Buckwheat Braggot

Hey,

I am planning to make a small braggot using buckwheat honey in a few weeks. I read through this and this thread which helped tweak my recipe a bit. I did not want to hijack either of them so figure I would make a new thread on this.

The basic recipe looks like this:

Batch Size:4.5 gallons
OG: ~1.055
FG: ~1.005

5lbs 2-Row
1lbs Specialty malt (honey malt/crystal malt, unsure how much)
3lbs Buckwheat honey @ 10 minutes
1 oz Noble Hops (East Kent or Tettnang) @ 30 min

Mash @ 155

Because this is most likely going to finish out very dry I was thinking using a portion of Honey Malt would be a good idea, but was worried too much may make it cloying.

Currently I thinking 1/2 lbs honey malt and 1/2 lbs crystal 120L. Is that going to be too much in a braggot or do you think it will be dry enough to balance it out?

Man, careful with buckwheat honey, I know it sounds good, but it can have a powerful (and not good) after taste when fermented.

Also, no need to boil the honey (am interpreting you schedule correctly?). I would add after flameout. Others would argue at even lower temps or later in the ferm process even.

I know it can drive off some of the softer flavours in honey, but considering its buckwheat I am not too worried. Another member posted this article where they did a double blind taste test comparing boiled and non-boiled meads. Not sure how relevant it is considering I am hoping to be drinking this by Febuary.

I have read about Buckwheat and fermentation and barnyards, but I am willing to give it a shot. For now I am just trying to figure out if 1/2 lbs of honey malt is too much or if I can go higher.

I've never used honey malt but in most recipes I've seen, 1/2 pound seems to be the normal amount. I have read that a little goes a long way. Also keep in mind that the longer it ages the more the honey flavor comes out, like in a mead.

I have made a few braggots now and my first is very similar to your recipe. It is 1 1/2 years old and is tasting its best right now.

I'd suggest a 1/2 pound of honey malt and a 1/2 crystal.

Well I tossed this thing together on Monday morning. The final recipe ended up looking like this --

Batch Size (Gallons): 5.0
OG: 1.049 (70% eff)
Est. FG(ABV): 1.005 (5.7%)

2.0 lbs Marris Otter, 2-Row
2.0 lbs Munich Malt
0.25 lbs Honey Malt
2.24 lbs Buckwheat Honey (at flame out)
1.10 lbs Alberta Floral Honey (at flame out)

0.5 oz Fuggles (UK) @ 45 min
0.5 oz Cascade (US) @ 20 min

1/2 tsp Irish Moss @ 10 min
2 grams of Grains of Paradise @ 10 min
1 packs Nottingham Yeast, dry

Its fermenting away and probably won't be ready until sometime in February. I am also planning a second batch that is exactly the same except I will be using Blackberry Flower honey instead of Buckwheat.

I'm interested to see how your recipe turns our Bradinator. I recently brewed the Hefty Barggot from the complete mead maker book. I too used buckwheat and the taste test I have done at the three month mark is very good.
I hope I have the patience to wait for about a year when this is supposed to taste wonderful.

I will keep you posted. Because this is about half to OG of the Hefty Braggot recipe I am hoping its ready by end of January.

We did a barleywine using 1.5 lbs of buckwheat honey and its pretty good, but still young in bottles.

oops, see below

Good luck Bradinator if your braggot is ready quicker and you think it tastes good I may be making me up a batch too.

Curtis2010 said:

Man, careful with buckwheat honey, I know it sounds good, but it can have a powerful (and not good) after taste when fermented.

Also, no need to boil the honey (am interpreting you schedule correctly?). I would add after flameout. Others would argue at even lower temps or later in the ferm process even.

Click to expand...

I completely disagree. About 1 year ago I would have agreed but no more. I made a 1 gallon traiditional mead with nothing but buckwheat honey. At the 1 year mark it was undrinkable, the buckwheat was too overpowering, however I just cracked another bottle at the 2 year mark and it is one of my faovirte meads. Assuming you are willing to let it age, there is nothing wrong with the buckwheat

I do however agree completely with your no boil comment

I did not boil my honey in this batch, though it was dissolved in boiled and slightly cooled water and added right at flameout.

I am sure a lot of people are going to scream blasphemy, but I kind of feel that the 'boiling honey will ruin your mead' is a myth. Will it change it? Probably. For better or for worse? I don't really know as I have never done a side-by-side comparison. This guy did, and his results were interesting but like everything else on the internet I take it with a grain of salt.

I wonder if any HBT guys/gals have tried it yet? I don't make mead often enough to justify this experiment and its got such a long turn around time I don't know if I could commit to it.

Anywho, off-topic.

Braggot is bubbling away!

dummkauf said:

I completely disagree. About 1 year ago I would have agreed but no more. I made a 1 gallon traiditional mead with nothing but buckwheat honey. At the 1 year mark it was undrinkable, the buckwheat was too overpowering, however I just cracked another bottle at the 2 year mark and it is one of my faovirte meads. Assuming you are willing to let it age, there is nothing wrong with the buckwheat

...

Click to expand...

Damn, maybe I should have just let that Buckwheat Stout condition much longer. Like your mead it was initially simply undrinkable due to the powerfully nasty aftertaste, but in all other ways it was a beautiful stout. Unfortunately, I dumped it. Next time I will set some aside and wait to see what happens.

Curtis2010 said:

Unfortunately, I dumped it. Next time I will set some aside and wait to see what happens.

Click to expand...

One of the biggest lessons I've learned from this board is to never dump a batch. Tuck it away in the back of the closet and forget about it for a while, it's amazing what time will do for mead

Now I'm just pissed I only did a 1 gallon batch(I was a bit skeptical about an all buckwheat mead originally too).

I'm also generally not a fan of aged beers(personal opinion), but the beers I've made mistakes with(eg: over oaked a batch once), letting it age definitely will mellow out the mistakes.

dummkauf said:

One of the biggest lessons I've learned from this board is to never dump a batch. Tuck it away in the back of the closet and forget about it for a while, it's amazing what time will do for mead

Now I'm just pissed I only did a 1 gallon batch(I was a bit skeptical about an all buckwheat mead originally too).

Click to expand...

That was early in my brewing career, now I would just let it mellow. If you've got the space then why not -- nothing to lose.

How did it turn out?

I have a gallon of buckwheat honey in my cabinet that I've been wanting to brew with but I was told it was too strong for mead. I'm hoping your braggot recipe might be the perfect use for it.

I sent a PM, too, but thought other people might be curious, too.

Thanks,
Tracy