by gregtpayne | Nov 19, 2016 | Uncategorized
We are using the Darjeeling from Vahdam Teas for this batch but after tasting the previous batch we just can’t seem to find a Darjeeling we like. We think we are going to stop the black tea batch for a while after this one. If we need more than one batch a week we’ll probably brew Oolong only.
We harvested this on 11/28 letting it go for a nine day first fermentation due to the fact that our heater has been broken for a few weeks. It still tasted a little weak but we added 1/4 cup of pineapple mint puree and 1 tbsp of sugar. We’ll try a bottle after 2 days.
by gregtpayne | Nov 12, 2016 | Uncategorized
Oolong is a traditional Chinese tea produced through a unique process including withering the plant under the strong sun and oxidation before curling and twisting. We used Tie Kwan Yin from DavidsTea. We brought 6 cups of water to 185 degrees, added 35 grams of tea and steeped for 5 minutes covered, stirring midway through. We then added 1 cup of sugar to a gallon jar and strained the tea into it, dissolving the sugar. We added 5 cups of water and let cool to room temperature. Next we added 1 1/2 cups of starter tea and transferred the SCOBY.
We harvested this on 11/19 and it tasted a little flat/weak. It had plenty of SCOBY so not sure what’s going on. Maybe cooler temperatures. We’ll try a bottle after 9 days but it may need a longer 2nd fermentation. We tried a bottle and it was a little weak so we’re going to let it go two weeks.
by gregtpayne | Nov 12, 2016 | Uncategorized
We are trying yet another Darjeeling. This one is imported from New Delhi and is packaged by Vahdam Teas. We brought 6 cups of water to boil in a pot, removed it from heat, added 28 grams of tea and steeped for 4 minutes covered, stirring midway through. We then added 1 cup of sugar to a gallon jar and strained the tea into it, dissolving the sugar. We added 5 cups of water and let cool to room temperature. Next we added 1 1/2 cups of starter tea and transferred the SCOBY. We’ll let it ferment for seven days before bottling.
We harvested this on 11/19. It tasted ok but we’re not diggin’ this new Darjeeling. We flavored it with 1/4 cup of WF concord grape juice and 1/2 tbsp of sugar.
by gregtpayne | Nov 5, 2016 | Uncategorized
Oolong is a traditional Chinese tea produced through a unique process including withering the plant under the strong sun and oxidation before curling and twisting. We used Tie Kwan Yin from DavidsTea. We brought 6 cups of water to 185 degrees, added 35 grams of tea and steeped for 5 minutes covered, stirring midway through. We then added 1 cup of sugar to a gallon jar and strained the tea into it, dissolving the sugar. We added 5 cups of water and let cool to room temperature. Next we added 1 1/2 cups of starter tea and transferred the SCOBY.
We harvested this on 11/12. It tasted good and still sweet so we added 1/2 tbsp of sugar.
We tried a bottle after nine days of 2nd fermentation and it was flat. We’re thinking we may need to increase our fermentation periods due to the colder weather. We’ll try another bottle of this in a couple of days.
We left the remainder of this batch in 2nd fermentation for 15 days and while it helped it was still sweet and not fizzy enough. We did figure out the problem however. Our heater has apparently been broken all winter which was keeping the fermentation areas to be colder than usual.
by gregtpayne | Nov 5, 2016 | Uncategorized
We think we like Golden Monkey to take the place of our Darjeeling. We brought 6 cups of water to boil in a pot, removed it from heat, added 28 grams of tea and steeped for 4 minutes covered, stirring midway through. We then added 1 cup of sugar to a gallon jar and strained the tea into it, dissolving the sugar. We added 5 cups of water and let cool to room temperature. Next we added 1 1/2 cups of starter tea and transferred the SCOBY. We’ll let it ferment for seven days before bottling.
We harvested this on 11/12. It tasted good to me but Babs said it had that Golden Monkey aftertaste that she’s not crazy about. It worked well with the grape so we are confident Golden Monkey will make a good Pineapple Express. We added 1/4 cup of pineapple mint puree and 1 tbsp of sugar. We’ll try it in 3 days.
by gregtpayne | Oct 29, 2016 | Uncategorized
Oolong is a traditional Chinese tea produced through a unique process including withering the plant under the strong sun and oxidation before curling and twisting. We used Tie Kwan Yin from DavidsTea. We’re not sure what Oolong we used from DavidsTea when we ran out of Tung Ting. We’re kinda thinking it was the Oolong Supreme but we’ll try this for awhile. For this batch we brought 6 cups of water to 185 degrees, added 35 grams of tea and steeped for 5 minutes covered, stirring midway through. We then added 1 1/4 cups of sugar to a gallon jar and strained the tea into it, dissolving the sugar. We added 5 cups of water and let cool to room temperature. Next we added 1 1/2 cups of starter tea and transferred the SCOBY.
We harvested this on 11/5. Babs thought it tasted great so hopefully we’ve found the tea we used before that we liked more than the Tung Ting. Now our two batches are Golden Monkey and Tie Kwan Yin. Anyway, since we had an extra 1/4 cup of sugar in this first fermentation (we are going back to 1 cup starting this week) and it tasted sweet we added 1 tsp of sugar.
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