Pre making tea

[Jack Richardson]

I've purchased starter culture, and awaiting delivery. Will it be alright to brew my tea , sugar and purified water days ahead of time if kept in fermentation jar ?

 

[DrMoebius]

Sure, as long as you refrigerate it.
But, why would you do that? It only takes a few minutes to make the sweet tea

 

[Jack Richardson]

Sure, as long as you refrigerate it.
But, why would you do that? It only takes a few minutes to make the sweet tea

Because it takes hours to cool. I was going to make 3 gallons of it, and i can only boil 1 gal at a time.

 

[hottpeper13]

First don't boil , steep the tea. I don't even boil the water , just get it to the snail stage. This keeps the O2 in the water for the yeast. If you need 3 gal, why not just make a concentrated 1.5 gal then dilute with ice or cold water to ~70* and pitch your starter, all on the same day, or what I like to say is a Booch session, instead of a Brew day.

 

[Jack Richardson]

First don't boil , steep the tea. I don't even boil the water , just get it to the snail stage. This keeps the O2 in the water for the yeast. If you need 3 gal, why not just make a concentrated 1.5 gal then dilute with ice or cold water to ~70* and pitch your starter, all on the same day, or what I like to say is a Booch session, instead of a Brew day.

I'll try that. Thank you.

 

[DrMoebius]

Because it takes hours to cool. I was going to make 3 gallons of it, and i can only boil 1 gal at a time.

As hottpeper said, only heat a fraction of the total you will use. And add that back to your other cold water.

I do 2 gallon batches. So, I make my sweet tea out of 1 quart of filtered water. If it's black tea, ~210F degrees for 10 mins. Green tea, ~180F for 5 mins.

I then add that one quart of hot water to my 3 quarts of cold refrigerated filtered water and 3 quarts of room temp filtered water(my Brita filter only holds 1 gallon in the fridge). Put in my room temperature 2 cups of vinegar and 2 cups starter tea. I end up at exactly 72-75 degrees, every time. Only takes a few minutes and it's all done

Early on, I used to make sweet tea in the entire 1 gallon, I was making. Then, I'd put a Ziplock bag with ice in it for a few mins to bring it down to 75 degrees

 

[Jack Richardson]

Thanks.