Beginner with a couple of questions...

[PepperoniKris]

Hello everybody!

I am a chef and thought it would be fun to play around with brewing some beer. Before buying a proper set-up I thought I would try something out on the small scale first.

I found a Mr. Beer Long Play IPA kit for fairly cheap and thought it would be a fun way to start. After doing a bit of looking around online, I get the impression the Mr. Beer kits are not really the greatest though (I guess that is what I get for making an impulse buy after a few beers!).

I have a few ideas to jazz it up and was looking for a bit of help. I want to turn this IPA into an Earl Grey IPA. My plan was to steep my tea in the water that I would be adding to the "keg". The kit makes 2 gallons of beer and 64 grams of loose tea makes about 2 gallons.

Am I on the right track with this technique? Thank you in advance for your help!

 

[Pie_Man]

Welcome to brewing.

I have not used Mr. Beer myself, but it sounds like you are adding top off water to the wort, or in your case, topping off with earl grey tea. What you are describing can work.It's your first beer, have fun. A few things to keep in mind. Tea will probably add astringency and extra bitterness, so keep this in mind in regards to your recipe. If it were me, I would forgo the tea and just brew the IPA, but by all means, have fun and do your thing.

An alternate approach:
- Top off with regular water and ferment the beer per the directions.
- Taste the beer, if you think it still needs a little something extra, you can "dry hop/tea" Dry hopping is a technique where you add additional hops to the beer while in the fermenter, typically after fermentation ends. In your case, add the tea leafs to the fermenter (perhaps in a muslin bag for easy removal) after the fermentation appears over (final gravity reached).
- This allows you a few things: One, you can taste the fermented beer before adding tea to determine how it turned out unadulterated. Two, fermentation produces a lot of CO2. It is possible that the tea flavors will be reduced by the fermentation process, so adding the tea at the end gives you a better chance for the tea flavors to come across.

 

[C-Rider]

If this is your FIRST bier I'd say just follow the directions and get to know what's what before experimenting. When you have the procedure down, mashing, fermenting, boiling, carbonating then begin to experiment. Keep good notes at all stages.

 

[Dcpcooks]

Chef to chef go for it. Limit o2 pickup after fermentation so no splashing! use a syphon to add your tea to the bottom of your beer. Cheers!

You'll never look at your steam kettle the same.

 

[Yooper]

Hello everybody!

I am a chef and thought it would be fun to play around with brewing some beer. Before buying a proper set-up I thought I would try something out on the small scale first.

I found a Mr. Beer Long Play IPA kit for fairly cheap and thought it would be a fun way to start. After doing a bit of looking around online, I get the impression the Mr. Beer kits are not really the greatest though (I guess that is what I get for making an impulse buy after a few beers!).

I have a few ideas to jazz it up and was looking for a bit of help. I want to turn this IPA into an Earl Grey IPA. My plan was to steep my tea in the water that I would be adding to the "keg". The kit makes 2 gallons of beer and 64 grams of loose tea makes about 2 gallons.

Am I on the right track with this technique? Thank you in advance for your help!

I love tea, and I love IPAs. Together, I would not be a fan.

To see if it really is your, er, cup of tea, maybe take a good IPA and add some tea to it. If it tastes great to you, then I'd say it'd be a worthwhile brew for you.

Most people don't like those "tannic" flavors in their beers, finding it astringent and harsh with the sweet malt and bitter hops. We take steps to avoid those flavors, actually, by maintaining certain temperatures to not extract tannins from the husks of the grain so for me I don't think it'd be something I would like.

If it's not the tea flavor, but instead the bergamot, maybe finding an alternative ingredient that has that bergamot flavor/aroma might work for you.

I would be more inclined to make it as directed, except to keep the temperature at 65-66 degrees of the fermenting beer as possible, and forget adding tea to it. To me, adding tea to beer sounds awful. If you end up with an awful beer in the end, it's not the end of the world but you wont' know if it's the Mr Beer or the tea addition. So I'd just go with the recipe itself and make changes in the NEXT batch if desired.

 

[Sammy86]

I love tea, and I love IPAs. Together, I would not be a fan.



To see if it really is your, er, cup of tea, maybe take a good IPA and add some tea to it. If it tastes great to you, then I'd say it'd be a worthwhile brew for you.



Most people don't like those "tannic" flavors in their beers, finding it astringent and harsh with the sweet malt and bitter hops. We take steps to avoid those flavors, actually, by maintaining certain temperatures to not extract tannins from the husks of the grain so for me I don't think it'd be something I would like.



If it's not the tea flavor, but instead the bergamot, maybe finding an alternative ingredient that has that bergamot flavor/aroma might work for you.



I would be more inclined to make it as directed, except to keep the temperature at 65-66 degrees of the fermenting beer as possible, and forget adding tea to it. To me, adding tea to beer sounds awful. If you end up with an awful beer in the end, it's not the end of the world but you wont' know if it's the Mr Beer or the tea addition. So I'd just go with the recipe itself and make changes in the NEXT batch if desired.

Listen to this lady...she knows what she's talking about...just FYI from what I've heard (saw over in the Masshole thread) she's is worshipped by many