cdh

A friend recently brought back some ginseng oolong and green oolong from China for me, and I'm playing with them right now. They're both very nice, but labelled entirely in chinese, so I can't determine what they are with any more detail.

Those who have actually read my course materials will already know that I have dealt with the chlorine in tap water issue. I'm assuming that Pilori has. I've been brewing for more than 15 years, and have never ever used distilled water. It is not necessary to make good beer. If your tap water is really undrinkable... then don't use it. If it smells of chlorine or sulfur or rust, then yes, do use something else. If it is otherwise drinkable, use it. It's free. It's already in your house. If it makes you feel better to go out and buy something like distilled water, go right ahead and do it. Steven Murphy- why exactly do I want to keep the North Dakota mineral profile of the maltster where the extract was made? Don't you think that local mineral profiles can make for interesting variations on beers? Do you believe that using tap water puts too many minerals into play? Furthermore, Palmer in How To Brew never advocates using distilled water... Where are you getting the idea that it is "normally preferred"? I've never heard of it. Tap water can contain chlorine which will create off flavors in the beer. I don't think the issue of distilled water "dissolving" things is much of a problem (actually I never heard this and doubt it's veracity). After all, it comes in plastic containers! Alcohol (which we're making) is a much better solvent than water and plastic isn't an issue for it. ←

Tap would be fine... distilled would be OK too. I wonder at the above opinion that distilled water is preferable. I've never used it. I've always understood that since distilled water is totally lacking in mineral content, it dissolves lots of stuff... Since I ferment in plastic buckets, I'd be concerned that using distilled might lead to plasticky off flavors and weakened buckets.

Not a huge problem... but topping it up to 2 gallons wouldn't hurt anything either.

In my world such a thing is called a "spit-in-the-eye". Not at all an appetizing name, but what my mother and her mother have called it forever. The best part is the bread from the cut out hole, fried along side the main bit, used to dip in and get the egg yolk. Usually served with scrapple. I'm from agrarian stock who started in the Princeton NJ area long long ago and migrated as far westward as PA Dutch country.

Order the traditional earl grey from the House of Tea in Philadelphia. It meets your requirements. www.houseoftea.com

Fantastic! Go hulu go! Now where are the old Rosengarten Taste episodes?

Mgaretz-- Agreed that honey is a very much misunderstood adjunct... It contributes some small amount of the character of the crop the bees fed on... but not much more. Then again, some folks like the flavor of honey in their beer... and the German maltsters figured out a method of generating a malt that did that, bypassing the honey altogether. So you are involved in the homebrew market? Foam control seems to have a much greater utility in much bigger brewing projects than I've ever engaged in... when 6 inches at the top of your fermenting vessel is 1 gallon the value such a thing is much less than when those 6 inches account for 30 or 60 gallons...

Steven- Thanks for the kind words and offer to help. The eGCI has been moving slowly lately, so I have no ideas when a more advanced class might hit the schedule, but if one does, I'll ping you. Very pretty brew system you've got there... I'm just a cooler guy for my mashing needs... So what are your house styles? And which homebrew sites do you hang out on?

Since this is such a visually striking tea, this thread is incomplete without some pretty pictures showing it off. Here are a few: And for a bit of a comparison, here is a shot of the previous and now dethroned winner of the prettiest gold tea award in my experience, a Yunnan Golden Harvest... this sample is years old, and apparently has oxidised a bit, as I recall it being much prettier and golder... but you can see the golden thing still going on:

How is the crowdedness at the Hudson St. Delorenzos now that Robbinsville has opened? I'm getting a real jones on for one of their clam pies, and haven't been since before the new branch opened.

I'm at around 2g of leaf to 200 ml of water for around 2.5 to 3 minutes. Water around 200F.

I must revise my previous opinion- This tea is amazing in its longevity, and gets better a few infusions in. I've gotten five delicious infusions out of 2g of leaves, each differently balanced. Woodsiness prevalent on the first two, a bit of fruitiness at 3, floral mixing in thereafter. What they say about the tips really being the concentration of flavor is totally born out by how this behaves. For those of you doing one infusion and tossing the leaves, you're missing out on a lot.

Indeed. Second shot with hotter water increased the malty sweet aspect, but did bring nothing by way of astringency. Not a tea of spectacular flavor, but interesting in its low tannins. Maybe a result of the youth of the leaves? Are golden tippy leaves naturally lower in tannin? I recall that jasmine pearls seem to be tippy shoots, and they bring lots of tannin... but they're green and not fermented like this black tea...

Back to the question at the top of the thread- Rereading it makes me wonder if you're asking about particular coffees (either varietal or roast) and how they play with booze? I do have to qualify my bourbon + espresso rec insofar as I don't use the very dark roast for espresso. When I use commercial coffee, I use the New Mexico Pinon... which is by no means a "dark roast"... probably a "city plus to full city" in roaster jargon... certainly no evidence of letting it go much into the second crack (not blackened or oily). I really don't know what would go well with a very dark roasted espresso... If you're working with varietal coffees and a custom roaster, you can get all kinds of interesting flavor components to stand out, and pairing some of them with booze could be very interesting. Recently I had a Nicaraguan Pacamara bean had an unmistakable tangerine quality when roasted to full city... so that would call for a fruity grappa, maybe a moscato or malvasia. Some South American beans can be made to do chocolate, nuts, even coconut... which would pair well with either brandy or bourbon. Some Red Sea coffees get a strawberry, blueberry, or apricot thing going on in them... Haven't tried it, but the thought of a drop of tequila in them sounds sort of promising. The commercial problem with all of these suggestions, however, is that the tiny amount of booze necessary to achieve the desired flavor is nowhere near enough to qualify as a "drink" in the minds of customers, so setting price point will be tough when you're trying to factor in the price of the liquor license you need to serve them at all.

A real favorite for me is the "cafe corretto" idea-- a shot of well made espresso with a small splash of booze. I'm partial to bourbon. Just a little tiny splash is enough to get a giant interplay of flavors going on in the cup. The traditional "corrector' is grappa, and that's good too, but bourbon really sings when dosed into an espresso.

OK. Tea here, time available. Visually, it is a very striking tea... looks to be mostly golden tippy tea... only other tea that was all golden was a Yunnan some years back. 2g to 200ml of water at 195F for 3 minutes makes a very cup with a very malty aroma, but with a significant woodsy undertone. Lingering smooth flavor, no hints of astringency. As usual, I prefer to err on the side of water too cool rather than water too hot, so I may edge up the temperature on a second infusion of these leaves to see what I left in the pot.

Had lunch there on Monday, and was quite impressed. A less sloppy juicy experience than the Philadelphia Italian pork, but a quite tasty sandwich. I'd agree that the impressions of it being a bit pricey ring a bell with me... but they're in NYC and that extra $2 in the price per sandwich must be covering the rent.

Mine has arrived. Will get brewing maybe tomorrow afternoon.

Wow! Pretty pictures. It's been far too long since I've been to Fuji...

Same happened to me, and I never stored mine in the fridge. Still tastes fine.

You're getting into hand grenade country there. High pressure and glass are not good playmates. And whatever it is should have a safety pressure release set to vent at like 100PSI. Remember that a standard CO2 charge to carbonate a liter contains 8g of gaseous CO2... so 8g of solid CO2 would eventually come to the same equilibrium... BUT the transformation from solid to gas could produce some intense pressure spikes as it takes time for the gas to dissolve into the liquid surrounding it. So you could end up with what will eventually be evenly distributed throughout the whole container suddenly concentrated in just the headspace. Make sure your headspace has the fortitude to take that kind of abuse without blowing up.

That's not how it works... there's not Nitrous in a beer gas system... it is a blend of N2 + CO2 which allows for a higher pressure and less gas to dissolve into the beer. The key to the Guinness head is the pressure pushing the beer through a special stout faucet. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draught_beer and http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?showtopic=48144 I think you might end up with a drink that packs two intoxicants... which might be fun... nitrous does dissolve in water and alcohol... I have no idea what sort of bubbles form when it comes out of solution... somebody try "nitrogenating" (instead of carbonating) some water and some booze and report back!

The suggestion for more leaf to water is a good one. 3g definitely came out differently (and less funky) than 2.3g, all other factors being the same. As to the pot, it has been used for chinese back teas... not particularly aroma absorbent, fairly sturdy walls.... not like eggshell porcelain, but not crude and rustic either. Dark brown Chinese yixing clay, purchased in China as a gift for me, so I have no further details.

OK. Have tried a second batch. Rinsed as directed for 10 seconds. 3g of tea, 200ml of 180F water, 3.5 minutes. No funk in the cup at all. This batch turned out to be not notably different from a lot of whole-leaf black yunnans in flavor, but it does continue to coat the mouth and provide a lingering flavor for a long time.