Hard earl grey cider?

[abrewnoob]

Soo i was looking for some new recipes to try and i found someone using english breakfast tea in his cider. I was intrigued but only had earl grey tea so i chucked 2 bags in for a 1 gal tester. O.G 1.075 and pitched super 6 spirit yeast.

Has anyone else done a cider in which they have added tea bags of some sort? Should i leave them in for entire primary? Will this be a disaster?
Cheers people!

 

[Paps]

Some add the tea bags for their tannins which they feel will benefit thier ciders.
Feel free to leave them in as long as you like, it will be fine.Regular tastings will help guide you but i personally would add tea bags to secondary for a cider.....try it both ways and see which you personally preffer.
-prost

 

[abrewnoob]

Alright cheers for that! What does it do to the taste and flavour?...ive done cinnamon stick half way through primary but never tea.

 

[SomersetRedstreak]

I usually add 1 cup of strong black tea per gallon to my ciders, for tannin.
But I've also made cider using Chai tea bags, as a brew in the primary and another batch as bags added to the secondary. The flavour was more pronounced with the secondary batch, but then this was sat ageing for 3 months.
I would think that with Earl Grey tea you would need to be careful that the Bergamot flavour doesn't dominate the cider.

 

[abrewnoob]

I usually add 1 cup of strong black tea per gallon to my ciders, for tannin.
But I've also made cider using Chai tea bags, as a brew in the primary and another batch as bags added to the secondary. The flavour was more pronounced with the secondary batch, but then this was sat ageing for 3 months.
I would think that with Earl Grey tea you would need to be careful that the Bergamot flavour doesn't dominate the cider.

Ahh i see well the bergamot is what i love about earl grey but who knows how it will come out in a cider.
Ooh the chai sounds good!! What was your outcome?

 

[SomersetRedstreak]

I was really pleased with the Chai tea cider, it turned out great! The cinnamon & clove shone thru, but next time I'll use a Chai tea blend without black pepper as the heat was apparent in the aftertaste.
I'd be interested to hear how your Earl Grey cider turns out here in this thread.

 

[Icarus9414]

I was really pleased with the Chai tea cider, it turned out great! The cinnamon & clove shone thru, but next time I'll use a Chai tea blend without black pepper as the heat was apparent in the aftertaste.
I'd be interested to hear how your Earl Grey cider turns out here in this thread.

When you brewed your cider with chai, did you leave the tea bag in the carboy for some predetermined time or boil the tea and mix it in?

 

[SomersetRedstreak]

Hi Icarus,
The first 1 gallon batch I made had 300mls of strong, pre-brewed black Chai tea added before primary fermentation, with Youngs Champagne yeast.
The second gallon I made as a simple cider with the same yeast, but this time I added 3 Chai teabags to the carboy in secondary, after racking off the lees. I left this to age for around 3 months before bottling. This second batch had a more pronounced chai spice flavour.
Hope this helps.

 

[abrewnoob]

Ok so my primary finished and i opened and had a taste and it is terrible....it smells like earl grey but tastes like bitter off orange juice...maybe leaving the bags in primary wasnt the best idea...

 

[SomersetRedstreak]

It's early days - a little time may help here. Or perhaps the Bergamot influence could be too strong. I would rack it off the bags & lees, leave it at least a month or three, and see how it tastes then.
BTW, what's your FG reading?

 

[madscientist451]

There's a small commercial cidery that uses Irish tea to add tannin to the cider they make because they can't get the cider apples that have the tannin in them.
Something I wanted to try. but never got around to. I think he brews the tea real strong and pours it in instead of putting tea bags in.

 

[SomersetRedstreak]

Here in Somerset, UK we have great bittersweet cider apples with lots of tannin. But out of season, I make cider with store bought juice & add a large cup of really strong brewed black tea per gallon. I feel it adds the missing tannin & a bit of complexity to the cider.

 

[Icarus9414]

Hey Somerset. Since you've brewed a fair amount of cider with tea, is there any concern of contaminating your batch by putting a teabag into your carboy without sanitizing it? I'm just slightly uneasy about introducing any microbes into the cider outside of the yeast that's already in suspension.

 

[SomersetRedstreak]

Hi Icarus,
I guess there's always a chance that the teabags could contain some mould or other nasties.
I've only added teabags directly to the cider the one time, and got away with it.
By boiling, and brewing the tea separately, any bugs will hopefully be killed.

 

[Icarus9414]

Thanks for the info somerset. I'll definitely be using chai with my next batch of cider.

 

[SomersetRedstreak]

You're welcome Icarus. Keep us posted here on how it goes.

 

[bernardsmith]

Ok so my primary finished and i opened and had a taste and it is terrible....it smells like earl grey but tastes like bitter off orange juice...maybe leaving the bags in primary wasnt the best idea...

The cider may just be too dry for the flavors you have in it. Pour a glass and see if sweetening helps. If it does then you may simply need to backsweeten the cider.