Adding tea to beer

[deadwolfbones]

So I just moved back Stateside from Vietnam, where I ran a specialty coffee shop. We also carried some pretty amazing green tea, so I brought some of it back. I'd love to incorporate it into a lighter beer—I'm thinking a pretty basic pils/wheat saison.

Does anyone have any thoughts or experience re: the best ways to incorporate the tea without tannin extraction, etc?

My initial thought was to basically dry hop with it—3 to 5 days in a wire mesh tube before bottling. I know some people have concerns about contamination, but I'm one of those people who thinks the unhospitable environment (especially in a saison that's down around 1.001) will be enough to keep the bugs away.

Any advantage to adding it to the boil, or making cold brew tea and adding it before bottling, or doing an extract, or... ?

Or any combination of the above?

TIA!

 

[JugDog]

I had the thought of adding earl grey to an esb recently. I haven’t tried it yet but my plan would be to add maybe 10 +/- teabags at flameout.

Green tea in a saison sounds like it could be a good combo.

 

[don_bran321]

The lower the temperature the less likely you will have the astringent flavors and that dry taste in your mouth.
I would steep it for like 3 or 4 minutes at 160degrees after flame out.

 

[VaBrewer]

I had the thought of adding earl grey to an esb recently. I haven’t tried it yet but my plan would be to add maybe 10 +/- teabags at flameout.

Green tea in a saison sounds like it could be a good combo.

I recently brewed an ESB and put two Stash Tea Double Bergamot Earl Grey tea bags in the keg at room temp for three days. Results are amazing.

 

[Jayjay1976]

This does sound delicious, green tea saison. Can you steep the tea briefly to limit tannin extraction, and add it at flameout? I'm imagining a high ratio of tea to water, for a short period would extract only the lighter, more delicate fractions that would be most desirable for adding only the flavors and aromas without the bittering potential.

 

[TwistedGray]

I've done tea beers before and I use it as a dry hop. I use the raw leaves and leave it on depending on how much I want the flavor of the tea to come through. ...post fermentation

Green tea is going to likely bring in a lot of bitterness, as you know. Adjust hops accordingly or add in non fermentables.

 

[bpgreen]

http://capitalteas.com

 

[FatDragon]

I second dry hopping. I think that's how the local brewmaster makes his green tea IPA and he gets a great green tea flavor in that beer with very little astringency or bitterness. I think he's in the range of 2.5 kg for 300 liters, though I could be wrong on both method and amount so don't assign too much value to this comment...

 

[Miraculix]

I would first heat it up in a small portion of water up to typical green tea temperature to open it up and to desinfect it. Then discard the water and the unwanted tannins from the first brew and dump the leaves afterwards in the fermenter as dry hop.

The second brew of green tea is mostly regarded superior to the first one anyway. So make the first one fairly quick, about one minute and then go ahead as described.

I had beers with Nepalese black tea inside... I know the brewer and there was a fair amount of it inside, still I could not taste any of it. Only beer.