abbot555

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So I have this brew that I am wondering if it can be considered a Braggot. It has half honey, half malt plus some fruit added. And going to use some wine yeast. It should run about +-6% ABV. So would this be a small Braggot ?

abbot555

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bump !

I need to finish my label, so I need to know what to call it !

avidhomebrewer

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Check out this link.

KCWortHog

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Better yet... BJCP mead guidelines and subcategory 26B, Braggot.

So while it isn't really a braggot by style because it contains fruit (if you go by AHA/BJCP standards), no one's going to stop you from calling it one. I wouldn't call it a braggot for a couple of reasons:
1. you used wine yeast
2. you added fruit

If it's really only going to be around 6%, you've got yourself a hydromel made with malt & fruit.

abbot555

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Good points. I could use Nottingham yeast instead.

But what about Widmer Brothers Reserve Braggot made with prickly pears? Also what about beers made with fruit? Would a cherry porter be classified as a fruit beer or porter?

Only reason I am asking is because I entered it in a contest and called it a fruit beer (ale). But the responses I got back were targeted for a Ale. A ale would not be so dry, sweet, ect....

Yan

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I dunno, I think it's a little open to interpretation. I made a very high-gravity, carbonated braggot using wine yeast. It had it's own unique sort of character from the yeast, but had a very pronounced hop and malt character too. There's really no rule against using wine yeast. Unless the fruit contributed a large amount of fermentable sugar rather than being used just for flavour too, then I don't see this reason to disqualify it from being a braggot either. And the strength would just make it a weaker braggot, since about half of the fermentables and character are coming from honey.

You can call it whatever you want. I'd call it a fruit braggot myself.

KCWortHog

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yeah, I agree, you can call it whatever you want. BUT if you are going to enter it in BJCP competitions and you want it judged as a mead (not a beer), it needs to be entered in the "Open Category Mead" (26C) category. You could enter it in 26B (braggot) but it’d fare poorly because it has something other than malt & honey in it.

Similarly, if you enter it as a fruit beer, it will (and should) be judged as a beer. When you assign a category, you're telling the judges what style you want it to be compared to. The guidelines for fruit beer vary, but if you want mead-oriented feedback, it needs to go into one of the mead categories. Otherwise, you’re going to get comments that are geared toward beer. Beer & mead judging even uses different scoresheets.

Basically, for the purposes of competition, submit it in the category that best fits what you made. For all other purposes, call it whatever you want. Does that make sense?

What was the competition you entered?

KCWortHog

Recipes 

By the way, you're right about the yeast, but I really recommend using an ale yeast (preferrably a starter) for the simple reason that (again, especially for competitions) you want some of the base beer characteristic to come through. Especially with ales, you want some of the yeast profile to come through. Fruity, estery, phenolic, etc. You could go with a wine or champagne yeast, but you're going to miss out on some of the components that the ale yeasts impart.

You could also make a braggot a completely different way - make a beer, make a mead (melomel, metheglin, etc) and blend them to the proportion that suits your taste. Clearly, then, you've got two yeasts going on But you are getting the esters/phenols (if applicable) from the ale yeast and the clean honey flavor granted by the wine yeast. I've only made one braggot so far (have a few in the planning stages) and I made it by brewing a beer with several pounds of honey. Never again - I've tasted a handful of braggots made via blending, and I believe this to really lend to superior braggots. It takes a little more effort but is IMO well worth it.

Yan

Recipes 

With my wine yeast braggot, I was actually surprised how ale-like it turned out, kind of like a Belgian tripel. I used D47 which wound up getting stuck, so I finished with K1V-1116, by this time having a warmer room temperature. I find the 1116 to be pretty estery, especially if fermented at warmer temperatures, so maybe that had something to do with it. It had a more pronounced mead taste, though, than if I'd have used an ale yeast, and I think that next one I make I'll let an ale yeast with a low alcohol tolerance go through it until it quits, then use D47 to finish. It wound up pretty tasty the way I did it the first time, though.

abbot555

Recipes 

Good idea, I will try that with my recipie. Using a ale yeast then D47 to bottom it out.