Belgian Space Craff

Craff is my name for a equal parts beer/mead/cider brew. I combined Cyser (cider/mead) and graff (beer/cider) to make Craff. I have to come up with clever names or no one remembers which brew they enjoyed most.

Turns out Craff is damn tasty come summertime. I've had a LOT of requests for Craff this year. Including the most important one (me).

The last Craff I made was pretty tame. Let's take it up a notch. My brewing specialties are mead and Belgian golden strong ales. Two rights can't make a wrong, right? Right.

Belgian Space Craff - 1 gallon

Steeped 4 oz Rye in 1 liter water at 170 F for 20 minutes.
Added 500 ml apple cider.
Added 12 oz (3 cups) Golden Dry Malt Extract.
Boiled 15 minutes.
Added 1 oz Fuggles whole hops and 1 oz Vanguard pellet hops for 5 minutes additional boil time.
Added 1 cup tupelo honey, 1.5 tsp Wyeast beer nutrient, & 1/2 tsp K2CO3.
Cooled in ice bath.
Poured into 1 gallon glass jug through strainer.
Added cold apple cider up to 1 gallon.
Add 1/2 tsp pectinase.
Pitched one smack pack of Wyeast 1388.
SG 1.101
IBU 31

This will be bottle carbonated.




Better brewing through science!

Sounds tasty! I have something very similar going right now without malt. Found a saison mead recipe and turned into a hopped saison cyser and it's probably my favorite brew out of the 20 or so homebrews that I've done. So good that I'm going to start a 5 gallon batch this weekend. I might just have to try a 1 gallon batch of this 'craff' when I bottle the cyser this weekend.

Post it up one you pour your first glass! I'm going to be bottling my hopped saison cyser up on Sunday. Once its carbed up, if it taste anything like it does right now I will be in my glory. I think its the best brew I have made to date!

I certainly will raise a glass/post when this is ready!


Better brewing through science!

See my Current Mead Making Techniques article here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/current-mead-making-techniques.html

Made this one yesterday. Turns out 2 oz of hops in a gallon batch looks like hop stew. I ended up having to strain the liquid back out of the whole hops using a flour sifter. I'm ok with that because it smelled amazing, but in the future, I will use pellet hops.

SG was 1.086. The gravity was lower because I only had 2 quarts of apple cider (Trader Joes honey crisp). I also used 5 oz of rye to bump up the rye spiciness. Added a blowoff tube as I'm sure this will be a furious ferment. I'll update in a few days.


Better brewing through science!

See my Current Mead Making Techniques article here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/current-mead-making-techniques.html

Holy crap! 2oz is a lot. In the hopped saison cyser I'm bottling tonight or tomorrow I used 1oz total. I wanted to dry hop with some Saaz but I decided there was enough hop. I can see wanting to use more though with the malt.

My OG on the 1 gallon batch was 1.085. On the 3 gallon I started yesterday it was 1.088. The original batch finished a little lower than 1.02. The 3 gallon is smelling awesome already, woke up to the house smelling like apple-y hoppy goodness.

Looks like we are fairly close in everything except that you used malt.

On a side note, I have found gallon jugs of water with potassium bicarbonate added to it and so far it seems to be really helping my mead based brews finish faster and taste better!

Day 4

Gravity 1.015 and still boiling. Blow off tube was a great idea. This one really went nuts the first few days. I replaced the blowoff with an airlock today. I plan to bottle this weekend.


Better brewing through science!

See my Current Mead Making Techniques article here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/current-mead-making-techniques.html

Day 11
Stable at 1.005. Bottled with carbonation tabs. Let's give it 2 weeks and try it.


Better brewing through science!

See my Current Mead Making Techniques article here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/current-mead-making-techniques.html

Sounds awesome! I am just shy of 2 weeks with the hopped 'saiser' and the bottles from the 1 gallon test batch are nearly gone. Will post a pour later tonight. Messed up on my carbing measurement so they are a little undercarbed.

Going to bottle my 3 gallon batch this weekend and decide what to do with my test batch of red radish 'saiser' and start your craff in 1 gallon and hopefully a 3 gallon of irish red if my supplies make it here in time.

Day 24

Haha, I bottled this 2 weeks ago. It carbonated in one week and half of it is already gone!


Better brewing through science!

See my Current Mead Making Techniques article here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/current-mead-making-techniques.html

Haven't used carbing tabs before but have thought about it. How many volumes of co2 do they carb to?

At one month, the hopped saison cyser even tastes more amazing then it did at 2 weeks. If you make a larger batch of this craff let me know. I have a 3 gallon batch going of my recipe and am nearing the 1 month mark. The 1 gallon batch was done and cleared in just 2 weeks but the 3 gallon batch isn't clearing so I am a little disappointed.

Hopefully will be getting your craff started this weekend. Anything you would change? Did the rye add anything to the overall flavor profile?

Following the directions on the carb drops, I get about 3 ATMs.

If I were to change anything, I would utilize the hops more efficiently (less hops, longer boil, equal IBU) and I would add more rye. Nice spice from the rye.


Better brewing through science!

See my Current Mead Making Techniques article here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/current-mead-making-techniques.html

Newbie here but I have been using these forums A LOT for research and reading. I have read a lot on your website as well loveofrose. I popped in here to say that this Belgian Space Craff is my first try at mead and I got it into primary fermentation last night! Such a fun process and interesting smell. It is a bubbly little brew too!! It was either here or on your website I read something about setting it up for overflow and I am so glad I did. Anyways thank you for your research and sharing all your fun recipes.