I’m looking at an experiment… 3 gallon batch…
It’s not finalized, but I’m thinking of working with the box of Lemon Zinger tea bags, has anyone used them before? Here’s the thought process…
5-6 lbs Pilsner malt
0.5 oz Citra hops 60 min (maybe less)
0.5 oz Citra hops 5 min (maybe less)
Bunch o’ Lemon Zinger not sure how much…
?? Maybe some flame-out sugar for drying and gravity?
Maybe more tea as a ‘dry hop’
I got T-58 to ferment with.
If you don’t know the tea, it’s herbal, it’s got a nice lemon flavor, but also enough hibiscus to be shockingly red in the cup. So the beer would be expected to turn out kinda pink.
I’m looking for lemon, but also maybe some of that Belgian character; sort of a patersbier meets a shandy, (acolytesbier? )
What do you think? Does it have potential? Or am I literally going crazy from the COVID lock-down?
Yer nucking futs JMCK!!!
I like the idea yer not boxed in… too tightly… Maybe to get the lemon…, use the lemon drop hop? Then as fermentation slows… Dry hop with yer tea? If you Belgium it… You may as well go big then too!! Sugar to dry it out?.. Maybe that’s going too far… I’m all eyes…
Sneezles61
I just brewed a pilsner with lemon drop hops it’s subtle. Maybe I didn’t use enough. If you want lemon I’ve had good luck with zest. As far as tea I’ve used it in beer but not the lemon zinger so I see no problems. I would whirlpool and dry hop it
I agree that it won’t be pink. We make a beer using hibiscus and it turns it pink. In addition @jmck it wouldn’t be over powering on your goal while turning it pink.
I like the idea of Lemon Drop. But part of the requirement is to not leave home. If this beer is remotely passable,lemon drop will be in the next iteration.
Pink is not a requirement here, and I don’t even know how much hibiscus is in a single Lemon Zinger bag. That said, how much hibiscus/gallon do you use to get to pink?
I have a whole box of bags to use, and I’m planning 3-gal. That’s 8/gal or 1/pint
Given that 1 bag turns 8 ounces red, I think pink is a real possibility. Am I missing something?
I don’t think your missing anything… I’d suggest… Jump in and go where no one on here has gone… Be thoughtful… adding is easy… covering it up/dumping… Just a thought from me…
Sneezles61
Brewed over the weekend. Spaced on adding the sugar, so we hit 1.052 instead of 1.061. We were almost done chilling when we noticed the mistake, and just figured eff-it and left the sugar out.
Final for the first pass at this: 3-gallons.
6 lbs Pilsner
0.25 oz Citra - 60 min
1/2-ish tablet Whirlfloc - 15 min
0.75 oz Citra - 10 min
9 Lemon Zingers - 10 min
BE-256 sprinkled (was mistaken about my inventory)
3-bags/gallon in the boil definitely changed the color of the Pilsner… but it’s more orange.
We’ll see what happens when I add the other 9 bags after fermentation finishes…
Tapped it today. Fun experiment. It’s not pink. definitely towards the redder side, but maybe copper. Great color for a marzen. I may just need to play with the recipe, but this was not a “success”
The flavor is definitely very lemon, but more lemon pledge than lemon shandy, I’m thinking it was maybe one of the other ingredients in the tea bags, roasted chicory probably. soooo after day one the “I think we’re finally getting clean” joke is already wearing thin…
Maybe just use the tea in the boil? Or maybe just use lemon peel and hibiscus and forget the pre-packaged tea.
Yeah that’s tough. Another cause could be a little astringency from the tea itself. Plus when we think of fruit we think unfermented, ripe fruit which is sweet.
If you want lemon shandy like look into crystallized lemon.
Not an IPA really, the base recipe was evolved from a Patersbier, that we drink a lot of. Maybe that’s something else to look at: I used BE-256. Maybe something a bit cleaner like US-05? Also Lemon Drop hops was one of of the original suggestions.
)
Just a thought from me…
