Tea recipes?

[EamusCatuli]

I was just wondering if anyone has tinkered around with tea in their brews? I was thinkin about making some sort of green tea IPA, any opinions/ advice?

Thanks

 

[RoaringBrewer]

I just recently used Peach-Ginger black tea in an american wheat... It's been done before by others on the board and even commercial brewers.

Not sure how much plain old green tea would add (its pretty bland no?!) - but flavored teas can be used quite well.

I know Brewtopia (used peach-ginger before) also makes a porter than uses blackberry-sage black tea and its an excellent beer apparently.

Look for posts by me in recipes forum (sb page 1 or 2) for my peach ginger wheat recipe and how I utilized the tea (added at flameout), etc.

 

[EamusCatuli]

Thanks a ton RoaringBrewer, that should be plenty enough info to get me started!

 

[RoaringBrewer]

Not a problem. There are tons of cool teas available so you could probably think of some type to use in many different recipes. Maybe a cinamon and spice tea to make a more complex winter ale for example... berry teas in stouts or porters... almost anything in a wheat, peach-ginger, honey jasmine, possibilities are endless...

Hope my other post helps. If you can't locate it, let me know.

 

[AnOldUR]

Used Chamomile tea in my wibier. Last 5 minutes of boil.

 

[RoaringBrewer]

Used Chamomile tea in my wibier. Last 5 minutes of boil.

How'd it turn out? Noticeable? Desirable?

 

[EamusCatuli]

RoaringBrewer, I checked out your recipe and it looks delicious! I wish I had the capabilities to make it ( no AG setup ). I really wanted to use an IPA to mix with the tea, I think this would balance pretty well. Does any old tea brand work? (such as store bought). And if i read it right, you are just throwing the packets in a grain bag and putting it in at flameout for a few minutes?

Thanks for the help!

 

[RoaringBrewer]

RoaringBrewer, I checked out your recipe and it looks delicious! I wish I had the capabilities to make it ( no AG setup ). I really wanted to use an IPA to mix with the tea, I think this would balance pretty well. Does any old tea brand work? (such as store bought). And if i read it right, you are just throwing the packets in a grain bag and putting it in at flameout for a few minutes?

Thanks for the help!

Eamus -

You can make my recipe without being AG. It can easily be converted to extract. E.g. replace pale and wheat malt with wheat dme (which is already 55/45 wheat/pale) and just steep the crystal. Actually brewtopia may have brewed an extract version of this once. He may have the recipe posted somewhere...

Anyway, that's not what you asked! The tea should be a good quality black tea (but I don't see why white or green wouldn't work either?!). Many use Republic of Tea, I used Revolution b/c I couldn't find RoT without ordering online. My tea wasn't the typical lipton type packages you see with paper bags and finely grounded tea. My tea was more like bulk tea (very coarsely/barely ground) and it was in stainless steal 'diffusion' packets. I was pretty anal anyway and cut open all 45 packets I used and dumped them in a grain/hop bag. I weighed it and had 3.5oz of tea. The three boxes of tea I bought cost me $15 (as much as all my grain/hops if not more), so its definitely not cheap to brew this way. But if it works better than using whole fruit, why not? Whole fruit isn't cheap anyway...

The easiest way would be to buy truly bulk tea that is a tin or something and normally steeped in a herb/tea ball. Then you can just measure our your amount into a hop bag without messing with packets...

If you have any other questions, let me know.

One word of advice, I'd try a cup of the tea before brewing with it. If you don't like it as tea in water, you might not like it blended into beer. I brewed up a couple cups (the 3 packets I didn't use) of mine it was pretty decent stuff. A lot of peach aroma, but little in the way of actual peach flavor, a little zing from the ginger. It was just what I was looking for...

 

[EamusCatuli]

Thanks so much for all the advice, ill keep your recipe in mind if my little experiment goes well. Im looking forward to it! I forgot to buy another grain bag while at my LHBS for the tea, but from the looks of the bags I think ill be safe just bundling them up and throwing them in. Thanks again for the help!

 

[Brewtopia]

Here are links to the two tea beers that I've brewed. Both these recipes are extract w/ steeping grains so should be pretty simple for you to replicate.

Ginger Peach Wheat

Blackberry Sage Porter

I've brewed these beers muliple times and they are always a big hit. I've since converted them to all grain and brewed them with great success.

 

[AnOldUR]

Originally Posted by anoldur
Used Chamomile tea in my wibier. Last 5 minutes of boil.

Originally Posted by RoaringBrewer
How'd it turn out? Noticeable? Desirable?

I did a batch with and one without. I used the content of four tea bags in a muslin bag. The chamomile added a nice flavor to the finish. My next scheduled brew is a repeat of this.

 

[beenjammin]

green tea is bland?? blasphemer! a word of advice for tea: always use the loose leaves. you always want the best ingredients possible don't you? tea bags are a waste...

also, perhaps i could offer the distinction between "tea" and a "tisane". tea needs tea leaves to be called tea. chamomile "tea" (or any herbal tea) is really a tisane since there are no tea leaves. so if you're looking to add tea to your beer it should be probably be approached a little differently than other herbs. for example boiling tea leaves would add a lot more tannins and bitter tastes and less flavour.
as for the lot of you that boil your tea leaves, chamomile flowers and other herbs, try just steeping them....i don't mean to criticise your recipes since some of you have already tried them and seem pretty pleased....but maybe give the steep method a try.

now for personal experience: i made a "tea wine" about half a year ago with Lapsang Souchang, my favourite black tea. that smoky smell and taste i like so much turned into bacon...i made bacon wine...haha.., vile stuff. be forewarned of tea wine with that tea.

 

[Brewtopia]

I personally never boil tea. I bring the water to a boil, shut off the heat, add tea and steep. For my AG version, I add the tea at flameout and steep.

 

[EamusCatuli]

Last night I made the Green Tea IPA. Some of my friends think it will be disgusting, some think it will be delicious, me included! Anyway, it went pretty well. I decided to bring my brew water to boiling, then remove and steep for 5 minutes, then using this water as my brew water. Here was my recipe.

Recipe Overview

Expected OG: 1.051 SG
Expected FG: 1.012 SG
Apparent Attenuation: 74.9 %
Expected ABV: 5.1 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 77.9 IBU
Expected Color: 8.1 SRM
Mash Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Duration: 60.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 64 degF


Fermentables
US Caramel 40L Malt 1.00 lb In Mash/Steeped
Extract - Light Liquid Malt Extract 6.50 lb Start Of Boil
Green Tea - 48 packets worth in brew water: Steeped 5 minutes


Hops
US Simcoe 1.0 oz 60 Min From End
US Cluster 1.0 oz 25 Min From End
US Sterling 1.0 oz 5 Min From End


Yeast
Danstar-Nottingham


In all honesty I brewed this with mostly leftover ingredients, so the recipe was just sort of thrown together, but hey! sometimes simple goes a long way!

 

[sconnie]

I recently made a ChaI-PA, a pretty standard IPA recipe with chai tea spices and black tea. I steeped the spices (cloves, coriander seed, fennel, bay leaf, cardamom, black peppercorn...was going to use fresh ginger root but forgot) the last 10 minutes of the boil, after the boil steeped about 2 oz Darjeeling tea for 2 minutes before cooling the wort.
The beer has been in the keg for a couple weeks. It's still a bit green but tastes good so far. There isn't a noticeable taste from the tea at all, but there is a lot of spice flavor.

48 packets sounds like a s**t ton. especially if steeped for 5 minutes in the boil. Green tea does best just under boiling temperature, and with that amount of tea that might turn out quite bitter.

 

[RoaringBrewer]

48 packets sounds like a s**t ton. especially if steeped for 5 minutes in the boil. Green tea does best just under boiling temperature, and with that amount of tea that might turn out quite bitter.

If the tea makes it bitter, he may be in trouble... 78 IBU in a 1.051 beer is VERY bitter to begin with...

 

[EamusCatuli]

If the tea makes it bitter, he may be in trouble... 78 IBU in a 1.051 beer is VERY bitter to begin with...

Well its an experiment, plus I LOVE really hoppy IPA's. So may be strong to some, but for me it may be just fine. To each his own!~

Ill let you know how it turns out if you like!

 

[cge0]

Green Tea is best steeped at 180 for 2-3 minutes for a more delicate flavor.
What kind of green did you use?
Japanese/chinese?
How much in weight is 48 packets?
I've been wanted to make a yerba mate beer with cascade and a pure 2-row malt bill, just never figured out how much yerba mate would go into it.

 

[BakerStreetBeers]

Any update on how this is shaping up?

 

[homebrewer_99]

I made a sweet fruit tea mead many moons ago that was pretty tasty.

 

[Desert_Sky]

I just recently used Peach-Ginger black tea in an american wheat...

Ive done the exact same thing. I didnt care for it all that much but a few others really did