Adding tea bags to IPAs.

ive brewed with earl grey.tastes pretty nicenice...

the issue i seeing with using bags in already brewed beer , is that tea doesnt really like to steep from bags into cold liquid.

 

Tea can be pretty astringent. See John Palmer's entry on the off-flavor of astringency -- with a reference to tea bags -- here: http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html

That said, there are numerous "off" flavors in beers today that people seem to really enjoy, so why not one more...?

 

Why not try with a $1.50 bottle of Lags IPA then and post your results?

 

what is this witchery

 

Use empty tea bags and fill with fresh hops

 

Steep the tea bag in really hot water for about 10 seconds then add to extra cold beer. This should allow the tea bag to impart the flavors into the beer and warming the beer slightly to drinking temperature.

 

Why not just use a tea infuser add beer let it set up and drink. Could use vanilla beans, habanero too, your not limited.

 

It has been done. When I lived back in Memphis one of the local breweries did this with a basic pale ale. Not for everyone, but it's a great beer. Pale ale dry hopped (for lack of a better term) with Earl Grey.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/32679/142635/

 

teabagged would be a better term?

 

Hard to get your hands on in your area but here's one...

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/13905/89455/

 

Lipton has cold-steep bags now. Makes great iced tea. I don't know about IPA enhancement though.

 

Had this one a few months ago. I quite liked it. Very tannic.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/147/70910/

 

This was pretty damn tasty if you ask me. The key would be offsetting the tannic quality of the tea and the bitterness of the hops.

 

Just let the professionals decide what they put in their beer. They're good at it.

 

Or just add some bergamot oil. (look in the hippie section of your local grocer) The tea itself needs heat for proper extraction, not sure how that would work with ipa's. I would imagine that bergamot oil would lend itself to ipa's given it is a citrus oil. I'll have to try this....

 

I just cold steeped a bag of Lipton in an Oddside Simcoe Sensation. I put the bag in a tulip and added about 10% of the beer and swirled around for about 10 minutes then slowly poured in more beer all while swirling. It created a thick creamy head that would rival any stout/porter. As far as the taste...not that great, but remember I just used plain old Lipton tea, there's a shitload of other teas available that might be better suited for beer infusion

 

I enjoy my beer as much as the next geek but not enough to tea bag/ teabag it. (!!! !!!)

That being said, I'm not a tea drinker, never have been and never will be, I gave the Stone IPA/tea concoction a try and didn't enjoy it at all, the tea detracted from the fruity goodness of the beer. I know a lot of people out there dig the flavor of tea so I'm pretty much on the outside looking in.

 

I couldn't disagree more. There is an unlimited number of ingredient/flavor combinations that haven't been attempted yet. Limit peoples imagination... you end up with bud light

 

Teabagging IPA's just sounds wrong.