Tannin question

[Blacksmith1]

Tea. Just did a search. Found a lot of "yes you can use it" answers, but none that gave an equivalent for wine tannin. As in 1.5 tsp wine tannin= x amount black tea prepared thusly.
Anybody got a clue? I have a peach passion fruit black tea I'd like to use in my banana wine.

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

In cider making they usually say 1 cup strong tea per gal

 

[Blacksmith1]

Thanks. I figure they can't be too much different.

 

[bmd2k1]

Not a big tannin guy so never add it. Good luck [emoji111]

 

[bernardsmith]

My thinking is that "equivalence" between adding powdered tannin (whose source is - what? chestnuts?) is likely to involve bench testing. Some black teas will have loads of tannin and others will have much less. So you find a tea you are happy using and you brew a few cups (how long you brew tea will determine the amount of tannin you extract - but how much you can extract will depend on the tea itself) and you add different quantities to identical test batches of wine.

 

[Blacksmith1]

That makes sense. But for this one the plan is to use a different tea that has added flavors. The only other times I've used tea were in recipes that called for X amount, or just poured to taste at bottling. Now I'm about to start one that calls for grape tanin, which I don't have, as part of the must. So I figured I'd ask.

 

[Mumathomebrew]

2018 banana wine, made with Christmas blend tea for the same reason. Also not fond of drinking flavoured teas much but like their lovely smell.

30/4/18 - 1.5 pints of very strong Christmas tea blend. (used three heaped tablespoons)
1/5/18 - decided it wasn't tea-ish enough and added 2 pints strong Yorkshire Blend (ordinary tea bags)
3/5/18 - wanted stronger tea smoky taste so added 1 pt strong darjeeling tea with 2 more pints ordinary Yorkshire blend.
8/5/19 just racked into 2L bottles and sweetened in bottle gave it 8/10 as a heavy pudding wine. The teas gave nice spicy nuances to the banana. Clarity good. Bananas always seem to clear well.

Made in the five gallon demi with youngs sparkling yeast.
Fruit = 3lbs bananas, 8 pears, 2 pts dandelion tisane, few random strawbs & raspberries
Sugar = 8lbs 3oz + 2oz per 2L backsweeten
grapes = 500g sultanas whizzed
citrus = 3 lemons ++
tannin = teas as above
acids = tartaric
yeast = sparkling
pectolase = yes
time = 27/4/18 - 8/5/19

 

[Blacksmith1]

So you used just over 3/4 of a gallon in five gallons? I may not have used enough......

 

[Mumathomebrew]

I don't normally use that much in normal wine but that was specifically a banana AND tea wine. Bananas are probably strong enough to take it. I'll have a look in my other banana ones. I've made a pure Yorkshire tea wine before and it was pleasant enough and cleared nicely. I'll go and pore through my old notebooks to see. I'm only ever playing about with tastes for hobby reasons.

From notes...
Bananas - malic and citric
2010 - banana, kiwi, lime with German yeast. No tea. 5/10
2013 - quince, banana with germanic white yeast. No tea. Put in notes that it probably could have done with some. Was a bit light if anything.
2013 - quince and banana 2 with Bordeaux white yeast. 1/2 pint strong tea. Clarity fabulous but went sherryish. 3/10 for cooking sherry.
2013 - wild plum and banana with Bordeaux yeast. No tea.
2018 - Banana and spiced tea - as above. Oodles of tea.

2018 - Purely Yorkshire tea, teabag tea collected from each days tea leftovers in the pot. Made in a 2L plastic bottle as an experiment. Used pectolase and campden with Youngs white wine yeast. Haven't even written down using any citrus there but would probably have used a small amount in the starter bottle.

Just poured you a glass. Tastes like.... very sweet tea.

It still isn't quite clear and is still fermenting slightly. Have topped up with campden, some lemon juice and some more tea.

 

[Mumathomebrew]

Finally I found a clue... to the tannin quantity comparison. This mead maker refers to using the contents of six tea bags or a half oz of tannin. No idea of any accuracy but it does give a clue that lots of liquid tea is probably less tannin than it might seem.

http://housedragon.org/Meads.htm

 

[bernardsmith]

@Mumathomebrew, I would imagine that the peels of less than perfectly ripe bananas are full of tannin. at least when you put them in your mouth you get that puckery mouth sensation associated with tannin

 

[Mumathomebrew]

Green bananas deffo have more tannin than overripe. I usually cook all the skins with the fruit for wines but they are nearly black when I use them, so probs very little tannin then.

 

[wildmazer]

i haven't tried to figure out any sort of equivalence between packaged wine tannins and tea, but all the tea-based meads i've done i've used tea brewed a bit stronger than i like to drink it for the entirety of the liquid - no plain water. it's never been near to being too tannic when it's done. i haven't used tea to add tannins to brews where the tea itself isn't the main focus, though.

 

[Mumathomebrew]

I've made an entire wine based on yorkshire teabags made up strong like that and it's not so very scary.