St. Louis Summer Tea – Homebrew Batch #15

I was browsing the forums over at HomeBrewTalk.com, and I came across this interesting recipe from Jsmith82 for what is essentially fermented iced tea.   It’s super easy to make, and I had nothing in fermentation at the moment, so I decided to whip up a batch.

Here’s what I used:

2    1 gallon jugs of Arizona Iced Tea with lemon flavor

2      15 oz. cans of Oregon Cherries (sweet, dark, in heavy syrup)

1 tsp of yeast nutrient

1 can of water (empty cherry can)

Nottingham Ale yeast (I used 2 partial packets that I had left in my fridge from prior batches)

So I sanitized my funnel, airlock, blender and carboy with Iodophor, then I put the cherries in the blender with 1 can of water and liquified it.   I strained that through a strainer as I funneled it into the carboy.  I added the yeast nutrient and the iced tea, straight from the jugs.   My OG came out at about 1.044, which was a little light.    Jsmith82′s recipe called for 1lb of dextrose, but I figured, “hey, I’ll just double the cherries instead – that will give me more flavor and more sugar, ’cause they’re in heavy syrup.”

Well, I guess there was a flaw in my logic somewhere, because Jsmith82′s OG was 1.055.   So I used the patented Kid Dynamite Low Gravity Homebrew Solution – maple syrup.  I added 3/4 of a cup of maple (dissolved in about a cup of water), which should give me, based on my previous drunken calculations, roughly 9-10 points of gravity.  I didn’t take another sample from the caryboy.

I had actually already pitched the yeast before I took my OG reading, so I capped the carboy with the airlock, swirled it vigorously, and brought it to a happy home in by basement, which is currently 64 degrees.

This one may take a few months to ferment…

As Jsmith82 notes in his recipe at HomeBrewTalk, a cool thing about this one is that it’s cheap and easy.  I spent $5 on the 2 gallons of iced tea, and $3.99 on each can of cherries.   Total cost, not including yeast, was $13.  More importantly, it was easy as pie.  Hopefully, it tastes as good as pie when it’s done.

-KD

Kid Dynamite is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. If you click on my Amazon.com links and buy anything, even something other than the product advertised, I earn a small commission, yet you don't pay any extra. Thank you for your support.

The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.

blog comments powered by Disqus
Kiddynamitesworld Blog