10 pound cherry braggot, recipe review input?

Well I have a caramel apple mead under my belt and have some ingredients sitting around, so I figured I would try a braggot this time. I am not exactly even sure if this is a braggot once I add in the cherries. I am looking for input as to what to expect. I already have the 2-row, cherries and only would need 1 more 5lbs of honey. I will even have a nice yeast cake to harvest from coming up in a few weeks that will have had a smoked wee heavy on it. (I may even just pitch onto the cake to hope for a tiny bit of smokiness to carry over.)


The cherries seem to want to throw off any SRM but I would bet this will be a blood red in color.


10 pound cherry braggot

OG: 1.112 (possibly higher from cherries)
ABV: 11% +
IBU: 33 minimum

Malt:
10 lbs 2-row
10 lbs honey (clover)
10 lbs tart cherries
1 lbs aromatic
1 lbs Crystal 120

Hops:
½ oz nugget @ 90 min
1 oz simcoe @ 30

Notes:
Honey added at flameout
Cherries added to secondary

Yeast:
Scottish ale – 2L starter

My plan is to mash low and long 150F for 60 minutes or more. Let the Yeast have their way with the honey and wort for about 3-4 weeks, then rack it onto the cherries. I suspect there will be a tiny fermentation from the cherries but the yeast will be just about at the end of its tolerance at that point, so it should just kill itself...Leave it on the cherries for ??? and let it drop clear on the cherries.

The cherries are unsweetened tart cherries that are "frozen in juice" no sugar added.

So do you think this is going to taste like cough syrup? Is there anything else I should know about? I am pretty excited for this batch any input is welcomed.

Thanks!

Sounds good to me.

A few comments...

1. "My plan is to mash low and long 150F for 60 minutes or more"
- 60 minutes is the typical mash time so I don't understand your comment. Also by mashing this low your wort will be more fermentable and thus dryer. Not sure exactly what yeast you are going to use but if it has a high alcohol tolerance it will tear through your honey and malt and the end product might be drier than you want. If it were me I'd mash higher to retain more complex sugars so the end product is sweeter because honey is 100% fermentable and will not leave any sweetness if allowed to ferment completely out. But that's just me.

2. Make sure you have a big enough vessel to contain all your braggot and the cherries for 2ndary. I did a cherry wheat last year with 5 lbs of cherries and had to split it between 2 vessels. Also I think a few weeks on the cherries is probably enough. Just enough time to extract the sugars.

Hey thanks! I meant mash for 90 minutes...lol instead of 60...just a typo. I am going to conciser the advice for mashing at a higher temp. If you have done a braggot before or something similar, what temp range would you suggest? I am a little fearful of ending up with something that will be overly sweet/cloying.

The yeast strain will be the Wyeast Scottish ale which can stand up to 12% ABV. If I mash low and add the honey that should take me to the 11% area. Then when I add the cherries there will be little to no fermentation happen so I will just extract the sugars, flavors and some color.

My biggest concerns are ending up with 6 gallons of cough syrup or cherry wine flavors, neither of which I like at all...I will be force carbing this so bottle conditioning is not an issue.

Thanks again!

The cherries will lower the gravity, they are variable in sugar content of course, but they ain't anywhere close to 1.112.

IME, every cherry mead I have really liked had way more cherries than 2 lbs per gallon. YMMV.

remilard said:

The cherries will lower the gravity, they are variable in sugar content of course, but they ain't anywhere close to 1.112.

IME, every cherry mead I have really liked had way more cherries than 2 lbs per gallon. YMMV.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I use Brewtarget and while it may be off, when I plug in all the grains + honey I get 1.112 without the cherries at all. I am guessing that when I add the cherries that will add points. If you or someone else comes up with different numbers please let me know...I am pretty positive it will finish out at 11%ish before I add the cherries. The yeast tolerance is 12% or am I way off in left field? (I fully admit I may be...)

I am about to pitch my Wee Heavy in a few hours which is going to be done 1st then I will reuse the cake for this. So, I am still a few weeks out.

Thanks again!

How'd this turn out?

hahaha this is FANTASTIC. I am actually drinking it now.

I fermented this for about 4 weeks then thawed the cherries and racked onto them in an Ale Pail. It sat in the Ale Pail for almost 8 months. I just ignored it, never cracked the lid or took a grav reading. A couple of weeks ago I checked it, no signs of infection or mold and it tasted great.Kegged and force carbed like a standard beer. I had it on tap for about 2 weeks (which was CRAZY dangerous) and then I bottled it into pint bottles. I have 19 pints left.

Took it to the club meeting last night and a party last weekend, EVERYONE raved about it. Everything is perfectly balanced. It does not taste like cough syrup at all (not just my opinion and I HATE cherry cough syrup). There is no alcohol bite at all. The color is a sort of reddish brown not what I expected but I did not plan on a specific color really. I actually saw the same kind of cherries in the store yesterday and am planning to pick them up to make this again. This is one of a handful of recipes that I am planning on trying to recreate.

a few concerns:
- 1 12oz to 16oz pour of this in 30 minutes is enough to alter you. Drinking it faster induces a nap.

- 2 this sat so long in the secondary that I now have beer stone on the inside of my Ale Pail.

My label:

The label reads the ingredients across the top. The beverage's name in the center, the name of my theoretical brewery and what it is under that. With the IBUs and ABV% in the corners (I forgot to add the IBUs, oops.)



They are printed on AVERY address labels and then sprayed with a clear coat to make them semi-water proof (water resistant?) The color will fade but you can still read the label after it has been in a cooler for 12-24 hours.

Any other info you need/want?

Perfect. Thanks!

I've a braggot that's been in the primary a month, and I want to do something else with it. I was searching around last night and found this thread.

Thanks!

I did a Honey Orange Braggot last month. it's now aging in secondary. I used 9lbs grain and 9lbs honey with Belgian Ardennes yeast. Was sitting right at 11% ABV when I racked to secondary. I mashed at 155 for an hour and let it fall to around 146. It maintained a great body and good malt flavor, although it is hot stuff! This will need to rest for awhile. I am however debating carbonating it, as it is pretty tasty uncarbed. The original plan was to carb to around 2-2.5 volumes. We'll see, but definitely mash at the higher volume, it will ferment out like crazy. Cheers!

*Side Note: I used mesquite honey and you get an almost oakiness from it. I was going to age on light toast oak chips for awhile, but it would be overkill with the woodiness from the honey. Just FYI for future reference.

I like the idea of adding oak chips to some brews but I do not think I would do this on this one. Don't get me wrong I love oakiness in brews. I used cheap clove honey and I really can not believe how great this turned out.

For the pure cheapness and fantastic taste I would not change anything. The downside as you mentioned is the need for a LOOOOOONG secondary. If I can get this result every time it is completely worth it IMHO.

I was in Ventrillo talking to some friends the other night and finished my evening with a chilled pint. Well, it was more like the drink finished me... Needless to say, that was a BAD idea and I do not recall most of the conversations after I was 1/2 done with the pint...lol.