Tea Beer

I wanted to share the latest beer to come out of the brew pot. This is a beer that D. and I have been talking about for what might be years, but by the time we got to make it he had moved out of the state! Megan and I are going to visit in July (thanks in part to the previous post) so I can still bring a few to share out there, which is good because I think it is the very best thing we have ever brewed. The main feature was 2 oz of jasmine tea from the Tea Source in St. Paul that was included in the process at several points. I believe that some of the natural yeas that is on the tea got into the beer, giving it a fantastic sour tinge reminiscent of a lambic. That could just be from the Bravarian yeast though. The tea it self provides a wonderful floral backdrop and a dryness that does not normally appear in a beer. Beer is usually bitter, but this contains the plesent astringent quality of green tea.

You can bet this is going into the State Fair this year!

Here is the recipe, for the record:

1 lbs crushed carapils malt for body, foam
3.15 lbs Wheat Malt extract
3.15 lbs Pilzen Extract
.5 lbs light DME

Saaz hops (1 oz @ 3.6 a)

Jasmine tea (2 oz)
Sencha
lavender
heather tips

WYeast - Bravarian wheat

#1 Steep grains at 65-70˚ C for 30 min, remove and sparge
#2 Steep 1 oz tea mix (60% jasime, 40% sencha) while temperature is rising. 70˚ C -> 90º C. Remove and add malts.
# 3 Boil 1 oz saaz for 60 min, chill.
# 4 Brew 1 gallon of strong jasmine tea. Adjuncted with heather tips, and lavender (couldn't help my self. I need to keep the floral lavender/jasmine flavor there!) .6 oz lavender, .4 oz sencha, .1 oz lavender, .3 oz heather tips. Brew for 10 min. Remove tea, then boil briefly.
# 5 mix in boiling tea to chilled wart. Pitch yeast.
#6 6-12 hours later, dry hop with jasmine tea. (I dry hopped right away and it all blew off)