Volume of green tea to add

[Shwagger]

Planning on adding cold brew green tea to a sour about a day before I bottle. However, I don't want to increase the volume of the beer too much. Its a 2.5 gallon batch, and I was thinking of steeping 25g of green tea in about 2 or so cups of water. But I don't know if that enough water.

Any thoughts?

 

[FatDragon]

Why not add the green tea directly to the beer? Put it in a strainer, pour a little boiling water over it to pasteurize, and use it like a dry hop. Adding cold brewed tea, I'd worry that the saturation point of the tea is going to prevent you from getting enough character out of the tea without adding a fairly large amount

 

[Shwagger]

Considered that but wanted to avoid hot water. Probably wouldnt need to sanitize it, though. Enough alcohol to avoid bugs.

Might end up dry hopping

 

[IslandLizard]

Considered that but wanted to avoid hot water. Probably wouldnt need to sanitize it, though. Enough alcohol to avoid bugs.

Might end up dry hopping

Dry tea-ing!

Although you could toss them in loose and leave for a few days, maybe put them in a roomy, weighted down hop sack, suspended from a string (e.g., unflavored dental floss) so you can agitate them a few times during the steeping period. They need to have free flow exchange with the beer to lend their goodness to it.

Just do your best to prevent oxidizing the beer.
If you have to lift the lid, flush the headspace with CO2 afterward.

 

[Shwagger]

Dry tea-ing!

Although you could toss them in loose and leave for a few days, maybe put them in a roomy, weighted down hop sack, suspended from a string (e.g., unflavored dental floss) so you can agitate them a few times during the steeping period. They need to have free flow exchange with the beer to lend their goodness to it.

Just do your best to prevent oxidizing the beer.
If you have to lift the lid, flush the headspace with CO2 afterward.

This is why I want to cold brew. I don't like to open the fermenter

 

[IslandLizard]

This is why I want to cold brew. I don't like to open the fermenter

I doubt you can get enough extraction with cold brew.

If you use good sanitation and flush the headspace afterward, there's little danger to opening the fermentor. You can even crack the lid part way and slip the (CO2 purged) bag into the opening it quickly. Then purge a few times (flush actually).

I have a few bucket lids in which I drilled a 1" access hole, opposite from the airlock. It's closed with a regular 1" solid rubber carboy bung, but I can add dry hops or other stuff easily through that wider port. It's wide enough to stick the back end of my long plastic brew spoon through. There's a small rectangular "paddle" on that end of the spoon to stir the fermentor once or twice a day after dry hopping. Whenever working through that utility port I always stream CO2 into the headspace through the airlock hole (hose inside the airlock stem or over it). That way not much, if any, air can get in while working with the port open. I then flush the headspace a few times after closing it, for good measure. My NEIPAs are wonderful and bright!

 

[Shwagger]

I think with enough time and water cold brew would be fine. But how much water is the problem.

I use a conical fermenter so dry hopping is fairly easy to accomplish and is likely what ill end up doing using a tea ball

 

[IslandLizard]

I think with enough time and water cold brew would be fine. But how much water is the problem.

Exactly, as @FatDragon said, you may end up diluting your beer (too much).

I use a conical fermenter so dry hopping is fairly easy to accomplish and is likely what ill end up doing using a tea ball

If your conical has a decent sized blow off port, use that to add things.

If you decide on the tea ball, how do you get that inside the conical without lifting the lid? Make sure that tea has enough room to expand, like hops, they swell tremendously when hydrated. Some form of intermittent agitation would help with extraction and dispersion.

 

[Shwagger]

I'd have to open the lid to dry hop. And then purge like you said. It can be done I just prefer not too, but In this case it's likely the only option. Didn't think about how much tea expands. Probably will need a hop bag

 

[specharka]

If it was me, I would use a French press to make a saturated green tea with 170F water. Use 50g tea to 250 mL water, steep for 5-7 minutes, press it out, decant the liquid and then chill it to pitching temperatures. Then add 1-2g neutral yeast (either the same strain, EC-1118, or CBC-1), 10g of corn sugar and wait for the yeast to bloom. Once the yeast is fermenting, pitch the whole tincture to the keg, close the keg and flush the headspace with CO2. Allow the tincture to ferment out completely (48-72 hours).

 

[Queequeg]

insert "tea-bagging" joke here

 

[Shwagger]

If it was me, I would use a French press to make a saturated green tea with 170F water. Use 50g tea to 250 mL water, steep for 5-7 minutes, press it out, decant the liquid and then chill it to pitching temperatures. Then add 1-2g neutral yeast (either the same strain, EC-1118, or CBC-1), 10g of corn sugar and wait for the yeast to bloom. Once the yeast is fermenting, pitch the whole tincture to the keg, close the keg and flush the headspace with CO2. Allow the tincture to ferment out completely (48-72 hours).

I dont know what a French press is and that amount of work goes against my home brewing rules. But it sounds very interesting..maybe another batch some day


I could hace reserved 1 gallon of wort to steep the tea in and dumped it in mid fermentation. Hmm

 

[specharka]

I dont know what a French press is and that amount of work goes against my home brewing rules. But it sounds very interesting..maybe another batch some day


I could hace reserved 1 gallon of wort to steep the tea in and dumped it in mid fermentation. Hmm

It’s 15 more minutes of work than standard operating protocols for bottle conditioning a beer, which is pretty insignificant compared to the 4+ hours it takes to brew a beer.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_press