BWRIGHT said:
Let's say I throw "x" amount of tea bags into the water with my steeping grains. I pull them out with the grains and boil as normal. How am I going to extract whatever it is that makes tea astringent if the tea is not actually boiling.
The thing is that you have already extracted that stuff. It just doesn't get as harsh and astringent until you boil it. And, if you haven't so extracted that stuff, then I do not know that you got everything you wanted out of that tea because you only steeped at 150-160 or so, which is far below the temperature of the water you would normally use to make tea. If you were to steep for a few hours or more, then you might be onto something (like how you go about making sun tea), but I do not know that a half hour will do it.
Keep in mind that, when I've said "I do not know" all these time, I mean it. I do not know because I have not done it or heard from some authority about it.
What I have heard about sun tea not being sanitary is that it just doesn't get that hot. You take these leaves that could have Heaven knows what on them, and then you add them to water that is lukewarm, at its hottest, and let it all sit around for a few hours or so. Those are unsanitary conditions. I do not know much about it, except that I haven't seen sun tea around here in ages.
If you make a tea concentrate in a traditional way (i.e., adding a bunch more tea leaves to the normal amount of water coming just off the boil), then you do not have to sanitize it any further. That water is hot enough to nuke anything. That's especially true if you go ahead and use a sanitary jar or something. Let that stuff cool, and then add it to the secondary. You do not have to use the sun tea method to make a concentrate, if that is what you are thinking.
I tell you what. This beer better rock!
I'll laugh about the Miss Teen South Carolina remark for a long time.