RobWalker

Recipes 

I'm not much of a brewing guide fan, to be honest. I like to brew what I want to drink, and that's all there is to it. *Folds arms and strops around.*

The idea of a braggot is quite appealing to me. I love beer, I love honey, and I'd like a big rich honey beer in bottles for those sophisticated winter nights in front of the hearth.

Guidelines state it's gotta be 50% honey or above to be classed as a Braggot, but I think that's gonna get a bit thin for me. With that in mind, 40 odd percent with plenty of speciality malts sounds good to me. Most of these are out of my cupboard, hence the small quantities but plenty thereof...

It's gotta have;

- A nice deep dark golden colour.

- Rich and aromatic character. Fruity, honey, caramelly, slightly toasty. It needs to explode in your mouth.

- Sweetness. I'm worried about the honey drying it out too much...

- A little heaviness. I'm not after a summer drinker, nor a Belgian trippel; just something enough so it has that gooeyness.

This picture is just setting my taste buds going wild, so I'm aiming for something simiar, at least colour wise.



Here's my draft recipe. I'm thinking a 30 minute boil so the hops deliver flavour and aroma but not a heap of bitterness. Despite the fact I want this to have big balls, I want it to be enjoyable by my relatively non experienced beer drinking family. It's a 2.5 gallon batch with a 1.5 gallon boil (I don't have the equipment!) My efficiency is just guessed at 60% which leaves plenty of room for error, and I'll be using cheap honey this time around. If it's good, I'll whip up a proper batch with some orange blossom or something

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Primaries: Toffee Apple Pear Cider,
Kegged: Extract Graff, Zee-Zee Hop Honey Beer
Drunkended: Greene King IPA Clone