Green Tea beer recipe

[khoatruong]

Hey everyone!!! I'm new on here just wanted to say hi to everyone

I'm pretty adventurous when it comes making to beer. I like to make beer out of things that people don't usually think of drinking.. So I was wondering if anyone has tried making green tea beer before, if so what type of beer did you use? I was thinking of making a light to medium flavor beer so that it doesn't mask the green tea. As well I hear a lot of people have trouble maintaining the green tea flavor in their beer. What could I do to maintain the aroma and taste of the green tea. Have anyone ever used bitter melon as a bitter agent in their beer? I had some better melon soup in asia once and it had an interesting earthy bitterness to it I wanted to know if that would taste good or make the beer taste bad.

I don't have a recipe yet but the ingredients I plan on using are

Green tea
ginger
spearmint
honey
I would like to use hops that has an earth taste to it either that or the better melon
Not sure what kind of yeast to use yet.

If anyone would like to share their ideas it would be appreciated.

 

[Potter1]

Hmmmm, sounds interesting. I would think that the green tea, being such a delicate flavor anyway, would get lost pretty much however you add it (boil, secondary, bottling) That doesn't mean it would not be there, it would just get lost with the malt, hops, etc. (again, maybe) I see you have some honey included in your idea. How 'bout a mead instead. I don't know anything about bitter melon, but I haven't had good experience with a beer bittered with something else besides hops. Either too astringent or not bitter enough (even heather doesn't give me the right kind of bitterness imho), but a mead would be ok without hops.
A vodka infusion has always given me the best herb flavors in beer, added during bottling.


Try it and find out, and let us know how it turns out. This hobby (obsession) has no limits, because You get to brew what you want!


And Welcome!

 

[khoatruong]

Thanks for the feedback.. Yeah I figured the tea flavor will lose most of its aroma and flavor. I've been experimenting with different tea mixing them together and trying to get the write taste that would go well with the beer. And I would have to agree with you on the bitter melon... I think to play it safe I'll use the hops and if I had any left overs I'll probably make like a gallon with the bitter melon. And yeah a mead should be another option for me to try..

I had green tea beer in portland oregon a few months ago and thought it was pretty good.. The beer had a great tea flavor but I'm thinking they probably added tea extract to give it that tea taste to it. But you got any idea of what type of beer would suit will with green tea???

And yes this hobby is an obsession

 

[fineexampl]

"dry hop" with some tea.

my next brew is a Lapsang Souchong based brew. i plan on dry-teaing.

 

[khoatruong]

OK so i'm still new with the dry hoping.. you got any pointers??

 

[depolarization]

I'm pretty interested in trying this.

I think from reading up on tannins, I will probably brew a strong tea the bottling day, and add it to the bottling bucket to add some flavor with low tannins.

Going to add it to a cream ale recipe, with a Wyeast 1099 strain of yeast. The shaftsbury clone seems like a good place to start! https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/shaftebury-cream-ale-clone-85504/

Hope to brew in a week or two.

 

[Demfer]

Ive made a 5G batch of "Dragonwell IPA" I put about 0.5oz at 10min and then dry hopped with another 0.5oz in secondary. Came out amazing!

 

[drummstikk]

Khoa, you will want to limit tannin extraction from your tea and also keep as much flavor as possible. Limiting tannins means never getting the tea hot, so I agree with a dry hopping method. Dry hopping the tea would just be adding teabags to your beer after primary fermentation is over. Go easy and just use a little tea at first until you know the flavor contribution it will make. An alternative method would be to soak the tea in cold sanitized water for a few days, then add the tea water to taste. This way you won't overdo it. It will probably be hard to overdo a green tea anyway.

Why don't you make a green tea pilsner or blonde. You will also want to use mild hops, maybe Goldings or Saaz, so you don't mask the tea flavor. I would guess:

12 lbs 2-row
25 IBU of mostly early additions of Kent Goldings
Ferment with WLP001
And then figure out how much tea you need by doing a cold extraction and then experimenting.

Good luck!

 

[indigi]

Some other techniques you could try if you don't get as much of the tea aroma or flavor as you'd like would be first wort teaing for 5-10 minutes and steeping post-boil once your wort gets under 180*.

 

[EKennett]

How about soaking/infusing some green tea in Midori for about 2 weeks. Maybe 2-4 ounces of green tea leaves in something like 16 oz. Midori, then pour the whole thing into secondary. I've never done this, just a thought. The Midori would make a nice honeydew green tea addition to a light beer.

Damn, now I wanna make green tea beer

 

[mboyle522]

Have you thought about using Matcha? Its a type of Green Tea used in Japanese tea ceremony. Thing is it comes in a powder form and will dissolve in water. you wouldn't need to worry about boiling it you can just toss it to the primary or secondary ferment

 

[uncommonsense]

I got a chai ipa in the r&d stage now and I was wondering would adding black tea (or any tea) add sugar and through carbing off.

 

[dirty_martini]

Have you thought about using Matcha? Its a type of Green Tea used in Japanese tea ceremony. Thing is it comes in a powder form and will dissolve in water. you wouldn't need to worry about boiling it you can just toss it to the primary or secondary ferment

Agreed. Think of when you have green tea ice cream or a smoothie. Matcha is what they use. It would be easy to make some and add it at bottling to taste or in secondary if you want it to age and really infuse.

 

[bluemx]

I was thinking of trying something similar. I want to "dry hop" with tea bags, but I worry about anything that might be on the tea bags that would hurt the beer (bacteria ect). I guess infusing the tea in water, by making a strong tea could work and then add that to the secondary could work too, but then would I have to adjust the amount of liquid in the original recipe?

 

[Demfer]

I was thinking of trying something similar. I want to "dry hop" with tea bags, but I worry about anything that might be on the tea bags that would hurt the beer (bacteria ect). I guess infusing the tea in water, by making a strong tea could work and then add that to the secondary could work too, but then would I have to adjust the amount of liquid in the original recipe?

You would need to calculate how much to over concentrate to then add your liquid later and get to your target lower gravity.

 

[MFelty98]

Interesting that i ran across this post. I was drinking some green tea today and commented on how much it had a beer aroma. My next beer I am going to experiment with green tea.

I was wondering if the original poster ever made the brew and if you did how did it turn out, and which technique did you use?

 

[Jester]

This sounds like a great idea. I'm waiting to hear how someone's experiment goes...

 

[dillrepair]

i've got a farmhouse ale with some extra hops and almost an ounce of green tea added after i turned the burner off for a few min... sampling from the primary after a week reveals one hell of a bite, the tea is there in the aftertaste. I'll let you know what happens.... also go get yourself a pack of the wyeast flanders golden ale before they quit selling it in june... i like this yeast... <1.005 every time with a starter and it has a good flavor profile imo.

 

[stevesmith]

Hi,
Sounds interesting..The ingredients which you are use for preparing recipe is really very good for health.


RayMeds.com

 

[mcoatney]

I do partial boil extract brewing for now. I was thinking of topping off the primary with genmai cha tea. It's the green tea with roasted rice. I think that would add some interesting flavors to the right beer.

Now what's the right beer?

 

[tylerdmichaels]

I'm about to do a Green-Tea Cream Ale, brewing tomorrow.

I'll let you all know how it goes, but here is the recipe (Yes, I know - There is no corn in it. Also, I use 2-row instead of 6-row. Sorry to disappoint you, Cream Ale Puritans):

7lbs Canadian 2-row Pale Malt
2.5lbs Minute Rice
-------
0.5oz Willamette (60 mins)
0.5oz Sterling (60 mins)
-------
1.5oz Green Tea
250mL Smirnoff Vodka (Not marketing skirnoff - just what I had laying around.)
---------
Safale us-05

I'm going to be single-infusion mashing in a cooler at 150F for 60 mins, checking temp, and possibly adding another L or so of boiling water to make sure the temp. stays at 150F for an additional 30 minutes (This is to ensure FULL conversion of the minute rice as I am out of Iodine and therefore won't be able to do a test for starch and just have to trust that this will be enough time).

I'll boil for 60 mins, and I'll add 1/2 oz. of the tea when the wort cools to below 180F.

I'll let the remaining oz. of tea soak in the vodka overnight, and then add it to 2ndary once fermentation has stopped.

According to Beersmith, this recipe should put me at about 1.044 OG and 4.7%ABV, with a IBU of about 18.

With the addition of the Vodka, I'll end (assuming beersmith is accurate, which it usually is for me) at about 5.2% ABV. A little high for style, but fine as far as I'm concerned.

I played with the idea of using Sake for the tea infusion, but decided not to mix the flavors so that I could find out exactly what I get from just the green tea (vodka should add little flavour aside from the alcohol).

I ferment Cream Ales with Safale yeast at about 17C (63F) because I find it brings out a fruity, floral note in the finished ale that I enjoy in a cream ale (especially in the summer).

Comments are appreciated! I'll let you know how it turns out.

Happy Hopping,

-Tyler

 

[depolarization]

The vodka seems to be a popular way to add infusions to beer.

I am not familiar with the practice, but your recipe Tyler looks spot on.

I was just going to "dry-hop" in secondary. Some people cry infection foul because tea doesn't necessarily have the disinfecting properties of hops, but I think when I'm ready to do this, I will risk it. Cream Ales tend to be cheaper grain bills anyway.

I haven't made the brew yet guys...it was just a thought and I am still trying to get a recipe I like first. I've switched from extract to partial mash and am still getting the hang of it when it comes to mashing temp control. Most recipes I've made so far have mashed at high temps and I get huge beers with lots of silky mouthfeel, which has been good for me. However, I know with something like this, I need to regulate my strike and mashing temps better to get a nice easy beer that can let the green tea sit on top of the beer, and thus compliment it instead of being an aftertaste.

 

[user 47131]

So, how did it go Tyler? I was researching green tea to see if I was going with too much on a recipe that I am planning on brewing this weekend. I see that Demfer noted his quantities and quickly realized that I was spec'ing out quantities based on my usual 5 gallon batch, whereas I will be doing a 2.5 gallon test batch most likely this weekend...

The girlfriend asked for a green tea beer, so I came up with an Apricot Green Tea Blonde recipe and as noted above will adjust it to have .25 oz at flameout and .5 oz in the secondary (a little more to not be hidden by the apricot). With herbs that I am concerned about extracting too many tannins into the beer, I will usually steep them in hot water and add the tea at flameout; this usually seems to work a lot better, so that is what I will do here. I'll post my thoughts and experience after brewing and fermentation.

 

[caseyd]

i made a green tea beer and i am bottling it next weekend, ill tell u how it came out.. to add the tea i steeped the tea in 170 deg for 5 min in one gallon with 1 lb of honey and added it to the wort after the boil.. cant wait to try it

 

[caseyd]

ohh ya i used 50 tea bags for a 5 gal batch

 

[caseyd]

i used sorachi ace hops what would u guys use

 

[caseyd]

!!

 

[Schlenkerla]

I have a pound of jasmine tea from china. Got it for swmbo when I was there but she's never used it, so I might have too. I was thinking of dry hopping it, our doing a flame out but, a vodka soak might work too.

I was thinking of a pale ale for this so the fragrance of jasmine would come out.

I think this would work really well on mead though.

 

[Asrial]

^Mead is beyond easy to infuse with anything. And a tea-mead would be any vocalists best friend.

But if I ever get around this, I might try to produce some lager-style beer with vodka-infused tea. Darker lagers tend to have a good time infusing with woodland and leaf aromas from what I've tasted. The maple lager from Skovlyst brewery close to me is my all-time fave beer anyway.

 

[user 47131]

I thought I'd post an update on my Green Tea beer... I used sencha green tea and did a triple infusion and added it during cool-down of the wort. I learned a lot about green tea and that there are specific temperatures and timeframes that are recommended to get the optimum flavor and not as much tannins. In fact a lot of people will brew 5 cups of tea from one teaspoon of green tea.

The batch that I was referring to above was the Apricot Green Tea Blonde, which the wort tasted amazing (drank the entire sample) and fermented well, but the addition of the apricot seems to have added too much tartness to the beer. So, last weekend I brewed another batch of the unadulterated Green Tea Blonde and it is currently fermenting away. I think that this will be the one that I will keep brewing and go really fast. In both recipes I did the infusions in various temperatures of water and added during cooling of .5 oz of green tea and dryhopped with .5 oz of green tea for a little over two weeks. Note that this amount is for a 2.5 gallon batch.

How did anyone else's turn out?