White Tea Pale Ale

[brewinSEP]

Im brewing a few beers for a friends wedding in august and trying to get some recipe's nailed down. i had an idea for a white tea pale. essentially a simple pale with the tea steeped in after flame out. the amount of tea, time its steeped for and temp are all exactly right for white tea, im wondering if the tea flavor will last through the fermentation, or if it will be overpowering. lemme know what you think! thanks!

Amount Item Type % or IBU
7 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 66.67 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 14.29 %
1 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 9.52 %
8.0 oz Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 4.76 %
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (60 min) Hops 9.8 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (20 min) Hops 21.6 IBU
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (10 min) Hops 6.5 IBU
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 45.0 min) Misc
0.75 oz Coriander Seed (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
8.0 oz Honey (1.0 SRM) Sugar 4.76 %
1 Pkgs Burton Ale (White Labs #WLP023) Yeast-Ale

Mash @ 150 for 75min

40 min add honey
15 min add 2 grapefruit peels & coriander
add 8 ounces white tea leaves after flame out when wort reaches 180. steep for 8 min

whatcha think!?

 

[MikeRLynch]

I would treat the tea leaves as a dry hop addition in a secondary or after primary is done. Steeping them in the room temp beer for a day or two will infuse the flavors and aromas you want. If you added the tea on the hot side, the steam from the still hot wort would drive off all of the aromatics that the tea will impart. Put the tea leaves in a hop bag with a sanitized weight (so it submerges and doesn't float) and pull it out when the flavor is where you want it.

As a side note, the honey addition you have will most likely be completely fermented in the primary fermentation, and will boost alcohol and will thin the beer out a little. If you want the honey to be prevelent, I would suggest doing a secondary and racking the finished beer on to the honey and the teabag. There might still be yeast in suspension that will start eating the honey, but it won't be enough to completely ferment it. If you want the abv boost with a bit of honey character, put it in at flameout. The heat will drive off some of the aromatics the same way it would for the tea, but it sounds like you want the tea to be the main player here.

As you probably know, don't use grapefruit peels with the pith on them (the white stuff.) Use only the zest. If you have a file, or a very fine grater, use that to get the colored skin off the fruit white leaving the white stuff behind. It's damn bitter, and it tastes like crap.

My .02, but it sounds like a good idea! Do it and let us know how it goes!

 

[Shawn Hargreaves]

I would go light on the hops with this. Similar to how when you make a traditional Belgian wit, you get a lot of bitterness from the dried orange peel, so want to keep hop bitterness very low, I bet you'll get some significant bitterness from the tea. I'd be inclined to leave out the flavor and aroma hops entirely, since you have so much other aromatic stuff going on with the tea, coriander, and orange, and keep the IBU from the bittering hops lower than you would normally go for.

Let us know how this turns out - I'm curious!

 

[Revvy]

This sounds interesting....let us know how it turns out...

 

[Scooterkdavis]

I have two recipes which i use tea leaves in, I always but the tea bags in 5 minutes before flame out to sanitize them. Tried to 'dry hop' them once and batch got infected, maybee it was bad luck but never had an infected batch except the one where i put tea leaves in after flameout.

 

[Rhymenoceros]

I was thinking about the same type of thing only with a Jasmine wheat. very interested. please keep us updated.

 

[blackwaterbrewer]

i like mikerlynch's idea about racking onto the honey and tea. I might try that with dry mead.

 

[leghorn]

As a side note, the honey addition you have will most likely be completely fermented in the primary fermentation, and will boost alcohol and will thin the beer out a little. If you want the honey to be prevelent, I would suggest doing a secondary and racking the finished beer on to the honey and the teabag. There might still be yeast in suspension that will start eating the honey, but it won't be enough to completely ferment it. If you want the abv boost with a bit of honey character, put it in at flameout. The heat will drive off some of the aromatics the same way it would for the tea, but it sounds like you want the tea to be the main player here.

Here's another option with which I have had success. Pre-heat oven to 180F. Heat honey in oven-proof saucepan to 180F on stove. Stir often to prevent scorching. Transfer to oven and cover, leaving in oven for 2.5 hours. Cool quickly in ice-bath. Time this process so that cooled honey is ready once the wort has completed boil. Add to the wort and transfer to the carboy. This left a honey flavor in the beer, and mild aroma.

I'm interest in hearing how this goes; don't forget to post results!