Awesome tea wine

[Brew2Be]

Hi everyone. I want to share this recipe I kinda came up with myself after reading on the forum and googling around a bit. It's nothing fancy but it works and it tastes fruity.

- 4 teabags per liter of fluid. Which means making a 3 litre batch would require 12 teabags
- Water
- Sugar
- Tea (I used Pickwick Forest Fruit)
- Juice from a lemon
- Yeast (I used Lalvin 71B-1122)
- Nutrient (I used Nutrisal)

So first you boil all the teabags in a pot for 45-60 minutes or at least until they are drained for all flavor and scent. After this you add sugar to your desired S.G. I made mine around 8% estimated ABV. Shake it up real good. Do not let any sugar settle at the bottom as this could throw off your hydrometer reading. Let cool. When cool add yeast (I used Lalvin 71B-1122), lemon juice and nutrient. Shake really well to aerate and to mix in the yeast. Let sit for a few weeks. Mine was done fermenting after about two weeks. Once finished cold crash and backsweeten to taste. Below is a picture of the process of boiling the teabags. Enjoy and serve cold!

 

[Tw0fish]

Very cool ive heard that the yeast really like tea tannins.. have you found that the flavor changes with fermentation? Like.. not as bitter? Because i assume youre fermenting it dry.

 

[Brew2Be]

Very cool ive heard that the yeast really like tea tannins.. have you found that the flavor changes with fermentation? Like.. not as bitter? Because i assume youre fermenting it dry.

Thanks ! The yeast frenzies the tannin. The fermentation was completely crazy almost until the end. Blobs every three to five seconds or so. Quite a bit of krausen for the first while too! The flavor changes quite a bit.. It becomes more bitter (hence the backsweetening) but not unpleasantly bitter. It is hard to describe the change in character. But it definitely changes. I fermented it to F.G 1.000 (dry).

 

[Tw0fish]

Wow, totally missed the backsweetening part. Cool!

 

[Dicky]

Sounds interesting. I woild love to see a picture of the finished product.

Dicky

 

[Brew2Be]

Sounds interesting. I woild love to see a picture of the finished product.

Dicky

It is currently in the fridge because I am cold crashing it But when it has cleared up I will post a picture of it!

 

[ronron45]

try it with 1 teaspoon cloves and 2 cinnamon sticks ,nice for thanksgiving ,xmas

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Brew2Be, What is the reason for boiling the tea for an hour? If you were to make the tea without any intention of fermenting the added sugars would you boil this tea for as long? Indeed, if the tea contains tannins are you not in fact really increasing their presence in the must? Why wouldn't you use the same quantity of tea per "cup" (or liter) as you would to make a great tasting tea and why would you boil this tea longer than you would normally brew the tea. If it tastes rich enough in flavor to drink as tea then won't it taste rich enough to drink as wine?

 

[lukebuz]

Make sure you drink it sooner, rather than later. I made the Raspberry Zinger that was great at first, then developed off-flavors 2 years later. Had to dump the rest of the bottles.

 

[wildmazer]

i make a fair number of tea-meads - i usually brew the tea 'normally' but a bit stronger than i want it hot. my assumption would be that the boiling would bring out more bitterness...but if you're happy with the flavor after backsweetening, that's the important part.

 

[brcfarmer]

This is a glass of tea wine I made recently: a black, orange-pekoe blend. I sliced up a lemon and left it in my primary until it was time to transfer. After the alcohol passed "hard tea" territory and entered wine country, the tea character disappeared, and was replaced by something that resembles a light citrus wine with a slight floral nose. Before I tossed the yeast, my tea/sugar/lemon mixture was almost black. Now, after clearing, it's sort of a tiger-eye yellow. Not bad, but not spectacular...but my method was more pared down than my other country wines. I have no idea what aging would do to a tea-based wine, but I'm curious to hear if anyone else has left one in the cellar for a year or two.

 

[Tommydee]

Isn't this kombucha, but wine yeast instead of Scoby yeast/bacteria? It's interesting how the "wort" is the same but obviously very different drinks due to very different micro organisms.