Methods for adding tea?

Making a chai tea stout. Going to add the tea component once done fermenting.

Trying to figure out best way to add it and have seen a few suggestions but thought I would ask.

Create tea with vodka and add to secondary
Just drop in tea bags like dry hopping
Make a strong tea with boiling water cool and add.

Any feedback suggestions


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If you're adding the tea after primary fermentation is done, I would think that the alcohol would provide a hostile environment to any microscopic critters living in the tea, making the risk of infection low if you just pour the tea in.

As a long-time tea drinker, I'll advise against just dropping the tea bags in there. Getting the proper flavour out of tea (loose-leaf or bagged) involves using the right water temperature and taking the tea out of the water before the tannins start coming out.

My limited experience with it was drinking a commercial beer that was dry "hopped" with Earl Grey in an IPA. It was fantastic. Very subtle and if I remember (large dose of salt here with my memory), the brewer said he did it for a day or so.

If it were me, I would try all three methods with water and see which I like the best. You can then experiment with a bit of uncarbed beer before packaging as to which method achieves your desired results.

I would be worried about bitterness from the hot water approach. My thought is that its like coffee, in that you want flavor and aroma without bitterness or added acidity which hot extraction can achieve. Your goals may be different though.

I did an experiment with Pineapple Kona Pop/Passionfruit tea blend into a pale ale and divided up into 6 growlers for fermenting:
G1-no added tea, the "base beer"
G2-base beer + steeped tea added post fermentation
G3-base beer + a tea "dry hop" for 2 days
G4-base beer + tea in during entire fermentation
G5-base beer + tea made from boiled wort, cooled, in for all fermentation
G6-G5 + a tea "dry hop" for 2 days

I had my homebrew club judge and then had a smaller judging panel at my house the next week and results were consistent.

Overall, favs were:
#1-G6
#2-G4
#3-G3
#4-G5

Surprisingly, many people thought G4 was the most balanced, but the dry hopping really made the tea aroma pop.

Since I used a very fruity tea blend, this worked well. I'm not sure with a more bitter tea if you'd want to leave it in the whole time. I personally liked the wort tea with dry hopped tea at the end the best.

WWJPD said:

I did an experiment with Pineapple Kona Pop/Passionfruit tea blend into a pale ale and divided up into 6 growlers for fermenting:

Click to expand...

How much tea (per galon/liter) have you used for both wort and dry hopping?

For the wort tea, I used 2tsp of each so 4tsp total in a tea ball in 16oz of wort. For the dry hops, I used 2tsp of each per 64oz growler. I just threw the tea into the growlers. I cut a bit of paint strainer bag material and put that over the end of my auto siphon when siphoning out into bottles. For the bottles I used carb tabs.