Pu'er Pale Ale Recipe advice

[FatDragon]

My plan for my next brew is to make a 4 gallon batch of base APA and split it into four one-gallon batches; one control with no tea, and three that will have pu-er tea added in different ways: one cold-brewed (and pasteurized?) added before primary, one cold-brewed (and pasteurized?) added post-primary, but in the primary fermenter, hence not calling it "secondary", and one "dry-hopped" with tea leaves post-primary.

I'm thinking I'll shoot for an ABV around 4-5% and IBU around 30 so I don't overpower the tea.

I'm thinking something along the lines of:
7 lb. 2-row
.5 lb. biscuit (10 SRM)
.25 lb. cara-pils
.3 oz. nugget @ 60 min. (~23 IBU)
.5 oz. cascade @ 5 min. (~4 IBU)

Mash 152-154, ferment with US-05 at 64, rising to 68 over 4-5 days. I also have S-04, and Nottingham that I would consider for this particular beer if recommended.

Any suggestions on the recipe? This being only my fourth beer, I'm still very new to recipe formulation. I'm stuck with 2-row for a base, but the biscuit 10 (locally-roasted from the same 2-row I'm using) is mostly a placeholder to indicate that I don't think the cheap, off-brand 2-row I'm using will carry a beer on its own.

Hops suggestions would be good as well, since I'm not sure what would complement the full-bodied, slightly-earthy tea. I want hop flavor and I love the "C-hops", but I also want the tea to make a notable contribution. If it helps, my current arsenal (which covers about half of what I can get at reasonable prices) is Chinook, Cascade, Citra, Mosaic, Nugget, and East Kent Goldings.

Finally, one more question: dry hopping with hops isn't considered an infection risk, but what about dry tea leaves? Do I want to treat the tea like most other non-hop secondary additions and kill any bugs before I add it in, or should I just toss it in dry like a dry-hop? If I need to somehow sanitize or pasteurize, how would I do that with dry tea leaves without changing the flavor?

 

[FatDragon]

Anyone? I've been looking at recipes here on the forums, but most of the popular ones seem to rely on Maris Otter and Vienna and other malts I can't get affordably. Any suggestions for something simple?

 

[bngowe]

Hey! A tea beer! I just made an ale using osmanthus flowers as well as osmanthus green tea leaves. Maybe you can use it in part of the mash? That's what I did with my tea.. gave it a slight, but not overpowering tea flavor. After primary fermentation, I added in osmanthus flowers in the secondary.. just dropped it in ( the same way I would dry hop ). The taste came out to something that I didn't care for..It wasn't bad..but I think the osmanthus gave an apricoty taste that I did not want. (although some people liked it, some people thought it was alright) . Since you are splitting them into 4 batches, you can't go wrong with experimenting. If I were you I'd try adding the dry tea leaves straight into one..and another..maybe making the pu'er tea, then infusing it into the secondary once it's cooled down.
Good luck and please update! I would love to see how your beer turns out =)

 

[Culbetron]

I wonder if a little more crystal malt character would compliment the tanniny tea. Kind of like using honey or sugar to balance out a strong black tea.

Maybe:
6.5lbs 2-row
1 lb vienna
0.33lbs crystal 10/carapils
0.33lbs crystal 40/caramunich II

 

[FatDragon]

I wonder if a little more crystal malt character would compliment the tanniny tea. Kind of like using honey or sugar to balance out a strong black tea.

Maybe:
6.5lbs 2-row
1 lb vienna
0.33lbs crystal 10/carapils
0.33lbs crystal 40/caramunich II

The 2-row I can do; Carapils for the Crystal 10, okay; Crystal 40 I can replace with Crystal 60, but I can't do the Vienna. What character is it bringing to the brew? If it's maltiness, what about replacing it with half a pound of Munich (20L) and another half pound of 2-row?

I'm a bit of a pain to help out with recipe formulation since anything that's not locally-roasted from Chinese-malted Australian 2-row costs $7.50/lb plus shipping, so my affordable grain selection is rather limited. Sorry about that.

 

[Culbetron]

Yeah, just put the munich in there instead of vienna. It gives it some nice malty character - a bit more body.