Dark Ice Tea.

So I have been wanting to make a beer with black loose leaf tea in it. I'm wondering if anyone here has tried something like this? I'm looking for a slight tea flavor, dark and thick as possible.

I have 4lbs of BRS, 1lb extra dark belgian candi, 1lb malto, 1lb lactose.

I'm wondering what types of hops and yeast I should use. I am looking for a Floral smell and a spicy tea flavor. Would perle (germany) hops work? Also if so what works well with that combo?

Thanks for any help.
T

I was thinking...

Cascade - 60 min
Perle (German) - 30mins
Perle (German) - 15mins
Black Tea - 15mins

Any thoughts? I'm thinking the Tea will make it a little more bitter so I should not put as much bittering hops in. Anyone have any ideas. Is this going to be a good hop combo for what I'm looking for?

T

Prob first time posting in this forum but ill take a stab at it.

"tea leaves" are very void of most styles you will try because its just like malt. You dont boil your tea do you? You steep it and let the flavors extract. This is because most of the volatile oils will be boiled off and your left with highly bittered tannic beer.

If i were you i would add it in the whirlpool/flameout and let it steep for 15-20min before chilling

I agree with Johnny! Throw some tea bags in after the boil, when your wort reaches about 180 or so. Let it stay at that temperature for like 10-15 minutes, tasting it as you go so you don't get too much flavor or bitterness.

For hops, I think Willamette would work well, as an aroma hop, maybe to dry hop with? I don't know, that's just the first hop that came to mind.

5-6 minutes for a good cup of tea- 10-15 would cause a bitter drink in a cup- no reason why that would be the same in a wort... I'd pull 'em after 6 minutes

A couple of options, steep at flameout. Brew up some tea and add to primary once cooled. Or add to secondary.

I read about a green tea pale ale. I think that would be great. Have you tried Russian caravan tea?

Right, 5 or 6 minutes would be way better than 10-15.

I wonder if you'd get a clearer tea taste if you added it post fermentation? Or added some tea bags to secondary then racked onto them? Just some ideas.

So I was thinking something like this:

(60 mins) 4 lbs 8.0 oz - Brown Rice Syrup
(60 mins) 1 lbs - Candi Sugar, Extra Dark Aromatic
(60 mins) 1 lbs - Milk Sugar (Lactose)
(60 mins) 1.00 oz - Cascade [3.20 %]
(30 mins) 1.00 oz - Liberty [3.40 %]
(15 mins) 1.00 oz - Perle [7.80 %]
(10 mins) 2.42 g - Yeast Nutrient
(5 mins) 1.00 lb - Malto-Dextrine

Already brewed black china tea at cool down not sure how much...
SafAle S-04

Any thoughts or suggestions? Anyone know how I can get a general color calculation for the tea? I was trying to see if there was brewed coffee in BeerSmith and just use that but I couldn't find it.

So I finally got around to making this beer up. In the final recipe I added 2 lbs of oats, I prepared them like I talked about in this thread, "what to do with oats". In beersmith my gravity was supposed to be 1.039 SG but I came out with a gravity of 1.073.

What did I do wrong? That seems horribly wrong, did beersmith not calculate for my oats sugar to be extracted?

Any light shed on this would be amazing I'm kinda lost.

T

What was the batch size? Also, a lot times with extract, the wort doesn't fully mix with the water. It's possible you pulled from a pocket of denser wort.

It was a 5.5 gallon batch. I did add a lot of water and took my sample from the bottom. I have never had a batch that far off so I was just wondering.

I think it may be something else that is throwing my reading off. The beer finished at 1.03. The alcohol content taisted right in the beer, it wasnt sweet at all or anything like that. Maybe my float is off or its the ice tea giving me bad readings.