tjkoko wrote:1. Using not the dragon pot
2. Preheat your pot with rolling boil water
3. Drop in the TGY to fill 1/5 of your pot
4. Pour the same boiled water into the pot to fill and over float
5. Discard the rinse immediately
6. Let the tea sit for 30 sec. no water
7. Pour in the same boiled water and fill only less than half your pot for the rest of your brewing. Do not fill it up.
8. 1st brew 15 sec. (try to doc. the color of the brews)
9. 2nd brew 20 sec.
10. 3rd brew 40 sec.
[...]
Basically there is an initial rinse #4. Then in #7 the real brewing requires refilling the pot to half-full. This is way different from the instructions I read some years back (url unknown).
I can't speak for Tim, but I'm guessing that he's suggesting this modification because your pot is so big. Using an appropriately sized pot and filling it all the way would be better, but this way will work too. With rolled oolongs in a round pot, the volume of the pot does matter somewhat, not just because you'll get a better heat seal, but because some people think it's actually good if the tea completely fills the pot and the leaves are forced against the top / sides of the pot, releasing more oils / flavor.
It seems that temperature measurement is not a concern.
Well everyone has their own opinions on this. A lot of people say that a good quality tea (and certainly a good quality oolong) should be able to handle boiling water, even if it's on the greener side. I don't personally measure anything or use a thermometer, but I do usually try to get the water to as close to a full rolling boil in whatever I'm using. That's especially true for the initial rinse of a rolled oolong like TGY -- the boiling water will help the leaves open more quickly. Depending on the interval between infusions, you can probably be lazy and not reheat before every brew.
If the tea doesn't taste good with boiling water, either get better quality tea, or reduce the water temperature slightly. If using cooler water tastes better to you, by all means, use it. Unlike some delicate greens, I don't think you can really "cook" oolongs completely, so if you use water that's a little too hot, you can simply adjust by letting the water cool off before brewing the next round.
Also, just keep in mind that TGY (and oolongs in general) can be anywhere on a very broad continuum in terms of oxidation and roasting. So vague questions like "how can I brew Tie Guan Yin" or "how can I brew oolongs" sometimes get sarcastic answers, because there isn't one answer. Even with more information, like anything in tea, there are no firm answers; we can only make suggestions.
Does the method you listed pertain to TKY's as well as the Bai Hao oolongs?
If you notice, he mentioned that the method he's suggesting is for TGY [Tie Guan Yin is a different romanization of Tie Kuan Yin]. The volume, number of steepings and such wouldn't be the same for Bai Hao.
I think most people would recommend using porcelain rather than yixing for most Oriental Beauty / Bai Hao. And you'll definitely want to have water at a full rolling boil and reboil for each steep for that one.