recipe scaling and experimental recipes

[euripaetus]

hi, i am relatively new to brewing but love it. I have only brewed one recipe made by someone else (my first batch, a bland scottish ale), and am bubbling with ideas for new unorthodox beers (inclusion of things like tea, spices, even some veggies).
i am planning on brewing a green tea ipa, but because i am somewhat new to the hobby and am not totally confident that it will turn out, I dont want to bust out 5 gallons of it if it turns out to be dreadful. Can I simply cut a recipe in half, or do i need to worry about compensating for the various fermentables, hop bitterness and all that technical stuff?
additionally, does anyone have any good ideas for how to add the green tea so that it doesnt become bitter (as oversteeped green tea easily becomes) or not even noticable? i was planning on dry hopping the tea leaves with the hops in the secondary.
the recipe (for a 5gal batch) i was going to use is one that I found online and modified slightly (beerrecipes.org)
3.3 lbs Coopers Light Malt Syrup
3.0 lbs. Coopers Light Dry Malt Extract
1 lb. Munich Malt 10L
1 lb. Great Western 2-Row pale malt
1 lb. Crystal 20L Malt
2 oz Centennial Hops (boil 60 minutes, 9.4% AA)
1 oz Cascade Hops (boil 15 minutes, 6.0% AA)
1 oz Cascade Hops (boil 2 minutes, 6.0% AA)
1 oz Cascade Hops (dry hopped in secondary)
6 oz Green Tea leaves (dry "hopped" in secondary)
1 Teaspoon Irish Moss (boil 45 minutes)
3/4 cup dextrose at bottling
Wyeast 1056

To sum up, (1) can i just half this recipe for a 2.5 gallon batch? and (2) is this amount of green tea approriate?

 

[ArcaneXor]

I do these sort of experiments in 1-gallon batches. 1-gallon glass jugs can be found in most grocery stores (filled with apple juice) for around $6-8. You can ferment several of them side-by-side, changing one variable between the different containers (e.g. the amount of tea added). That way, you can compare different versions of the same recipe easily and then upscale whichever one you like the most. Linear scaling should work fairly well.

Keep in mind that with the recipe you posted, you'll need to do a partial mash (aka mini-mash), otherwise the 2-row and Munich Malt will do little bit cloud up your beer with starch.

 

[dcp27]

I'd at least quarter the hop additions. I think the cascade would work well with the green tea though

 

[euripaetus]

in lieu of a partial mash, what would you suggest?

 

[bbrim]

I suggest you allow some portion of the beer to be bottled without the green tea. As a new brewer it is important that you taste the base beer so you will know if off flavors are a result of the exotic ingredient you used or if it is an inherent flaw in your technique. When you transfer to secondary siphon one gallon off to the bottling bucket as a sample. If the green tea beer tastes off, astringent maybe, then you can go try the beer without the tea and find out if the tea did it, or if it was something at an earlier stage.

 

[dcp27]

have you tied DFH's Sah'tea: http://www.dogfish.com/brews-spirits/the-brews/occassional-rarities/sahtea-0.htm
it seems similar to one of those unorthodox beers you're thinking of making. personally i didnt like it, but i like hops, not juniper berries so it wasnt meant to be

 

[euripaetus]

well, it took me a while to get around to posting a reply. i brewed it in two batches, one without the green tea, the other with. the regular ipa was hefty on the hop character, but for an intense hophead like me, it was great. the green tea ipa though...the aroma was simply incredible. however, the beer was acrid and downright disgusting. i gave it to friends as a joke. a really really mean joke. most of the beer went into the toilet after i tried one.

 

[euripaetus]

oh, oops. the beer recipe i used was a slightly hoppier clone of mirror pond with cascade hops.