Hey peeps, thanks for the info and tips that have helped create some good mead already. For my third attempt, I am branching out to make a metheglin. I have decided on a 3 gallon batch, 9 lbs raw honey from the local farmer's market, and black tea in the primary. I am going to rack that onto vanilla in the secondary. That being said, I have general questions because this is uncharted territory for me. 1) How much tea should I use? I am seeking some tannin for sure and mild flavor from the tea. 2) Same question for the vanilla. I imagine a little of this stuff goes a long way. 3) Yeast suggestions? Is it silly to consider bread yeast for this? If not, fire away. The higher the temp tolerance is ideal for my hood. Thanks, I know this is a lot of info.
3rd brew, seeking advice on recipe
- Thread starter Rangersfan817
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How high is the temp?
Yeast that do well in high temp include K1V, and D21. Many folks find 71B does OK and certainly bread yeast tolerate warm temps.
For the tea, you can brew some and taste different dilutions to get an idea where you want it. I'd encourage using less than you think you need. Once it is done, if it needs more, you can add more.
I'd suggest adding the vanilla to secondary. 1 bean may be enough for 3 gallons unless you are a vanillaholic.
Yeast that do well in high temp include K1V, and D21. Many folks find 71B does OK and certainly bread yeast tolerate warm temps.
For the tea, you can brew some and taste different dilutions to get an idea where you want it. I'd encourage using less than you think you need. Once it is done, if it needs more, you can add more.
I'd suggest adding the vanilla to secondary. 1 bean may be enough for 3 gallons unless you are a vanillaholic.
If you brew your tea cold, (just putting the bags or infuser) in the secondary. The tea will not impart the bitterness from the tea. You will lose some tannins you may have been looking for but there will still be some extracted. Just something to think about.
@ Medsen Fey, room temp during this time of year in my house is in the low 70's. My main concern is the summer time, where room temp is 80-82 during the hottest months. It is way expensive to cool my house lower during those months. KV1 does seem promising, based on the limited research I have done.
Thanks for the tips on the herbs as well, definitely will take your advice.
Thanks for the tips on the herbs as well, definitely will take your advice.
@ Marshmallow Blue, that sounds like a good idea. I'm not sure how tea would come out dduring primary fermentaion anyways and I also didn't consider the bitterness aspect. I would like tannins, but a compliment of tea flavor would be nice. Do you recommend increasing from 1 tea bag per gallon if I do tea in the secondary?
If you want actual flavour from the tea, I'd increase it, I regularly use one tea bag steeped in a cup of boiled water until it's cold per gallon for tannins, and though I can often taste a hint of tea flavour in the unfermented must, it's long gone by the end of fermentation and I'd have to check my logs to know whether I even used it or not.
I used a big pot of tea made with 6 bags for a 2-litre batch of iced tea beer because the previous attempt had little to no tea flavour to it, and that turned out right for me (although it's going to depend on your tea, this was old single-cup bags of Red Rose that I don't drink, my usual two-cup bags of Typhoo or Tetley tea would probably have been about right at 2 tea bags. I wanted a good strong tea flavour so I made it like I'd make a pot of tea to drink and used that as the liquid in the recipe.
I haven't tried tea in secondary, myself.
I used a big pot of tea made with 6 bags for a 2-litre batch of iced tea beer because the previous attempt had little to no tea flavour to it, and that turned out right for me (although it's going to depend on your tea, this was old single-cup bags of Red Rose that I don't drink, my usual two-cup bags of Typhoo or Tetley tea would probably have been about right at 2 tea bags. I wanted a good strong tea flavour so I made it like I'd make a pot of tea to drink and used that as the liquid in the recipe.
I haven't tried tea in secondary, myself.
First, iced tea beer, that sounds delicious. I wonder what style you made? I bet that works well with a hefeweizen. As far as tea and mead, that puts things into perspective.
Thanks for all of the suggestions, they help beyond the actual tips. They help inspire new ideas. Thank you for your active participations on this site.
Uh, that one actually had a can of a flat beer that'd frozen and popped in the refrigerator...but here's the brewlog for my iced tea beer experiments if you're interested. Now that I've sort of got the tea and lemon amounts dialed in, I'll probably do one or two more experimental bottles and then I'm going to try a batch with malt extract, beer yeast and probably Saaz hops (dry-hopped, since I really liked how that worked for my hopped pumpkin hydromel).
