I'm not sure if this is the right section of the forum for this recipe, but I wanted to get it up here before the summer passes everyone by.
It's been a particularly hot summer here, and my buddy and I began to wonder if hard iced tea would be good after an afternoon of outdoor work. I recall reading brewing tea and fermenting it results in a real loss of flavour, but when I ran across some "instant" iced tea sold for the purpose of squirting into bottles or glasses of water, I suddenly knew what to do. I figured that I could make a 12% abv batch from sugar water, then dilute as needed for that "cooler" level abv.
The following recipe makes three batches of 6 gallons each.
5 Gal water
5 Kg Sugar
6 tsp yeast nutrient
6 tsp yeast energizer
1 pkg Bentonite
1 pkg EC-1118 yeast
9-12 x 52ml Nestea lemon iced tea squirters (I don't know what else to call them - you may want more or less, depending on how intense you want the flavor)
While this makes enough for three batches, a few steps need to be followed:
First, dissolve half the sugar in a gallon of very hot water. Put this in the primary, and add the bentonite. Add in about 3 gallons the remaining water and start mixing well. Add half the yeast energizer and half the yeast nutrient, and mix well again. Confirm that the mixture is around room temperature and add the yeast. After 3-4 days of fermentation, dissolve the remaining sugar in another gallon of hot water, let cool and add to the primary along with the remaining yeast nutrient and yeast energizer. Mix well, ensuring oxygen is mixed in.
Fermentation must be fully complete -- this may take two weeks to finish. The hydrometer should read 0.990 (or just above).
You will probably want to filter the alcohol at this point to try to remove the yeast. Consider passing through a #2 filter, then a #3 polishing filter.
At this point, draw two gallons of the alcohol solution into a 6 gallon carboy. Squirt in 3 containers of the Nestea packages, making sure you get all of the contents. Finally top up with about 4 gallons of cold water, then mix well. Taste and decide if you want more flavor (or less -- take notes and adjust how much of the iced tea flavouring you add to subsequent batches). Do this two more times, then bottle and chill!
Of course, this process dilutes the 12% abv made from the sugar to three batches of 4%. If a higher concentration of alcohol is desired in the final mix, the following dilution factors can be used:
3 gallons alcohol mixed with 3 gallons of water = two batches of 6%
4 gallons alcohol mixed with 2 gallons of water, plus 2 gallons of alcohol mixed with 1 gallon of water (use 3 gallon carboy for the second mix) = 1.5 batches of 9%
Attached is the stuff I added in, what it looked like in the carboy and the silly label I created...
It's been a particularly hot summer here, and my buddy and I began to wonder if hard iced tea would be good after an afternoon of outdoor work. I recall reading brewing tea and fermenting it results in a real loss of flavour, but when I ran across some "instant" iced tea sold for the purpose of squirting into bottles or glasses of water, I suddenly knew what to do. I figured that I could make a 12% abv batch from sugar water, then dilute as needed for that "cooler" level abv.
The following recipe makes three batches of 6 gallons each.
5 Gal water
5 Kg Sugar
6 tsp yeast nutrient
6 tsp yeast energizer
1 pkg Bentonite
1 pkg EC-1118 yeast
9-12 x 52ml Nestea lemon iced tea squirters (I don't know what else to call them - you may want more or less, depending on how intense you want the flavor)
While this makes enough for three batches, a few steps need to be followed:
First, dissolve half the sugar in a gallon of very hot water. Put this in the primary, and add the bentonite. Add in about 3 gallons the remaining water and start mixing well. Add half the yeast energizer and half the yeast nutrient, and mix well again. Confirm that the mixture is around room temperature and add the yeast. After 3-4 days of fermentation, dissolve the remaining sugar in another gallon of hot water, let cool and add to the primary along with the remaining yeast nutrient and yeast energizer. Mix well, ensuring oxygen is mixed in.
Fermentation must be fully complete -- this may take two weeks to finish. The hydrometer should read 0.990 (or just above).
You will probably want to filter the alcohol at this point to try to remove the yeast. Consider passing through a #2 filter, then a #3 polishing filter.
At this point, draw two gallons of the alcohol solution into a 6 gallon carboy. Squirt in 3 containers of the Nestea packages, making sure you get all of the contents. Finally top up with about 4 gallons of cold water, then mix well. Taste and decide if you want more flavor (or less -- take notes and adjust how much of the iced tea flavouring you add to subsequent batches). Do this two more times, then bottle and chill!
Of course, this process dilutes the 12% abv made from the sugar to three batches of 4%. If a higher concentration of alcohol is desired in the final mix, the following dilution factors can be used:
3 gallons alcohol mixed with 3 gallons of water = two batches of 6%
4 gallons alcohol mixed with 2 gallons of water, plus 2 gallons of alcohol mixed with 1 gallon of water (use 3 gallon carboy for the second mix) = 1.5 batches of 9%
Attached is the stuff I added in, what it looked like in the carboy and the silly label I created...
