is tea a tough ferment?

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George7845

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Ive been trolling forums and it seems no one has a hard tea recipe besides tea and vodka haha. I know there are two guys here trying it out, you would think it would actually be simple. Steep your tea, add enough sugar to 1.050, use a yeast that ferments to like 5% and bottle carbonate? There is obviously some element im over looking? I was also thinking, for hard lemonade couldnt you just use lemonade concentrate in frozen cans, balance to 1.050 og, and use a yeast that dies at 5%? I would like to make some sort of tea or lemonade because my lady would like it, and she may even promote my brewing haha.

Recipes, thoughts ..... George
 
I've been wondering about this too. Your "hard tea" recipe doesn't sound too good though. Think about what you'd have if you dissolved table sugar in water to 1.050, and fermented it. Not something that could be saved with a little tea.
 
maybe if you steeped tea, then proceeded to add lemon concentrate from cans to bring up og, then you would have lemon ice tea in theory. Or maybe steep tea in lemon concentrate, but that would sound sticky, idk, just throwing out ideas and thoughts.
 
I don't know of a yeast who's alcohol tolerance is so low it automatically would die off at 5%. Stopping at 5% would be more of a function of the yeast naturally finishing the fermenting process once a certain attenuation level has been acheived. If the sugar water ferment idea was used, most yeasts would attenuate close to 100% anyways because sugar is so simple for the yeast to eat.

Another idea would be to use DME as a base (or mash pale malt) and add your tea concentrate and ferment that. I'm not sure how that would come out, but the attenuation of the yeast would be closer to a standard 70-76%.
 
Well I'm trying the sugar water method myself right now. It certainly looks like tea right now. Who knows, could be a disaster or a pleasant surprise. I feel a bit like a mad scientist though.

I will find a workable recipe. Such lofty goals I have.
 
You guys are talking my kind of wierdness...

I have fermented coffee & tea along with several other things that arn't exactly beer or wine, & here is a summary of what I've learned.

DO--In a 5 gallon batch you want to add at least 3#'s Dry Malt extract otherwise your "beverage" will have no body, and be alot like tea and vodka. You can add cane preferably corn suger to you desired OG.

DO--You have to use 150% the flavorings or it will have a thin taste. The fermentation carrys away alot of the flavor/smellenoids {yes I just made that word up}, but the point is true. Brew with 1 & 1/2 times product. For some of us it will be the first time in a long time we have had tea and not hops in a "Tea ball"

Do-- Ph test and add citric acid"lemon juice" or you'll have fun finding this "lactic acid" for coffee, Add lots of yeast nutient, you are trying to ferment faintly brown water after all.

DoNOT-- Oversteep your tea, just like grains you do not want to release too much tannin (read bitter) from the leaves, coffee etc.

DoNOT-- use any chemical flavorings, everyone iv'e tried is amplyfied in the finished product

I have been kickin around the idea of bittering a beer with some black chi tea, and dry hopping with a noble hop.
 
i did a green tea , cran ras mead and it came out awesome ...after 2 yrs of aging... i can dig up the recipe if you want just pm me. sadly i didnt have that kind of patience and drank 95% of it after a few months hahaha luckily i gave some away and they were able to wait to drink it.
 
George, if you're kegging, this answer's easy.

Steep tea, add sugar and maltodextrin to an OG of 1.070ish, when the gravity's down to 1.020 or so, add campden to kill yeast, crash cool and force carbonate.

If you're bottle carbing, the only thing that sounds decent to me is:

Steep tea in water
Add sugar, honey, and maltodextrin until you get an OG of 1.110 or so
Ferment with normal ale yeast and let yeast die out around 1.020 or so, keeping some sweetness.
Age for a year to let alcohol calm down.

Only thing is if the yeast is dead, bottle carbing won't work, and if you add more yeast it might ferment down to 1.008 or so.
 
Im intrigued by this thread. Will be watching you fellas experiment. I would like to try a hard tea if a good recipe evolves:)
 
I think im going to do a experimental batch with steeped tea, honey, and #3s dry malt extract. Ill leave out carbonation cause i dont have kegging capabilities, but can someone tell me what ( #3s dry malt extract) is? i know what dme is, but i dont know how it is categorized or what brand to use. I also wonder what would be a good yeast to use?
 
George you live in NY so this should make you do this...:ban:

I buy all my bulk pruducts from www.countrymaltgroup.com out of NY check out there catalog here Dried Malt Extract
Produced from 100% malted barley for true beer flavor. An average yield of 1.040 SG points per pound/per gallon can be expected.
(BR-PL-D50) Briess Light Dry Extract 50 pound bag $98

I go through a 50# bag about every 3 months and use it in all my partial mash batches, and have found it great for adding body to anything that doesn't go well with grapes, raisens etc. Your about as local as I am so you can get it shipped for about $20 bucks. Little over $2/per #

You can only pay $4+ per pound for so long before you realize Im gonna use it sooner or later might as well buy bulk

Hokie
You have given me a great idea with the Maltodextrin. Ive used in some stouts & porters I've made, but it hadn't occured to me to use it in my malty cider, tea's, coffee, and other such crazyness. I'm gonna have to sit down and plan out some experimental 1 gallon batches.

NOTE: About mixing fermentation with Maltose(grain suger) & Sucrose(cane suger) &/or fructose (fruit/honey suger)
It has been my experience that as long as you feed your little yeasties nutients they wont have a problem {read-stuck fermentation} but if your desired potential Alchol is of over 10% ABV you should let all the malt ferment out in the primary, rack, and then add any cane or honey. Yeast like to eat sugers like a 3 coarse meal fruit, then cane, then malt.
 
RuBrew,
I was surprised to find this section on the site and am intrigued by your notes as I have been having some difficulty with the last two tea ferments that I've tried... I am doing herbal tea ferments and keep getting a sour off flavor that at first I thught was from the herbs used, but now believe that it is a lactic acid infection. So, you are saying that the addition of citric acid will inhibit lactic acid, as well as yeast nutrients? If so, how much of each and what are you looking for with a PH test? Thanks for the info; maybe I can get one of these tea brews right after all with your info!

You guys are talking my kind of wierdness...

I have fermented coffee & tea along with several other things that arn't exactly beer or wine, & here is a summary of what I've learned.

DO--In a 5 gallon batch you want to add at least 3#'s Dry Malt extract otherwise your "beverage" will have no body, and be alot like tea and vodka. You can add cane preferably corn suger to you desired OG.

DO--You have to use 150% the flavorings or it will have a thin taste. The fermentation carrys away alot of the flavor/smellenoids {yes I just made that word up}, but the point is true. Brew with 1 & 1/2 times product. For some of us it will be the first time in a long time we have had tea and not hops in a "Tea ball"

Do-- Ph test and add citric acid"lemon juice" or you'll have fun finding this "lactic acid" for coffee, Add lots of yeast nutient, you are trying to ferment faintly brown water after all.

DoNOT-- Oversteep your tea, just like grains you do not want to release too much tannin (read bitter) from the leaves, coffee etc.

DoNOT-- use any chemical flavorings, everyone iv'e tried is amplyfied in the finished product

I have been kickin around the idea of bittering a beer with some black chi tea, and dry hopping with a noble hop.
 
Here's something I'm trying... I took a bottle of my extra hard lemonade, added a bag of lipton tea to it and recapped it. I've got the string danglin' so I can just pull out the bag when I try it. I'm not sure how long I'll let it sit in there before I give it a try. :)

0813100941.jpg
 
I have 12 gallons of hard lemonade going right now.. Have made hard tea twice. The hard lemonade is Yooperbrews recipe with the addition of 2 pounds of mashed 2 row( a gallon) as a starter just dumped in...When this is finished, 6 gallons are gonna have smirnoff blueberry vodka added before bottling. I have had mikes hard lemonade with a shot of the blueberry vodka in a bottle and it is REALLY good. I will add two fifths to 6 gallons......The hard tea is this recipe. This is the second time making it.

STEEPED 60 ORANGE SPICED TEA BAGS( I get em in bulk from a neighbor who gets em somewhere) IN APPROXIMATELY 2 GALLONS OF WATER...BROUGHT TO A BOIL THEN LET SET FOR 15 MINUTES....RINSED AND "TEA BAGGED" THE BAGS AND ADDED 4 POUNDS OF SUGAR TO THE MUST. HEATED AND STIRRED UNTIL DISSOLVED. TOPPED UP WITH COLD WATER TO 5 GALLONS. WAITED UNTIL TEMP DROPPED A BIT THEN ADDED 1 PACKET OF OF RED STAR PASTEUR CHAMPAGNE YEAST.
ADDED 4 MORE POUNDS OF SUGAR ON 1-3-10 BUBBLING AWAY SO COMBINED I SHOULD HAVE A GRAVITY OF 1.072
ADDED 2 POUNDS SUGAR ON 2-11-10 would make the OG 1.090...slow airlock activity..

checked on it visually on 2-27-10....very little airlock activity but visible signs of fermentation ( bubbles) in the carboy. Will check gravity soon.
4-1-10 SG= 1.030
4-24-10 SG=1.028
stabilized and bottled still. tastes like pumpkin spices to me.
 
I was thinking about tryind a hard tea. Can one simply buy a gallon of pre-made ice tee and add sugar and yeast?
 
You guys might try Brown Rice Syrup instead of Dry Malt Extract. It has about the same fermentability, but has very little taste. This should let your tea taste shine through. Make sure to add some yeast nutrient as well if you only use BRS.

We have done GF tea beer over in the gluten free forum for those who are interested. Sounds somewhat similar to the main purpose in this thread, and also when someone asked about adding black tea to beer.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f164/tea-198531/
 
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