College Student in need of HELP! (and good beer)

[MamBrew]

Hello All,

I'm a junior in college and I'm in a brewing/beer tasting class. Our project is, of course, brewing our own beer! I had an idea of a "Sweet Tea" Beer or something in that general idea. If anyone had any recipes that I could get some inspiration from or just some suggestions in general would be great!

ALSO, my professor won't allow us to use extracts, so that is one downside to most recipes I have found, so are extracts necessary?

Sorry this is so long, I just started this class and it would be nice to get some outside knowledge!

Thanks!

 

[mredge73]

"Sweet Tea" will never work for a beer. You can make hard tea pretty easily but it isn't beer.

Removing the extracts just means that the cheapest and easiest way for you guys will be "Brew in a Bag", search BIAB.
There isn't many beer styles you cannot do well with BIAB.
As you learn about the different beer styles just pick an ale that you tend to like and you will find plenty of help here on an ingredient list and basic equipment list.
Lagers require much more time and equipment.

A simple pale ale would be a good start.
Or you can go dark with a robust porter, the coffee and chocolate flavors tend to hide beginner brewing mistakes.

 

[Cauchy]

Just spitballing here.

Use caramel malts and lactose for sweetness. Low bittering. Blend with sugarless cold brewed iced tea to taste after fermentation. Carbonate medium-high to high. Use lemony hops for more of a beer or actually use lemons or limes, with piths removed, instead.

You could also add tea leaves directly, as a dry hop, to add the tea element. I'd go with a less potent variety, starting with an ounce, and adding more if needed. Monitor it regularly, and pull old tea out before the beer gets too tannic.

A final thought; if you can actually blend iced tea with beer at serving, like a rattler, you can try it with whatever beer you can buy and iced tea. Then clone the beer you liked best with the tea.

Oh, don't forget to credit me in your works cited. Let's keep **** ethical.

Good luck!

 

[JonM]

Hello All,



I'm a junior in college and I'm in a brewing/beer tasting class.

We're not just gonna gloss over how awesome THAT is, right?

 

[thekraken]

Does your teacher feel that extract brewing is fake brewing?

 

[UndeadFred]

In college I generally did ciders. Little equipment, cheap, the yeast strain didn't matter as much as beer (even bread yeast works in a pinch). And 95% of the time quite good. I don't think I could have afforded to brew beer in college, and back in those stoneages (my 25th is coming up for college) it wasn't terribly easy to get equipment, especially in Indiana and especially... ahem.. under aged.... (statue of limitations are well up on that one...)

 

[dryboroughbrewing]

Well my hatred of sweet tea aside I'll throw this out there, I'd start with a pretty simple blonde ale, add some lactose and some honey malt, and then 'dry tea' after fermentation to taste. (add a few bags of tea for a day, taste, add more if required, repeat).

 

[CU_tony]

@mambrew
I'm interested, ask if your teacher meant no extract brewing or no extract flavorings?
Is the capstone project of your course to brew a batch? What are the requirements and how long do you have?

 

[madscientist451]

First thing to do is run the project idea past the instructor. The class is "brewing/beer tasting"? Tea isn't beer. Is any alcoholic beverage fair game? A hard root beer might be a better route to a decent tasting beverage and a good grade in the class.
My 2 cents:
If I was the instructor, I'd say there are plenty of actual BEER styles to choose from, no need to make alcohol-pop (or tea).
A good choice for a beginner would be a porter or a stout. Not too much hops to worry about, ale yeast works great at ambient temperature, and the roasty flavors are hard to screw up.
As a bonus, you'll learn how to make an actual BEER, which is something you can use in the future.

 

[brewcat]

Are you brewing at home or on campus? How big of batch is required?

Brew a beer in a style you like. Also, keep it simple. Too many new brewers try to do crazy additions and get discouraged when the beer is terrible.

Start with a good recipe. Have good sanitation. Control fermentation temps.

 

[McGarnigle]

Sorry this is so long, I just started this class and it would be nice to get some outside knowledge!

Just started the class and already are thrown to the wolves to devise your own all-grain recipe? Was there a course pre-requisite?

 

[JediJoel]

Idaho 007 hops have a strong black tea flavor. Sierra Nevada used them in a Single Hop series and it was very pronounced, totally tasted like they added black tea to the beer. From what I have read using them late in the boil and dry hopping produces the black tea flavor. http://www.farmhousebrewingsupply.com/idaho-7-4-oz-2016-new-crop/

 

[MaryB]

Here is a recipe with tea to give you ideas http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/allgrain/AG-HomebrewStrong.pdf green tea though.

My house ale would be a good base to infuse with tea leaves. It is sweetish, low hop bitterness...

11 gallon batch...

16 pounds Golden Promise
3.5 pounds Victory
.75 pounds UK extra dark crystal(160L)

maybe sub tea leaves for the extra dark crystal to keep it from getting to bitter... right now the crystal adds a chocolate/coffee/roasted sugar background to the sweetness from the Golden Promise...

This chart lists malts and what flavor profile they contribute https://byo.com/resources/grains

 

[RevKev]

As somebody who has made tea beer before I suggest finding a base like a cream ale or a farmhouse depending on your particular taste and then adding the beer in secondary. For a 5 gallon batch of hibiscus saison I used 1/2 gallon of steeping water and 1/2 pound of flowers. Experiment with smaller batches and what type of tea you like and you could add lactose for sweetness.

I could see a green tea pale ale or cream ale sweetened with lactose being quite nice.

I would like more information on your process though! It would be nice to know access to equipment and what not.

 

[r4dyce]

Interesting idea. I would say skip the sweet tea idea and just go with tea or iced tea as your inspiration. I might suggest a simple wheat beer. It has some body and plays well with citrus. Add lemon peels to the end of the boil to get the lemon aroma/mild flavor , low bitterness hops, then add black tea bags late in your fermentation. The tea will provide bitterness and astringency that should play well with the lemon to be reminiscent of iced tea. You could add lactose to get some residual sweetness just keep in mind it's never going to be "sweet tea" levels of sweet. A cream ale might work well as the base too.

All this being said , if your not committed to the tea idea you might just want to shoot for something simpler. I only say this because there will be a lot of guesswork in that tea idea. Perhaps try something like a single hop IPA. Super simple and you get to learn the flavor dynamics of a certain hop. Look them up, perhaps there's a type of hop that grows in the general geographic region of your school or some other region significant to you. You also might be more pleased by the results and more inclined to brew in the future.

 

[jddevinn]

Hello All,

I'm a junior in college and I'm in a brewing/beer tasting class. Our project is, of course, brewing our own beer! I had an idea of a "Sweet Tea" Beer or something in that general idea. If anyone had any recipes that I could get some inspiration from or just some suggestions in general would be great!

ALSO, my professor won't allow us to use extracts, so that is one downside to most recipes I have found, so are extracts necessary?

Sorry this is so long, I just started this class and it would be nice to get some outside knowledge!

Thanks!

What college is this that has a brewing/beer class? Are they teaching you how to brew? Expecting students to do a full grain batch mid semester in a class seems like they expect you to have previous knowledge and equipment!

 

[JonM]

Just throwing this out there: Nugget and Centennial combined is very very orangey which might work well with a little Earl Grey.

 

[burninator]

Does your teacher feel that extract brewing is fake brewing?

I suspect he means that he's not allowed to use any flavoring extracts, which will prevent him making a hard root beer using a root beer flavor kit, for example.

 

[JonM]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=619024 [emoji6]

 

[kev211]

Stone did that green tea IPA a while ago and it was actually pretty good. Had a nice tea flavor/aroma. What if you did something like that and added a bit of lactose for a slightly sweeter finish?

Heres a bit of info on the beer Green Tea IPA

 

[JonM]

And Milwaukee Brewing Co's O-Gii uses Chamomile and is pretty darn good.

http://mkebrewing.com/beer/o-gii/

Turns out a few of MBC's brews use tea. There's a tea producer here in Milwaukee called Rishi Tea. I guess MBC and Rishi's people are pals.

 

[MamBrew]

@MaryB Thank you!

By any chance could you send me the full recipe? (step by step instructions and stuff) because this is basically a intro class to brewing so I only know very little!

And of course I'll be sure to source you and give you credit in my project!

Just let me know if you can or can't. Thanks!

 

[MaryB]

Sent a link to the recipe and instructions, it isn't really beginner level being all grain and needing sparging... it is an 11 gallon recipe, just cut quantities of water, grain, hops in half and only use 1 packet rehydrated yeast. Not knowing what equipment you have access to it is hard to really give detailed instructions. I use 8 gallons of sparge water but my boil off rate may be different than yours... I use a wide kettle(Turkey fryer pot) that has more evaporation than a dedicated brew kettle. Plus your dead space in the mash tun, and in the boil kettle may be different than mine and leave more behind. I use hop bags to keep hop residue out of the boil kettle when I transfer to the fermenters.

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: Echo Ale #2

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: Strong Bitter
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 11 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 13 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.048
Efficiency: 85% (brew house)


STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.057
Final Gravity: 1.013
ABV (standard): 5.79%
IBU (tinseth): 31.62
SRM (morey): 13.27

FERMENTABLES:
16 lb - United Kingdom - Golden Promise (79%)
3.5 lb - American - Victory (17.3%)
0.75 lb - United Kingdom - Extra Dark Crystal 160L (3.7%)

HOPS:
2 oz - Perle, Type: Pellet, AA: 8.2, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 28.82
2 oz - Hallertau Hersbrucker, Type: Pellet, AA: 4, Use: Aroma for 5 min, IBU: 2.8

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Infusion, Temp: 153 F, Time: 60 min, Amount: 30 qt
Starting Mash Thickness: 1.5 qt/lb

YEAST:
Danstar - Nottingham Ale Yeast
Starter: Yes
Form: Dry
Attenuation (avg): 77%
Flocculation: High
Optimum Temp: 57 - 70 F
Fermentation Temp: 62 F
Pitch Rate: 0.5 (M cells / ml / deg P)

TARGET WATER PROFILE:
Profile Name: Balanced Profile II
Ca2: 150
Mg2: 10
Na: 80
Cl: 150
SO4: 160
HCO3: 220
Water Notes:

NOTES:
Pours a deep copper red, bready notes from the Victory, just enough bitter form the extra dark crystal. Very drinkable and this just made my rotation to keep on hand!

This recipe has been published online at:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/386316/echo-ale-2

Generated by Brewer's Friend - http://www.brewersfriend.com/
Date: 2017-03-17 06:29 UTC
Recipe Last Updated: 2017-03-17 04:34 UTC

 

[Sadu]

Where did the tea idea come from?

I would think, if extracts are off the table and this is your first brew ever, then you really want to be brewing a simple reliable recipe and not trying to get all experimental. There is plenty of challenge in all-grain brewing.

As others have suggested, pale ales are fun and easy to brew, and taste really great. Porters and stouts also good for beginners since the strong flavors mask mistakes nicely. Blonde ales are good simple recipes also.

I would start with one of those, BIAB since it's easy and cheap. Don't be shy about brewing a 1 gallon batch in a small pot if that's all you have. You will find that people here will be more than happy to scale down a recipe for you, or you can just divide the amounts of a 5 gallon recipe by 5 and call it good.