Ready in 24 hours
Serves 4 – 8 oz. drinks
0.0% A.B.V.
0 Calories
Sparkling strawberry basil hop tea is the perfect drink for a hot summer afternoon! The Citra hops pair amazingly well with this White Strawberry Basil Tea, which includes hibiscus, lemon grass, basil, rose hips, raspberry leaves, and strawberries. You can use any tea with a similar profile, but I highly recommend ordering this (and a few more!) from The Marks Trading Company in Adrian, Michigan. This recipe is easily doubled to make 8 – 8 oz. drinks.
If you haven’t made hop water or hop tea before, check out my original recipe for Sparkling Citra Hop Water at Home.
There are a few specialty ingredients and pieces of equipment. I use Drinkmate to carbonate the tea, and I buy my other ingredients from The Supply House at Cadillac Straits in Madison Heights, Michigan.
Ingredients
4 cups – Filtered Water
1 heaping tablespoon – White Strawberry Basil Loose Leaf Tea from The Marks Trading Company
⅛ teaspoon – Acid Blend from Cellar Science
4g – Yakima Chief Citra pellet hops
Optional Garnish:
Fresh Basil
Fresh or Frozen Strawberries
Method
- Use 4 cups of filtered water and one heaping tablespoon of loose leaf tea to brew the White Strawberry Basil Tea. Make your tea according to package directions, but also taste it and brew it to your liking. I ended up steeping my tea for about 8 minutes.
- Allow the tea to cool to room temperature. This may take an hour or so.
- Add ⅛ teaspoon of Acid Blend from Cellar Science and stir to dissolve.
- Add 4g of Yakima Chief Citra pellet hops and stir to combine. Cover with plastic wrap or a lid and leave to steep in the fridge for 24 hours. Stir occasionally over the course of the day.
- After 24 hours have passed, use a fine mesh tea basket to strain out the hop particles. My tea basket fits nicely right in the neck of the glass pitcher linked below. Pour slowly and plan to discard the last 5% of the cloudy water and hop sediment at the end. Top off your brew with a little filtered water. The hops will have soaked up about 1/4 cup of water during the steep time.
- Using a Drinkmate Soda Maker (this brand is known for being able to safely carbonate beverages other than plain water), follow the manufacturer’s directions for carbonating your hop water. Pour and serve over ice in your favorite glass! Optionally garnish with fresh basil and fresh or frozen strawberries.
Notes
ACID SUBSTITUTION: The Acid Blend from Cellar Science includes citric, tartaric, and malic acids and provides a more complex flavor than citric acid alone. Citric acid may be substituted for the Acid Blend. It will make the final hop water taste more like a lemon-lime soda.
BONUS SCIENCE STEP: Test your filtered water with a pH paper. Most home filtered water will be neutral, around 7.0. For the best tasting hop water, the ideal pH needs to be closer to 4.0-4.25. Experiment with adding the acid of your choice while testing the water after each addition. If you use the universal pH papers linked below, the papers will be bright orange leaning toward red after the acid addition.
CARBONATION: Don’t skip the carbonation step! It should almost be listed as a separate ingredient. You will be surprised at what a difference it makes if you taste your hop water before and after carbonation.
STORING HOPS: When you have completed the recipe and you are left with a partial bag of hop pellets, secure the bag as tightly as you can with a clip and store it in an airtight container in the freezer. For the purposes of making hop water or tea, it will last at least a year.
Equipment & Suppliers
The Marks Trading Company – Adrian, Michigan
OmniFizz Countertop Sparkling Water and Soda Maker
Drinkmate – Ann Arbor, Michigan
Yakima Chief Citra Pellet Hops
Universal pH Papers – Range 2.0-10.0
The Supply House at Cadillac Straits – Madison Heights, Michigan
Anchor Hocking Glass Measuring Cup
Arc (Luminarc) Glass Pitcher with Lid
THE FOOD ÉTUDE 