Tea Sour Beer Help

[Bigbre04]

Hey yall,

Anyone have experience adding tea to batches? If so how much did you add and when. I am just starting this process

I was thinking about doing a black tea or early grey or something sour ale for my next sour. Maybe even getting some Mate and using that??? the mate may add a nice smokey flavor to the actual sour which would be pretty wild. that could be awesome or nasty!

This is my standard sour base
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/embed/1581138

 

[Donoroto]

Sorry, only added coffee to a porter recipe. Never did tea.

 

[Minbari]

Not sure bergamot would be good in a sour.

Do a farm ale or a saison. Something that is floral to begin with

 

[J A]

Beers like this are the reason the Craft Beer industry is going downhill!!

Seriously, though, I think the sour is one step too far. I can see the tea flavor (re: smokey flavor...look into gunpowder tea) adding some intresting notes but the tanins and potentially bold, dry taste might not play well with the sour.
Maybe a Belgian yeast to throw some spice into the mix so you get a little hint of Chai flavor in there. Or just stick with your Voss and brew it at a temp that throws plenty of fruit esters.
And I think you'd want a pretty robust beer so maybe push over 6%.

 

[Bigbre04]

so there is a brewery in Ga that does an Earle grey sour that is not my thing, but it is popular locally

now that i think about it, i would be willing to bet that they use a tea flavoring not actual tea...easy to order.

 

[Bryozoans]

I'm not sure how early grey would be in a sour. I think sour flavors would go better with sweet, floral, or fruity additions. I made a sour with dried elderflowers and one with ginger and liked both.

 

[vinobrew]

so there is a brewery in Ga that does an Earle grey sour

I had to look this up as I was curious. It's Three Taverns Brewery that makes it. It sounds like they make non-orthodox beers, which is cool. "Sometimes you just want to follow the creative muse wherever she takes you. Having categories grants you the freedom to have no category whatsoever." I've seen breweries in the past struggle with a niche market like this. I asked Google AI (Gemini) if Three Taverns Brewery is commercial success based on growth and reach of customers. Here is the answer. This is likely a style I would try, but it would have to be really good for me to consider buying on my own. Thanks @Bigbre04 for the discussion.

 

[Craigerrr]

Mill Street in Toronto had a lemon tea beer many years ago, it was lovely in the summer, haven't seen it for 12-15 years though

 

[Sandy Feet]

I remember someone here having a tea beer back a few years ago, but it wasn't a sour. From what I remember, it was pretty damn good.

 

[Craigerrr]

Oh yeah, the Mill Street Lemon Tea was also not a sour

 

[Bigbre04]

i just thought it sounded like an interesting experiment. probably not gonna end up being realistic but so it goes.

i will probably have to brew a cranberry sour since thanksgiving/fall but we shall see how things work out!

 

[Sandy Feet]

I'm not a big sour person, but that actually sounds good. Are you going to ferment/secondary the real thing or use the concentrate?
One of the places that closed here made a Sangria flavored sour with the concentrate. It was one of my wife's favorite beverages when we went anywhere. The downside is that it was expensive and ran up a bar bill in a hurry.

 

[Bigbre04]

I'm not a big sour person, but that actually sounds good. Are you going to ferment/secondary the real thing or use the concentrate?
One of the places that closed here made a Sangria flavored sour with the concentrate. It was one of my wife's favorite beverages when we went anywhere. The downside is that it was expensive and ran up a bar bill in a hurry.

boss man was not super keen on just straight cranberry sour. we shall see if i can beat him down on it.

if not just straight cranberry what else would be a fall/thanksgiving flavor for a sour???

 

[Donoroto]

so there is a brewery in Ga that does an Earle grey sour that is not my thing, but it is popular locally

now that i think about it, i would be willing to bet that they use a tea flavoring not actual tea...easy to order.

Yeah, Kroger sells unsweetened ice tea mix…

 

[Bigbre04]

Yeah, Kroger sells unsweetened ice tea mix…

honestly i didnt even think of that. brilliant honestly. i wonder how much that would cost for 76 gals though. VS getting a concentrated flavoring from amoretti or wherever.

 

[Donoroto]

honestly i didnt even think of that. brilliant honestly. i wonder how much that would cost for 76 gals though. VS getting a concentrated flavoring from amoretti or wherever.

Probably just one can would be plenty. So $3.79? Unsweetened, of course.

Buy some, and add small amounts to a beer sample to judge how it would taste and how much to use. Definitely far less than for making iced tea.

 

[Sandy Feet]

boss man was not super keen on just straight cranberry sour. we shall see if i can beat him down on it.

if not just straight cranberry what else would be a fall/thanksgiving flavor for a sour???

I wonder if apple would work?

 

[Bryozoans]

If you really do want to add earl grey tea, I recently made a recipe from craft beer and brewing magazine (basically an ESB with early grey cream tea) and this is what the recipe said to do with the tea: "add
 1.5 oz Earl Grey Creme tea
 (I recommend Adagio Teas’s Earl Grey Moonlight in a fine mesh bag) at flameout and steep for 8 minutes while cooling the wort" - for 5 gal/21L.

I bought whatever early grey cream tea that bulk barn had and put it in those disposable tea bags. I bottled the beer this past weekend and its VERY early grey-y lol. The flavor is there for sure.

 

[Bigbre04]

If you really do want to add earl grey tea, I recently made a recipe from craft beer and brewing magazine (basically an ESB with early grey cream tea) and this is what the recipe said to do with the tea: "add
 1.5 oz Earl Grey Creme tea
 (I recommend Adagio Teas’s Earl Grey Moonlight in a fine mesh bag) at flameout and steep for 8 minutes while cooling the wort" - for 5 gal/21L.

I bought whatever early grey cream tea that bulk barn had and put it in those disposable tea bags. I bottled the beer this past weekend and its VERY early grey-y lol. The flavor is there for sure.

hows it taste?

i could do something like a raspberry tea kolsch???

I wonder how it would taste with some trappist flavor profiles....

 

[Bryozoans]

hows it taste?

i could do something like a raspberry tea kolsch???

I wonder how it would taste with some trappist flavor profiles....

That would be good I think! Or Hibiscus! Years ago I flavored Kombucha (which can be sour) with Hibiscus tea and it was delicious. Actually... I need to legit try this now that I'm thinking about it.

The Earl Grey ESB is pretty bitter with a bit of dry astringency, in a good way, but this is even though I added a little honey malt which the recipe did NOT call for. I figured from the recipe it would end up pretty bitter and I just wanted to balance that more (I always add honey to my actual tea so why not try to capture that in my tea beer haha)