"Chai", which is a combination of black tea, six spices, honey
and milk. They usually serve it at yuppie-granola coffee shops,
very similar to those found in Boulder, Colorado. (Curiosity
caused me to break from my coffee routine one day and try the
tea.)
What struck me is that all the spices blended into one very
pleasant taste and that's what I wanted to emulate. Obviously, I
had to omit the milk. I thought the black tea would leave too
much tannic acid bite so I added some roasted barley to emulate
the tea. I choose not to use honey because I didn't want to
lighten the body and I wanted the beer to remain "sweet" from the
malt.
Adding the spices was the tricky part. I first added them
directly to the wort, but the extraction was low due to the
viscosity of the wort itself. (It wasn't spicy enough.) I also
tried "dry spicing" in the primary, but each spice flavor
separated to where you could taste them all individually. (It
was interesting, but no what I wanted.) So what I came up with
is first making a "tea" of the spices, then adding that to the
wort. This worked very well and I would recommend this procedure
when you want one complex flavor from your spices.
(Sorry about the long introduction. It just nice to be talking
about brewing. Thanks.) Anyway, here's the recipe.
Chai Beer (aka India Chai Ale)
- brian rezac
- ------------------------------------------
8 lbs. Munton & Fison light malt extract
1 lb. English crystal malt (55 L)
8 oz. Belgian Munich malt
4 oz. Belgian CaraPils malt
4 oz. Briess chocolate malt
4 oz. Briess roasted barley
2 oz. Cascade, 4.9% AA (70 min)
3/4 oz. Saaz, 3.0% AA (15 min)
1/2 oz. Saaz, 3.0% AA (2 min)
1 teaspoon Irish moss (15 min)
1 teaspoon Burton salts (optional)
Wyeast #1007 - German ale yeast
Naturally carbonate, bottle condition.
Spices
- ---------------
120 Cardamom pods, (cracked slightly - just enough to open the
pods)
11 teaspoons Cinnamon chips
11 teaspoons whole Coriander
5 1/2 teaspoons whole Cloves
5 1/2 teaspoons whole black Peppercorns
11 inches fresh, peeled, sliced Ginger root (or 5 teaspoons dried
ginger chips)
Adding Spices
- ---------------------
In a separate pot, boil all spices in approximately 1 quart of
water for 20 minutes. (You should have the spices boiling about
the same time as you start the wort boiling.)
After 20 minutes of a nice rolling boil, shut off heat, cover and
leave spices sit in water for another 20 minutes.
At 20 minutes left to the wort boil, add spice tea through a
strainer directly into wort.
A few months after I came up with this recipe, my daughter,
Caitlin, who was seven at the time, came to me with a whole
advertising campaign of four different ads that she had drawn in
crayon. The theme or tag-line in all the ads was, "Chai Beer.
It's a good beverage."
Enjoy!
Brian Rezac
Administrator
American Homebrewers Association
736 Pearl Street, Boulder, CO 80302
brian`at`aob.org http://beertown.org
I hope it was ok to cut & paste this. Figured it would be a lot easier and more reliable than a link. -LouT
...and David Johnson <dmjalj`at`inwave.com> wrote:
> My comment would be that we could request that the recipe
should be shared
> with all of us especially with that kind of praise having been
heaped on
> it. Although I may never brew a curry beer, I am interested in
how Brian
> might have used his spices. In fact, I am interested in
learning how to
> used spices better and read posts on this subject closely here
and on the
> Mead Lovers Digest.
Wow! Thanks George, for such praise. I'm always happy to share
recipes. Actually, I think I may have shared this one with some
of you already during the thread on Anchor's 1997 Our Special
Ale. I think that there is a strong resemblance albeit not an
exact duplicate.
As my brother-in-beer, Mike Bardallis, pointed out, it is in
Amahl Turczyn's book, A Year of Beer, (It's the last recipe.),
but here are some better directions for brewing this recipe.
First of all, the recipe is based on an Indian spiced tea called
"Chai", which is a combination of black tea, six spices, honey
and milk. They usually serve it at yuppie-granola coffee shops,
very similar to those found in Boulder, Colorado. (Curiosity
caused me to break from my coffee routine one day and try the
tea.)
What struck me is that all the spices blended into one very
pleasant taste and that's what I wanted to emulate. Obviously, I
had to omit the milk. I thought the black tea would leave too
much tannic acid bite so I added some roasted barley to emulate
the tea. I choose not to use honey because I didn't want to
lighten the body and I wanted the beer to remain "sweet" from the
malt.
Adding the spices was the tricky part. I first added them
directly to the wort, but the extraction was low due to the
viscosity of the wort itself. (It wasn't spicy enough.) I also
tried "dry spicing" in the primary, but each spice flavor
separated to where you could taste them all individually. (It
was interesting, but no what I wanted.) So what I came up with
is first making a "tea" of the spices, then adding that to the
wort. This worked very well and I would recommend this procedure
when you want one complex flavor from your spices.
(Sorry about the long introduction. It just nice to be talking
about brewing. Thanks.) Anyway, here's the recipe.
Chai Beer (aka India Chai Ale)
- brian rezac
- ------------------------------------------
8 lbs. Munton & Fison light malt extract
1 lb. English crystal malt (55 L)
8 oz. Belgian Munich malt
4 oz. Belgian CaraPils malt
4 oz. Briess chocolate malt
4 oz. Briess roasted barley
2 oz. Cascade, 4.9% AA (70 min)
3/4 oz. Saaz, 3.0% AA (15 min)
1/2 oz. Saaz, 3.0% AA (2 min)
1 teaspoon Irish moss (15 min)
1 teaspoon Burton salts (optional)
Wyeast #1007 - German ale yeast
Naturally carbonate, bottle condition.
Spices
- ---------------
120 Cardamom pods, (cracked slightly - just enough to open the
pods)
11 teaspoons Cinnamon chips
11 teaspoons whole Coriander
5 1/2 teaspoons whole Cloves
5 1/2 teaspoons whole black Peppercorns
11 inches fresh, peeled, sliced Ginger root (or 5 teaspoons dried
ginger chips)
Adding Spices
- ---------------------
In a separate pot, boil all spices in approximately 1 quart of
water for 20 minutes. (You should have the spices boiling about
the same time as you start the wort boiling.)
After 20 minutes of a nice rolling boil, shut off heat, cover and
leave spices sit in water for another 20 minutes.
At 20 minutes left to the wort boil, add spice tea through a
strainer directly into wort.
A few months after I came up with this recipe, my daughter,
Caitlin, who was seven at the time, came to me with a whole
advertising campaign of four different ads that she had drawn in
crayon. The theme or tag-line in all the ads was, "Chai Beer.
It's a good beverage."
Enjoy!
Brian Rezac
Administrator
American Homebrewers Association
736 Pearl Street, Boulder, CO 80302
brian`at`aob.org http://beertown.org
I hope it was ok to cut & paste this. Figured it would be a lot easier and more reliable than a link. -LouT
Personally, I can't stand the taste of chai. Going to toss my cookies now...
Enjoy your beer...
Enjoy your beer...
