Hoplark Hop Tea clone?

[GearDaddys]

Hi All..

Have been brewing BIAB for a long time, and on a "break" from alcohol for a while. I've been REALLY enjoying some of the Hoplark sparkling hop tea's. Not seeing much online regarding clones of these.. Anyone played with anything yet and come close? Should be pretty easy and very inexpensive to make. There is a simple recipe that the guys at clawhammer supplies put together, but I found it to be a far cry from the Hoplark products..

 

[Chaosbourne]

I've tried with little success. The clawhammer clone is ok, but I cannot seem to get it to be as clear or delicious as the HopLark one.

My clone involved steeping the tea for about 10 minutes and then steeping hops for about 20 minutes after it reached 168 degrees. However, after reading this article, it looks like HopLark just dry hops the tea. Hoplark HopTea: Breakout RTD brand talks 'home-brewed' success story.

I've noticed there isn't a huge tea flavor to their beverages, so my guess is that the brew a small batch of tea and then top it off with RO water.

I'm not the best versed in dry hopping, but I'd look around and see if you dry hop pre carbonation or post. .

The only passably drinkable version I made was with chamomile. I like chamomile though, so I might be biased. Here's what I did:

I brought 2 gallons of water to boil and added 1/4c lemon juice. Boil 10 minutes and cut heat.

Add .5 oz of dried chamomile (you can get online, but I found mine at a local tea merchant). Steep for 8 minutes and remove.

Cool to 170 degrees. I think I may have cheated and added .5 gallons of water to bring it down faster. Once there, add 3 oz of hops and steep for 30 minutes. I used 2 oz Citra, 1 oz Nelson Sauvin. Remove the hops and add another .5-1 gallon of water.

Cool and carbonate. Because this is more of a sparkling water type carbonation, you want to jack it up to something really high.

Like I said, this is definitely not as good as the HopLark, but it is a start. If you experiment with it, let me know how it turns out.

Also, another note I've found- your success will be highly dependent on the tea you use and how fresh it is. If you go with green tea, get something loose and something that has been protected from oxidation (it should be packed like hops).

Hope this helps

 

[Chaosbourne]

Here's my results. The left is the HopLark. The right is mine.

 

[Chaosbourne]

Actually, after doing a little research, it appears that this company has a patent pending on their process. I'm not advocating any use of this method or telling you to copy it, but it may be informative.

https://uspto.report/patent/app/20190200647#D00000

 

[Lucky_Tart]

Sorry to dig up an old post, but thanks to @Chaosbourne I made a pretty tasty first pass based this recipe and ingredients I already had lying around - Chamomile, lime juice, Lemondrop and Citra. I tried the various hoplark flavors before attempting my own and agree that was my favorite.

Technically, does hop water/tea need to be made with RO or even dechlorinated water since there's no yeast and no malt to interact with the chlorine? This seems to be the actual time for "if it tastes good you can brew with it"

Editing to add picture; not clear, but I don't mind. It almost looks like beer.

 

[AlexKay]

I tried a chamomile-based hop tea and didn't like it ... but I'm not nuts about chamomile. I keep hibiscus/hop tea on tap, though. Favorite hops for that so far are Citra, Strata, and Nectaron.

I think you're right about tap water being ok. I use RO (with a little epsom, a little CaCl2, and a little baking soda) for mine, but that's because my water is rock hard and I don't want scale in my kegs.

I've had no luck at all with black tea-based hop teas, even though I like Hoplark's versions. Mine are cloudy and don't taste good.