Asia Brewers Network

The Art of Brewing Beer with Tea (Pt. 2)

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In part one of my “The Art of Brewing Beers with Tea” article I provided a brief introduction, along with some personal opinions, regarding both beer and tea.

Essentially, the overarching theme of my theses is that by combining the flavours and characters of beer and tea brewers can produce a harmonious and often quite unique product.

Needless to say, as craft brewers, we are all hop heads, so let me provide some follow-up information on this topic, particularly as it pertains to what teas to use in IPAs.

First, let’s review that the primary objective is for tea to be the dominant ingredient in your recipe. With so many styles of each beverage, including the whole array of floral flavors that can be introduced as well, it’s proven critical to do one’s due diligence in collecting multi-sourced, organic, and unbiased research, in order to wind up with a successful product.

Just as with hops, when using tea you will find yourself using similar flavor and aroma vocabulary, including words like, “floral,” “grassy,” “fruity,” and more.

Selecting the right tea

It is incredibly important to know how to select the right tea for your brew and know how to treat it during the brewing process.

It is generally agreed that Chinese tea is broken down into six different categories or types. The mostly color-based categories correspond with the tea’s appearance, after it has been brewed. It is this part of the tea’s natural processing, during which the leaves undergo a change, that subsequently determines the type rather than the color.

Tea Processing Chart tea colours

Image (i): Different processing methods result in very diverse tea characteristics

Between two and seven steps are involved in the processing of teas. Any addition or exclusion of any of these steps would result in a change to the type of the tea. In short, this is another example of the cliché “Things are not always as easy as they seem.” Yet luckily, teas have been categorized and we all can have access to the rubric that defines each tea type, specifically, when teas fall more along a color spectrum.

As a very general, but easily breakable rule of thumb, stronger teas tend to work better with darker beers.

It’s no coincidence that darker teas tend to be perceived as “stronger,” or more intense in flavor, when compared to their lighter-hued counterparts. How you define “stronger” would also likely vary from how your best friend, colleagues, siblings, other craft beer drinkers, etc. do.

During my career brewing in Asia, I have had the opportunity to sample many different teas while experimenting with a multitude of beer styles myself.

My work in Hong Kong has opened new avenues of brewing for me, one being this use of tea, for which I have won numerous awards.

Starting with the basics

I have discovered that a simple kölsch style beer is the best and most neutral tasting beer to use when experimenting with tea.

Kölsches have a light honey and grainy malt flavor, appropriately balanced by a light bittering of noble hops. Their grain bills should consist primarily of Pilsen with a touch of Vienna and wheat with no other adjuncts.

White Labs WLP029 Kölsch yeast, a personal favorite, is a super-low ester strain that ferments clean at warmer temperatures – which comes in handy if you are brewing in the tropics and especially if pilot batches have temperature control issues.

Bai Mu Dan White Peony Tea

Bai Mudan or White Peony tea imparts a mellow flavour with strong apricot aromas

As per different kinds of hops, noble hops or more grassy, aromatic style hops lend a light touch that allow the tea to shine.

But, how could we possibly leave out our favorite hop bombs no matter what style they fall under? Just in the past five years, hops farmers have developed many new, brilliant varieties, for example Sabro and this year’s new release, Talus.

There is definitely more beyond the typical citra/mosaic combo … Or is it mosaic/citra? Ahh, what’s the difference?

But if we are going to talk about the typical citrusy, juicy style hop bomb that is dominating the industry for the most part, using an adjunct like tea isn’t as easy as you might think. You are already going up against numerous strong characteristics in the beer.

Obviously the hop aromas, taste and possibly some bitterness, but you also have the mouthfeel of the beer and the moderate sweet backbone from the grain or lactose.

Tea is definitely something that could easily ruin an already wonderful hoppy delight. Adding more tea to compensate for the beers already strong characteristics could accentuate the tannins in the tea or the tea varieties could just clashes with the hops no matter how subtle the tea is.

Selecting the hops to compliment your tea

So some examples I feel work well with IPAs fall under the category of floral teas (which isn’t considered part of the six types of teas but rather light teas mostly white mixed with flowers) like jasmine tea. But there is a wonderful white tea that I personally love called Bai Mudan or ‘White Peony’ for its mellow taste and strong apricot aromas.

South Cloud and North Cloud Moonzen Brewery

Image (iii): South Cloud Lager and North Cloud Lager are both popular beers in the Moonzen Brewery core range

But back to hops, New Zealand hops tend to be a go to of mine like Wakatu or Nelson Sauvin for their white wine like characteristics. They are strong enough in taste with definite aromatics, but still soft enough to allow the tea to show well.

Two examples of tea beers that I have curated during my time at Moonzen Brewery are like the ying to the tea’s yang using Wakatu hops in both.

South Cloud lager is my interpretation of a traditional pilsner lager using fresh pu’erh tea in the whirpool. The fresh pu’erh lends the lightest touch of tea essence to a crisp pilsner style lager, while the Wakatu hops lend light white wine aromatics to complement the tea.

North Cloud lager is the opposite example being a traditional schwarzbier using 6 month old ripe (fermented) pu’erh tea. This style of pu’erh can probably best be described as having the characteristics of “leather bound books in an old library”!

While I used the same hop schedule, the complementing factors of the slight roast bitterness from the malt and the fermented tea are the highlight of this beer.

Tea Beer around Asia

Following my first article I took the opportunity to reach out to other brewers around the region that are embracing the use of teas more and more in their beers, here’s the pick of the current crop.

Pasteur Street Brewing Co. Jasmine IPA

Image (iv): Jasmine flowers are added during the boil to add an aroma that compliments the Citra hops in the Pasteur Street Brewing Co. Jasmine IPA

PASTEUR STREET BREWING Co. JASMINE IPA

As I mentioned before that I am including flowers or blends into the mix, and really this is the beer that made me consider talking about them in this context.

After speaking with Pasteur Street Brewing‘s head brewer Alex Violette, he explained after a few different attempts adding the Jasmine right at flameout gave the beer the best aromas without becoming vegetal.

With the super citrusy aroma along with the Jasmine I found myself drinking a lot of this on my last trip to Vietnam.

 

TAI WAI BEER

This Hong Kong brewery has taken brewing with tea to the next level. Almost all of Tai Wai Beer‘s brews are exclusively brewed with teas. After speaking with founder Henry Wu he had this to say, “Sometimes craft beer can be easy drinking and elegant, not always super hoppy or heavy.”

On choosing tea as a main ingredient he notes that “Tea culture is a respectable craftmanship in China [sic]. Nowadays the younger generation are forgetting the history and demand the newest bubble tea”, continuing, he explains “we would like to preserve this culture by using different teas in modern craft beers.”

“The idea of Tai-Wai is to show and educate people on two familiar drinks that can be found in your home or neighborhood.”

With so many different styles brewed over the years some of my favorites are their porter using rooibos or their amber with earl grey tea.

Tai Wai Beer Hong Kong

Image (v): All Tai Wai’s core beers are infused with some variety of tea.

TAIWAN HEAD BREWERS

Taiwan Head Brewers Start of Winter Ale 3

Image (vi): The Taiwan Head Brewers “Start of Winter” Belgian Dubbel is brewed with local Oolong tea

Based out of Taipei, Taiwan Head Brewers is another brewery embracing the tea culture and creating exciting beers. What caught my eye is the picking of a tea and beer style to work together for the different seasons of the year.

As an example their “Start of Winter Taiwan Tea Ale 3” is a Belgian Dubbel brewed with Tieguanyin Oolong tea (Tieguanyin translating to “Iron goddess of mercy”). This robust 7.2% ABV (alcohol by volume) ‘winter warmer’ perfectly balances the caramel and raisin flavor of Belgian Dubbel with the dried fruit and light honey nose from the oolong.

My favorite of the series, however, is the “Start of Autumn Taiwan Tea Ale 2” an English style pale ale that uses the very special White Tipped Oolong tea called Oriental Beauty. This tea is a very unique ‘terroir’ that includes being bitten by Tea Green Leafhoppers (the insect Empoasca onukii) to release its fantastic aromas of dried fruits and honey.

As the craft beer industry continues to grow and evolve in Asia, I hope to see more blending of the two ancient drinks push the boundaries and preserve their histories for years to come.

Till next time, Cheers!

James

Writers Note: I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to reach out to me since the publication of “Part 1” with further questions and curiosities around the idea and true potential of beer-and-tea-blends. And to all my fellow brewers out there – have no fear! I have barely touched upon the topic of styles of tea and what particular types of tea are suitable and compatible to be used in beers. These articles are jump-off points on this genre of beer, of which I am continuing to research heavily.

 

Article by:

James Waters

James Waters

James Waters is an award winning brewer and distiller who has been in the industry for 15 years. Originally from New Jersey, James currently resides in Hong Kong and still believes a session beer is 4% and under.

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