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 Early Dawn, 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, or another featuring Earl Grey with Lemon. These two offerings are more similar to a hard seltzer like Zima or White Claw than a beer, with vodka used as a base spirit, then infused with tea leaves for flavouring.
Close to the YYC airport, Railyard Brewing has a seasonal offering called For British Eyes Only Kolsch, infused with Earl Grey tea leaves and bergamot flowers, and I try to stop at their taproom for a takeaway 6-pack whenever I have to collect a friend at the airport.
Looking north to Red Deer, Troubled Monk Brewing boasts six different flavours of 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 was like an iced tea with a shot of neutral grain spirit, followed by a berry twist, either lemon, raspberry, peach, or cranberry.
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 an Apricot Green Tea Sour, starting with a base of a sour beer, then adding apricot concentrate and the tips of green tea flowers during the brewing process. And for those who don’t care for sour beer styles, they also have a seasonal Pineapple Passion Fruit Sparkling Tea, bursting with tropical flavours balanced by the infusion of loose leaf teas during the brewing process.
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 ask your friendly server at your local sunny patio!