Hoppy/Keggy/Sunny Tea

Power your day with this carbonated black tea! Genuinely refreshing on a hot day and highly drinkable. Keep on hand as a non-gross and uncomplicated NA option.

This is just like making sun tea, except in a keg. Keep it as just tea, or add-in spices like mint. To be really cool and impressive, add a couple ounces of your favorite hops. If you think about it hard enough, iced tea is often served with lemon. While any hop would be interesting added into tea, think citrus-forward options as a good starting point.

It does not literally have to go in the sun. For tea in a keg, sun exposure is mostly for fun. The sun and summer effect is mainly a trick to speed up extraction by providing gentle heat.

Keggy Tea Base Recipe

1. Fill a cleaned and sanitized 5-gallon corny keg with good water you plan to drink later.
2. Steep black tea in the water for 8-16 hours at room temperature with or without the sun. Use table below for estimated strengths.
   
3. Cool the keg after 16 hours so things don't start growing in the tea that might make you or others sick.
   
4. Carbonation optional. Serve on ice.

Note: Use a fine mesh nylon bag especially to steep tea and hops. Some powder escapes into the keg and settles at the bottom, like when you normally drink tea. The intention here is to throw it together and keep it simple. Double bagging would help.

Add-ons

• Hops: Steep 1-2 oz of hops for 12-36 hours. 18-24 hours seems to be a good contact time window. Hops and tea can all be added/removed together.
  
• Mint tea: About 10 bags of plain mint tea provides a clear mint note.
• Fresh mint: Alternatively, grab a package of fresh mint from the store - usually packaged in .5-1 oz - roughly 1-2 cups loosely packed mint leaves.

How strong is it?

Intentionally mild and easy drinking. Adjust as desired. 1 oz hops per 5 gallons is very noticeable.