Earl Grey

[oldbloke]

Sort of averaged from several tea recipes

2011-04-05
10 Earl Grey teabags and about 1/2lb of chopped raisins chucked into into 1.7litres near-boiling water.
Added another 1.7 litres boiling water and stirred in 1kg sugar.
(my kettle holds, can you guess? - 1.7 litres, and twice that very nearly fills my largest pan)
Left to cool.
At 24C, strained into demi.
Added 2tsp citric, 1tsp nutrient, and packet Young's general red wine yeast.
(couldn't decide which of the fancier yeasts I have would be best, so decided to use up the Young's)
OG 1112, but on diluting as if topping up demi after initial fast ferment, down to 1072. Will top up with sugar solution instead.
Into waterbath, bubbling started immediately

 

[SamWise72]

Sounds interesting! I've got a big packet of spiced Christmas tea that no-one's drinking. Gonna use that for the tannin addition on a wurzel, and see how that goes.

 

[oldbloke]

Topped it up with 1/2lb sugar dissolved in a quart of water last night. Bubbling madly again.

 

[hedgerow pete]

my recipe is almost like yours except i use 500ml of white or red grape juice, cheap stuff from asda.

try the fruit teas for the best wines, we like the strawbery,logon berry and raspberry twinnings tea wine, it is very easy to make and is very quick to be ready comes out like a sweet rose wine, great for summer nights

 

[oldbloke]

Do you have recipes for those? Quite fancy strawberry.

 

[hedgerow pete]

yes sure its 12 tea bags in a bucket of hot water, 1 kg of sugar and 500ml of grape juice not concentrate, i like to add a 1/4 tea spood of tannin and a tea spoon of citric for my tastes leave to cool and pitch the yeast in leave for two days drain and pour into a dj.

to make some slight alterations try these ideas

if you are trying one of the fruit teas why not use red grape juice to make it a orse wine instead.

what every tea you try they all lack a little bouquet so we now add two tea bags into the dj after the wine base has been poured in the lack of oxygen and the addition of alcahol help to impart a better smell, if you wanted to you could use elder berry teas for that.

most of my wines lack a good bouquet so we now use the tea bag ideas on most of the wines we make

 

[oldbloke]

Racked the Earl Grey today, tastes good enough already, but some sediment came over so leaving it to settle out again before I think about bottling. Was intending to give it another month or so in the demi anyway

 

[golder247]

We used some xmas tea too, some posh one that we never drank but it smells astounding when turning into wine.. fruitiest brew I have done yet.. can't wait to taste it :)

 

[oldbloke]

Bottled the Earl Grey today (July 17)
Initial response when I put it in my mouth is Yum, but as one works one's way through the bottle, the tea-ness come over a bit too strongly now and then.
But that's the same day it was bottled: I'm guessing it'll age into something very nice.