Black Tea in the mix

[BenjiEDF]

I used the search and read a whole lot of good info. Particularly I am interested in using some ideas from the Graham's English Cider recipe.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/grahams-english-cider-107152/

I have a simple batch of treetop in primary fermenting on day 4 with champagne yeast. I wonder if it's too late to steep one bag of tea in a about 4 ounces of water (cool) and then add/mix in to the secondary (1 gallon batch) when I rack it? Is it too late?

Also I was planning on crushing a campden tablet and mixing that into the secondary. I'm new to this stuff...

 

[Totes]

The black tea in the secondary will be just fine, you will probably have a bit of headspace to fill anyways. (also, I'd boil the tea water)

What's up with the campden tab in the secondary? Not sure what you are going for with that.

 

[BenjiEDF]

The black tea in the secondary will be just fine, you will probably have a bit of headspace to fill anyways. (also, I'd boil the tea water)

What's up with the campden tab in the secondary? Not sure what you are going for with that.

Good to hear that it's not too late. By cool I meant that I'd steep it hot and let it cool before I mix it in... good idea?

As for the campden... I just ran across some info saying that when racking the mixture is exposed to oxygen and it's a good idea to add a crushed tablet per 1 gallon. If it's unnecessary I'll omit it.

 

[pkrath84]

I would just add it straight to the primary. In fact, that's what I plan on doing tomorrow.

 

[Totes]

Yeah, many people add 50ppm or so of sulphite at racking. I was assuming you were doing a relatively early secondary, in which case I would omit. Early on, you should have plenty of co2 left to protect you from oxidation, and the campden could discourage any MLF as well.
No big deal whichever way you choose, I was just curious if perhaps you were trying to halt fermentation.
Cheers

 

[BenjiEDF]

I would just add it straight to the primary. In fact, that's what I plan on doing tomorrow.

I racked out of primary into 3 one liter clamp top bottles today. I added the tea mixture into the transfer bucket and mixed in the priming sugar with everything. It smelled amazing I wanted to just drink it right then and there haha! I was planning a secondary fermentation but the batch was clear and the gravity was right. I went straight to bottling.

Let's hope it turns out ok. I'm really glad I came across that recipe. I think the addition of the black tea is what I'm looking for.