Hard Ice Tea
Well I made myself a hard ice tea after been inspired by the recipe posted here. I will explain what I did.
Found myself a recipe online I liked the look of.
To make one and one-half quarts of iced tea, put a quart (that's 4 cups) of fresh, cold water in a teapot or pan or whatever and bring it to a boil. When the water comes to a boil, pour it over 5 small tea bags in a heatproof container. Don't gently pour; let it really splash down on the tea bags. Set the container aside and allow the tea to steep for at least an hour. (Actually you can let it steep for hours, overnight even, and it's just fine.) Then fish the teabags out. You can squeeze them to get that last drop of flavor. If you want "sweet tea," add a scant ¾ cup of sugar and stir it until dissolved. Then add two more cups of cold water, stir, and chill. You'll have enough to refresh and satisfy several people.
Now I ended up using 3 extra strong pot tea bags (Dilma tea)
And I added 1 cup of sugar
And white wine yeast
Shook to air rate and left it be.
Started on the 9th of September, I didn’t bother to measure the OG it was sweet, that’s all I needed to know.
I left it to open ferment for 3 days and then closed it up.
Bottled September 29th
I added some herbs about the third week in for a few days, some rosemary some peppercorns and two cloves. Not to give a strong taste but to flavor enough. About this time I added some lemon juice I table spoon a day for three days while adding sugar as well just to give it a slight lemon taste.
The bubbles had slowed so I strained it through muslin into an old vodka bottle I had lying about. And put it in the fridge to stop any fermentation that was still under way. I had a taste and took a SG measure as well, 1.060, still nice and sweet…. Plenty left for yeast to ferment that’s why it’s in the fridge.
Ended up being very palatable, not a strong tea taste very subtle, but that same refreshing Ahhhhhh… that ice tea gives you. Nice on ice with a bit of lemon.
Mu.
