Braggot recipe advice?

Hodor_Baggins · 07-23-2009, 06:38 AM

I was hoping I could get a little advice from the sages on this board about a braggot recipe I want to attempt. This is my first attempt at brewing w/ any honey at all, let alone this much, so I'm not entirely positive on a lot of the specifics.

This is modified from a recipe that I found online that was referenced to "The Compleat Meadmaker".

Please let me know any changes you think would improve this brew . . .

Modified Hefty Braggot Recipe:
5gal
est. O.G. 1.121
est F.G. ???
IBUs 50.6 (the original recipe used 5oz of cascade and had >90 IBUs, seemed like a lot?)
SRM 5.6

8lbs 2row
2lbs vienna
1lbs carapils/dextrine
9lbs orange blossom honey

0.75oz Amarillo (60min)
1oz Amarillo (30min)
.75oz Amarillo (0min)

1 tsp Yeast nutrient (5min)
3L Pacman Yeast Starter (stirplate)

Mash the grains at 148 for 75min, 1.33qts/lb of grain, no mash out double batch sparge.

If this gets stuck above 1.030, I'm thinking about pitching some additional yeast (WL0099, or some wine or champagne yeast), any suggestions?

Some more specific questions here:
1) when should I add the honey? When the wort/must gets down to 170? Right when I add the yeast? 2-3 days into fermentation?
2) should I add more yeast nutrient during fermentation?
3) What's a good estimate for the amount of time in primary/secondary/bottles? I was thinking 1mo./2mo./3mo. (tell new brewers about that 1-2-3 rule

)
4) What is the likelyhood of this actually carbing up once I have it in bottles?

Thanks in advance for any help, I'm really looking forward to this brew!

Babachewy · 07-23-2009, 09:15 PM

I had my Hefty Braggot quit at 1.030, despite aerating the must initially, adding yeast nutrient/energizer, and throwing some tough wine yeast at it (first D-47, then later EC-1118).

My best guess as to why it quit was because the pH was out of the range that yeast like, but I didn't have the means to measure it at the time. Maybe you should monitor that. There's information about the ideal pH range in the Compleat Meadmaker book, as I recall.

I had no problem carbonating it, but because of the high final gravity, I'm trying to drink them all before one blows up on me.

malkore · 07-23-2009, 10:24 PM

I've exchanged emails with Ken Schramm many years ago. I'm wary to adjust any of his published recipes, as the guy really knows his stuff.

Hodor_Baggins · 07-23-2009, 10:33 PM

Hmm, in that case, I guess I can up the hops to get back to the IBUs needed. I'll probably replace the bittering addition w/ magnum, and keep the rest as Amarillo since I have those in stock and prefer them anyways.

I'll also keep an eye on the pH. Anyone know the healthy range, and if there's anything I could do to adjust if it starts to get out of said range?

Thanks.