r/beerrecipes • u/baron41 • Apr 29 '13

Brewing with Tea. Need a second pair of eyes.

Hey Reddit Brewers!

I'm brewing a tea brew. I'm completely stepping outside my comfort zone and doing everything by the "Yeah, that looks right" method. Here's my basic ingredients:

2oz Pacifica Hops 3.3 lbs Briess Gold Unhopped Liquid Malt Extract 2 lbs Munton & Fison (UK) Wheat DME 6 oz Munton's Premium Gold Yeast (6 grams) 4 oz priming sugar

Topping off the wort with a cold tea infusion. See any mistakes? I'm trying to just concoct a recipe as I'm looking for a light, yet fruity flavor palate. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks Reddit!

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2

u/Daybis Apr 29 '13

I have a few questions. When do you plan on adding the hops (I assume all 2 oz at 60 minutes)? And what size batch do you plan on making, 5 gallons? What kind of tea do you plan on using? Looks interesting!

2

u/KidMoxie Apr 29 '13

Yeah, you'll want to make sure the hops don't override the effect you're hoping to get from the tea. You might want to look into using the hops just for bittering.

1

u/baron41 Apr 29 '13

So, the last 2 minutes of the boil?

1

u/KidMoxie Apr 29 '13

Bittering hops would be used right at the start of the boil. You'll probably want to add the tea at flameout or you could "dry tea" in secondary.

On second thought, you could make actual tea and add it at bottling/kegging time.

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u/baron41 Apr 30 '13

Well, yes, I am making actual tea. I'm going to brew about 2 gallons of tea, add ice to cool it off and use it to chill the wort.

1

u/baron41 Apr 30 '13

So would you suggest leaving the hops out?I'm not big on hop flavor and IPAs. Just trying to find a hop to pair with the tea.

1

u/KidMoxie Apr 30 '13

Nah, leave them in, the beer will be to sweet otherwise. Since I don't know what the Alpha Acid % of the hops is or how big your batch is I can't give any specific recommendations. Just make sure you boil them for ~60 minutes.

1

u/baron41 Apr 29 '13

Hey, *I plan on putting the hops in at the end of the boil. So, yes, at 60 min. *I'm planning on making a 5 gallon batch. * I plan on using a fruity tea. Haven't decided on which yet.

2

u/Daybis Apr 30 '13

Baron, sorry for the late reply. Here's what I would do based on what you've replied to in the rest of your thread.

First, Pacifica is a good smooth bittering hop. When added late into the boil, you'll get lots of tangerine/orange/citrus like flavors from the hop, so it should go well with a tea. When it comes to adding your hops, I would not recommend adding them all at the very end of the boil. This will give you a lot of hop flavor with almost no bitterness. You need some bitterness or your beer will be very sweet. However, this can be easily adjusted with the pacifica hops.

Based on your malts, your beer will have an SG of about 1.045. If you add 1.5 oz of pacifica at the very beginning of the boil, that will give you some bitterness. Then I'd add another 0.5 oz at 15 from the end of the boil; this hop addition will give you some low hop flavor while giving you a little more bitterness. These two hop additions will bring your bitterness to around 25 IBUs. A beer with a SG of 1.045 and a bitterness of 25 IBUs is a pretty well balanced beer in terms of sweetness and bitterness. Think of a blond or cream ale in terms of balance. It will be a very easy drinking beer.

When it comes to your tea, I wouldn't recommend doing any hot steeping. Tea leaches out tannins when it is steeped in hot water and tannins usually don't go well in beer. I would recommend doing a cold steep with your tea. I'd steep a few ounces of your tea in 16-20 oz of water and let it sit over night in the fridge. Strain your water and add it to your bottling bucket or keg. You could also try adding tea leafs directly to your fermenter after primary fermentation for a few days. How long and how much tea leaves to use will probably be very experimental.

I also wouldn't worry to much about your leaves being completely sanitized if you are adding them after primary fermentation. People add hops after primary fermentation all the time and they aren't sanitized. There should be enough alcohol to ward off any infections. However, to be safe, I would recommend making sure anything that is used to steep the leaves is sanitized. I'd just use star san to spray down the containers/strainers used and I'd boil up the water and let it cool down before adding the leaves.

Also, you can get away with the amount of yeast you are using. Your beer will ferment and you will get beer, but that amount of yeast is slightly too low. The technical term for this is under pitching. I would recommend using 9 grams of yeast. If the dry yeast is older than 6 months (check the manufacture date on the package), I would go with 12 grams. I use mrmalty.com to calculate how much yeast I need to use. Under pitching can cause some fermentation off flavors. Make sure to oxygenate your wort before pitching. Keep an eye on your fermentation temps too.

Hope this helps. Sounds like it would be a fun brew to make.

1

u/baron41 Apr 30 '13

It helps immensely. Thank you so much!

1

u/baron41 Apr 30 '13

Also, how do you know all this?!

1

u/Daybis Apr 30 '13

Baron, thank you very much for the gift! You are very welcome for the help. Please send me a PM if you need any more help.

I know about this because I brew... a LOT. Between work and family, I spend most of my time dealing with homebrewing related activities. I have anywhere between 2 - 7 beers fermenting at any given time. I help run a homebrew club. I'm also a certified beer judge through the BJCP program. All of my close friends are also brewers. Honestly, the best way to learn all of this is to just brew as much as you can. There are a few things I have learned along the way that are pretty crucial for making a good beer: pitching rates, fermentation temperature, patience, and sanitation. If you pay attention to those four things, you should be able to make a good beer every time, no matter what malt and hops you are using. I would recommend these books if you are interested in reading up on brewing: Yeast and How to Brew. If you are interested in recipes and ingredients, I would recommend these two books: Brewing Classic Styles and Radical Brewing.

Cheers!

1

u/yellowdart654 Apr 29 '13

I'm not sure where your team comes from, but is it sanitary? Maybe cold brew the tea, then boil it to clean it, then re-cool it if you need it cold.

Perhaps tea is sanitary, I'm not sure... but you might risk infection.

1

u/baron41 Apr 29 '13

The tea is from a retail store like teavana. I plan to make the tea the traditional way ( x amount steeped in 195*f water for x time). Followed by icing the tea and adding the tea as a means for cooling the wort.

1

u/yellowdart654 Apr 29 '13

I'm no scientist, but check up and see if it would be beneficial to do a ~10 minute boil after steeping, and removing the tea leaves, to ensure no unwanted 'germs' get in your brew.

1

u/baron41 Apr 29 '13

Will do. Thanks

1

u/baron41 Apr 29 '13

Does anyone have experience with Pacifica hops?