How to make a hops tea for brewing with a beer kit
Sometimes when making homebrew, beer makers also like to make a cup of hop tea!
Why would we do this?
The idea here is that the great hops aromas and oils have been removed from the bullets due to the boiling and will then mix more easily with your wort brew. You are not making a tea to drink but rather simply trying to better extract the oil from the hop bud or pellet.
This means you have extracted more of the hops from the bullet than you would if you simply dry hopped them.
How to make a hops tea for homebrewing
Put the hops in a muslin bag (or tie up a square of it) and then boil it for several minutes in water.
During the boil, have a good smell and enjoy the aromas as it wafts around your kitchen.
That's the deliciousness you want to impart into your beer.
We love using Cascade hops as we think they give the best smell in the world! It's also damn fine hops for making beer with, particularly pilsners and lagers.
When you've boiled the hops for long enough, turn the pan off but leave everything right where it is to cool.
Try not to let anything get into the pot as everything that's in there is going into your beer wort. I say this with experience as I did this the other month - made the tea over the stove with the back door open late at night and somehow a moth managed to land it.
Too bad, I made a hops and moth tea!
You have probably already prepared your wort, so now put everything you've boiled - the whole muslin bag and the tea that you've made into the primary fermenter.
You are good to go on and now pitch your yeast - as long as the wort is at the correct temperature.
You can also drink your own hops tea too!
It's done slightly differently to the above method for beer - you let the hops steep as you would any other tea and then drink when cool enough. It's not for us though, too bitter!
