Green Tea Mead Question

[YoopersBrewing]

Hi all!

I'm new to the forum AND new to Mead brewing. I've got experience with ciders and have dabbled in wines, but would like to get into Mead.

I'll start by saying I have a little bit of a strange pallet. I really enjoy dry carbonated drinks. So, as you can imagine, I have a hard time finding good ciders and mead to drink. Recently I have enjoyed a Mead by Rogue called 19 Original Colonies Mead. It is brewed with 5 ingredients... Hopyard Honey, Wildflower Honey, Jasmine Silver Green Tips Tea, Champagne Yeast and Water.

It has such a beautiful flavor. I just love it!!!!!

Can someone give me some tips on recreating this flavor? I understand the whole fermentation process and have access to some very nice wildflower honey, but would like an experienced voice on how to create the pungent and dry flavor exemplified by this Rouge Mead. I'm wanting to start small, so one or two gallons to begin with.

Any and all help is deeply appreciated!

 

[Arpolis]

To make a dry tea mead is easy. Try a simple one gallon recipe like this.

3lb honey
3 tsp of favorite tea (just dump it in dry into primary)
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1/2 tsp yeast energizer
Water to one gallon
Yeast (Lalvin K1V-1116 not ec-1118 regardless of what the LHBS says)

For the nutrients mix it all and split it up into 3 parts. A pinch more in the first part which is mixed in at yeast pitch. And every 24 hours mix the must well and add the next dosage. You can not go too heavy handed with the nutrients so make sure you are not skimping on the measurements and always error on the heavy side. After about 30-45 days throw this in the fridge and let it clear. Rack to a new jug off the sediment and let sit in fridge a few more days for final clearing. Bottle it and let age as long as you can stand it. The longer it ages the happier you will be with it.

 

[Atek]

To make a dry tea mead is easy. Try a simple one gallon recipe like this.

3lb honey
3 tsp of favorite tea (just dump it in dry into primary)
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1/2 tsp yeast energizer
Water to one gallon
Yeast (Lalvin K1V-1116 not ec-1118 regardless of what the LHBS says)

For the nutrients mix it all and split it up into 3 parts. A pinch more in the first part which is mixed in at yeast pitch. And every 24 hours mix the must well and add the next dosage. You can not go too heavy handed with the nutrients so make sure you are not skimping on the measurements and always error on the heavy side. After about 30-45 days throw this in the fridge and let it clear. Rack to a new jug off the sediment and let sit in fridge a few more days for final clearing. Bottle it and let age as long as you can stand it. The longer it ages the happier you will be with it.

Hey man, perhaps you could explain the logic behind the ingredient amounts? I have seen this used before and it always strikes me as odd. My quandary is that when making loose leaf tea you make it using usually 1-2 tsp per cup depending on the type of tea (jasmine is typically 1tsp where snowbud (white) is 2tsp), it is then set on heated water of a certain temp for a recommended amount of time. This is to get the best extraction of flavors and compounds without damaging them or over extracting. The amounts specified for use in brewing however are far less than that of an actual cup of tea... I'm curious why and how that works.

I can think of some reasons, 1 would be that due to the extended length of time the tea is "steeped" the larger quantity is not needed, however this would make me think that the undesirable flavors of the tea would be extracted as well, the long steep times would lend to an "old" tea flavor.

Then again, if one were to brew the tea first per tea directions it would require ungodly amounts of loose leaf tea and time. Also the fermentation process would alter the tea itself and likely lose flavor.

Just my thoughts, was curious if you had an explanation for the amounts chosen for brew. Thanks!

 

[Matrix4b]

Extraction of flavor via alcohol tends to do a more efficient job than boiling water. For this reason, less is more, is a good rule when using herbs in alcohol. Some like to make the tea in a heavy steep and then put that tea water in the mead to flavor it that way. Some like putting the herbs strait in the secondary, that's when the must is about 10% or more ABV.

But to answer your question: Alcohol Extraction is more efficient than boiling water.

Matrix

 

[Atek]

Extraction of flavor via alcohol tends to do a more efficient job than boiling water. For this reason, less is more, is a good rule when using herbs in alcohol. Some like to make the tea in a heavy steep and then put that tea water in the mead to flavor it that way. Some like putting the herbs strait in the secondary, that's when the must is about 10% or more ABV.

But to answer your question: Alcohol Extraction is more efficient than boiling water.

Matrix

Yea, Secondary I can see for sure. Thanks Matrix!

 

[Arpolis]

I have always found that when using tea leaves there is a balancing act of extracting flavor but not so much as to get too much tannic/bitter bite. I will concede probably brewing the tea the way you like it and adding to secondary once fermentation is complete will lend a good flavor but I always like to add my herbs up front just as my own way of doing things and I like the results. Also I always prefer cold steeped tea unless it is a spiced tea. So adding the tea in the primary in my opinion gets a great flavor extraction. If you treat the must well with plenty of TLC and nutrients then fermentation should be mostly done and lees forming within 2-3 weeks and you can rack off the lees and settled tea. That ends up being a good time frame for good flavor extraction. Like matrix said the alcohol will extract plenty flavor so a max of about 3 tsp per gallon seems to be about right before it starts getting too bitter. I just did a lot of experimenting going between anywhere from 1 - 10 tsp per gallon and after several batches I just landed on 3 being a good number.

 

[botigol]

The champagne and K1V-1116 yeasts might be a bit strong as far as maintaining the aromatics of the honey and tea. I haven't personally used either on a mead yet, but have read numerous posts across a few sites stating that aroma is lost with these stronger yeasts. I've had good luck with both D47 and Cotes de Blanc. That said, if you were to go with 3 lbs of honey per gallon you would be pushing 15% abv which is above D47's stated range.

If you go with wildflower honey, like in the commercial example that you like, it may take more tea in order to be able to taste it over the wildflower. Unfortunately it is a taste thing, so you may need to make some adjustments midstream.

Before posting I just did a quick search and the abv for 19 Colonies is only 5.2%, so you will need to do some additional calculations based on the suggestions that we are giving. Offhand it looks primarily like a brewery that makes 19 Colonies, so they may have used beer yeast; we have only discussed wine yeasts so far.

 

[botigol]

I used Wyeast 2565 (Kolsch beer yeast) for my braggot and it turned out quite tasty

 

[Arpolis]

1116 is actually a pretty good yeast for wildflower honey because it seems to work well with floral notes and retains aroma pretty well. I did not look up the commercial mead and probably should have. If the ABV for it is only 5.2% then that is a pretty low ABV mead. If that is your thing I would keep the recipe the same but lower the honey to about 2lb which would give you about a 10% ABV mead with a starting gravity of about 1.072ish. I would not go much lower but a 6% ABV mead would have about 1.25lb honey with you shooting for a gravity of about 1.042 - 1.044. Feel free to play with what you like. The lower the ABV the less aging the mead will need to get rid of hot alcohol tastes.