Tea for Two (to Brew)

Faithful readers may recall me waxing poetic about the Reinheitsgebot, also known as the Bavarian Beer Purity Law of 1516, which decreed water, barley, and hops as the only permissible ingredients in beer.
Those regulations have fallen away over the centuries, with modern brewers limited only by their imaginations when designing new brew recipes.
Coffee has long been a popular ingredient with craft brews, usually in the dark roasted stouts and porters whose malt bills already impart similar flavours.
However, tea has been making inroads as a beer adjunct, with the much more diverse flavours available making it possible to use in many beer styles.
I have often made my own shandy on hot summer days by mixing a light lager or blonde ale with locally produced Wild Tea Kombucha, for an extra bit of effervescence with just hints of tea flavour.
Perhaps the first tea-infused beer I ever tried was from Calgary’s Annex Ales, who put out a seasonal brew called the King’s English Black Tea Lemon Pale Ale. This seasonal brew makes an appearance every summer, with plenty of citrusy hops that are complemented with lemon and bergamot for a classy drinking session on a sunny patio.
Located just a few blocks away from Annex Ales is Born Brewing, in Calgary’s popular Barley Belt district. Born Brewing has a similar offering called Earl’s Ale, an English Pale Ale with Earl Grey tea leaves added during the brewing process to infuse the beer with hints of tea and bergamot.
Travelling just a few more blocks will lead to ’88 Brewing, whose brewery is adorned with the neon fashions of the 1988 Calgary Olympics, where you will find a non-alcoholic version of a Kombucha-styled Hibiscus tea, pleasantly effervescent from pressurization on a nitrogen tank (like Guinness) instead of the more common CO2.
For a harder version of a Hibiscus tea, look no further than Calgary’s Good Mood Brewing, conveniently located in the same part of town as the last three, for their Sparkling Hard Tea with Hibiscus & Rosehip. This is more similar to a hard seltzer like Zima or White Claw than a beer, with vodka used as a base spirit, then infused with Hibiscus and Rosehip petals.
Perhaps the most unique spin on a tea-infused beer is from Calgary-based High Line Brewing, who has a Pale Ale beer made with Yerba maté tea and BC cherries. The cherries give the brew a sort of Radler or Shandy vibe, with the caffeine kick from the brewed leaves of Yerba maté plant providing a little pick me up.
Looking north to Red Deer, Troubled Monk Brewing makes a brew called Troubled Tea, which is technically a malt liquor steeped with tea leaves rather than a beer. On the plus side for the celiacs in the audience, it does claim to be gluten free. I tried it once when the liquor rep was pouring samples at my friendly neighbourhood liquor retailer, and the flavour profile is like an iced tea with a twist of lemon and a shot of neutral grain spirit.
Fortunately, there is no cloying sweetness that you might remember from iced tea served at a restaurant, as Troubled Monk brews everything from scratch, using small amounts of Alberta beet sugars for just a touch of sweetness, balanced by lemon-lime, and then steeped with close to 1000 teabags for a truly craft iced tea with a kick.
Looking north to Edmonton, Town Square Brewing makes a Peach Sangria White Tea Sour, starting with a base of a sour beer, then adding fuzzy peach concentrate and the tips of white tea flowers during the brewing process, producing a brew that will make you think you are sipping a sangria on the streets of Barcelona.
And to ensure our southern brewers do not feel left out, Hell’s Basement Brewery in Medicine Hat produces a hard tea, technically a malt liquor rather than a beer, and tastes like a brewed ice tea with a lemon twist, and a 5% ABV kick.
Unlike the dark and stout coffee-infused beers that are best enjoyed on cold winter nights, tea-infused beers are quintessentially a summer brew, made to be enjoyed during our too-short Alberta summers. Look for some at your friendly neighbourhood liquor retailer, or check the offerings from your grocery delivery service while you remain hunkered down at home.