Wicked Tea (beta) (Twisted Tea clone)

[mgayer]

Just a question but have you guys thought above making a concentrate and using it after the fermentation? I hate to say this but lipton makes the concentrate and you could add a bit to bring the flavor up. You could also use a few cups of water and a bunch of tea bags. Make sure it is boilingafter the tea bags are in the water then remove from the heat and cover for about 10 minutes. Remove the bags and squeeze out the liquid. Then simmer just the liquid until it reduces half the amount. This would give a very strong concentration to play with a few ounces at a time.

 

[dutchboy62]

thats what im gonna do next try making a concentrate myself andadding during the the secondary and im gonna try and triple up the amount of tea in the primary in another test

 

[dutchboy62]

boiled 2 cups of water added 4 tea bags(thw amount reccomended 4 1 gal of tea) and used it to top off the rest of the gal i had made already im gonna bottle tomorrow and taste it

 

[Adolphus79]

I finally just gave up on mine...

I figure I'll just start my next test here in the next couple weeks....

 

[dutchboy62]

ididnt wanna give up yet hopefully this will work i just got some more yeast and will prob try again this weekend im gonna use 12 bags instead of 4

 

[dutchboy62]

do you think its ok to bottle so soon after adding the concentrate. the airlock is not bubbling at all but itis a little cloudy since i added the concentrate. I think it might just be a little to much tea in 1 gal of water

 

[Adolphus79]

It should be OK to bottle so long as you didn't add any more sugar to it, just tea...

 

[dutchboy62]

no i didnt add any sugar but have a feeling its gonna need to be back sweetened

 

[dutchboy62]

just tried it and its ok but def not great or even that good add somesugar but its not enough its gonna need some more im no expert by any means but i think it has a slight cider taste and 1 lemon is not enough im gonna just leave it alone for a couple months

 

[BluesJava2000]

I became a member of this site in May of this year, hoping to find someone with a twisted tea recipe. I make homemade concord grape wine every year and I thought it would be fun to experiment with new things.

I posted in May sometime hoping to find someone with a recipe but no luck. I figured I'd move on and try it on my own. Remind you, I'm an amateur homebrewer and I knew very little about it. But I did a lot of research to develop a recipe and came up with multiple experiments.

Snce it has been almost 5 months of experimentation I almost want to give up since I can't come up with any conclusions. So, as you can see I decided to go back to the homebrew forum to see if there was anything available for Twisted Tea Recipes. I came across these threads and read through each of them realizing I encountered similar problems just like you two.

The biggest problem I've encountered is the lack of tea flavor upon completion of the fermentation. To try to resolve this problem I tried 4 types of experiments:

1) increase the quantity of tea bags, before fermentation, and steep just enough before the tea becomes too tannic

2) over steep the tea bags

3) cook up some tea concentrate and apply it to the secondary fermentation

4) switch type of yeast (champagne, wine, ale); I haven't tried lager or cider yeast yet

5) The last batch aged for 2 months, longer than the other experiments, and there was very little tea flavor even after the secondary fermentation

6) changed the kind of sugar

I made sure the temperature was right for the different yeasts and I even tried the secondary fermentation both inside and outside of the refrigerator. I tried fermenting with malt and hops and followed beer recipes very carefully, but I noticed a slight difference in the tea flavor after the primary fermentation. There was a little more tea flavor than normal but it gradually reduced the longer it aged. I even continued to add more tea flavor to it.

I've been trying to research tea to see if there is something in the chemical composition of tea that doesn't work well with alcohol because I know tea is an antioxidant (if that inhibits anything). I have no idea. I wonder if there is some kind of natural preservative for flavor.

So, this is where I stand right now:

Since tea is a non-fermentable there needs to be sugar added to wort or there needs to be a natural fermentable like fruit or even a malt. I wonder if that will make a significant difference in the flavor. I am about to experiment with lager yeast since I heard that it may produce a neutral yeast flavor to help accentuate the tea flavor. I also want to experiment with sorghum, molasses, or rice malt. I am also thinking about adding tea concentrate a little bit at a time during the fermentation.

As I said before I am an amateur homebrewer and if you have any ideas or tips I'd greatly appreciate it. I also hope that my observations can help you as well. I'll update you as I go along.

 

[HopNStein]

I tried this over the summer and it was a hit at the bbq's! So simple and very good!

 

[HopNStein]

HERE is the updated link.

Update: adding some fresh brewed tea to the final result makes a drink that goes down easy and hits you hard.

 

[ValCapone]

Okay so I just joined this forum after reading this thread while I was looking for a twisted tea recipe, and I had an Aha! moment. The website says twisted tea is made from a clear malt with added tea flavours....could you in theory do that in order to keep the tea flavour in so you don't lose it during fermentation? Just a thought....

 

[Mismost]

I just read this whole thread. I am also new to wine marking and brewing. However, I do live in South Texas and iced tea is required to survive the summer, and I make outstanding ice tea. So, take this for it's worth.

I figure you guys are going at all backasswards. I ain't never drank no ice tea that was worth a flip after a month. Why don't you brew a gallon of sugar water and pitch the yeast. Let it work. When it's finished, make a gallon of double strong double sweet iced tea and mix the two together. You may wind up with something don't look or drink like muddy creek water.

After all, what is the point in making something that don't taste like iced tea? Heck, I think you would be better off if you just bottled the juice and added it your sweet tea when you was ready to drink it....now you are gonna have the good tea flavor. Like I said, I don't know squat about wine making or brewing yet....but, I was weaned on good ice tea!

 

[brazedowl]

So one year I made hard lemonade and when I bottled them I put a teabag in the bottle with the string hanging out and capped over it. Let them sit week in the fridge to cold steep and turened out just right.

I imagine you'd have to be relatively prompt about the consumption so it doesnt oversteep, but that's the idea right?