Tea beer

My father has taken an interest in my beer brewing, and absolutely loves tea, specifically oolong. I was wondering if anyone has tried to make an oolong or green tea beer. Thanks!

 

I haven't but dogfish head uses tea in a couple of their beers and IMO they taste great.

 

I have a beer brewed with tea in the primary. I added half an ounce of black tea (ceylon) in the last 5 minutes of boil. I took a shot on the amount and when to add. I'll draw some off in a week or so and report back.

 

Disclaimer: I have never done this.

It seems like throwing it in at flame out or with 1 minute left would be good. I thought you were supposed to steep tea and not boil it, as that would draw out too much astringency (read: tannins), that may not be the case with green tea.

just thoughts.

 

Yes, my father says never to boil tea for that reason

 

The way I see it you have a few options. I'm still trying to decide which would be best for my plan, but here's the two possibilities I'm wrestling with. The first option would be to make the tea, then use the tea as your boil/top off water. My second thought would be to add the tea at flame out after the wort has had a minute or so to cool, then steep for a few minutes before chilling the wort to pitching temps. I know people have also added to secondary, and/or left the tea in the wort during fermentation, but knowing how tea's flavor changes as it's left in hot water, I think you'd probably want to keep it as close to normal tea steeping as normal.

 

OK, am tasting the beer I brewed now, and it is really, really good. I would say to add in the flameout as well. There is a hint of astringency in mine that I would guess came from adding the tea to early. Still, it is an interesting and nice taste overall, smooth and subtle.

 

Rosewater: What size batch did you add the 1/2 oz. of tea to?

 

and what base style?

 

It was for a 5 gallon batch. I plan on increasing the amount of tea next time. While the tea flavor is there, it is really subtle in this amount. I may only really notice the flavor because I know it is there. At this amount, it serves mostly to make the beer more complex without necessarily contributing an overt tea flavor. Better than over doing it I suppose....

And the base style was/is a brown ale. I'm working out this recipe as an homage to Proust (want it to taste like a mix of tea and cookie; see Swann's Way).

 

Why not make Kombucha?

There is a whole forum dedicated to it on this site.

 

This does interest me somewhat, but I wanted to make a beer first with these other flavors as accent.