It finally happened: A diary of the tripple braggot and lambic braggot

Ok so we finally got off our posteriors tonight and started these 2 braggots. The "beer" portion of each is the same and was made in an 11 gallon batch with 5 actually destined to become beer, 3 for the triple and 3 for the lambic. The recipe is as follows for the entire 11gallons

23.75lbs of 2-row
2lbs Carapils
0.5lbs Aromatic
2oz Special B
4oz Belgian Biscuit
4oz Caramunich
1lb sugar(table)
2lbs candi sugar

8 gallons of water for the mash
and sparged with 9 gallons water.
The water is Urbana, IL tap if anyone wants to know specifics or composition.

1oz Saaz
1oz Golding
both at 60min

total boil time was 120min

The trappist style (triple) will be given 15lbs total of honey. The first 2 additions will be 6lbs each with the final being 3lbs. Total batch size will be 6gallons.

The Lambic will be given a total of 8.25lbs honey. These additions will be made in quzntities of 2.25lbs three times and 1.5lbs in the final addition.

The triple braggot, 3 gallons of the wort, will be pitched with WLP570 and allowed to ferment for 4 days uninterrupted. On day 3 6lbs of honey will be added to the carboy after being dissolved in 1 gallon of warm water. the next addition of honey will be on day 28 at which point 7lbs of honey will be dissolved in 1 gallon of warm water. On day 74 of the fermentation the braggot will be transferred from primary to secondary and will rest/age there for a minimum of 12 weeks.

The lambic braggot will begin with 2 gallons of the wort diluted with 1 gallon of water to lower the OG. For the lambic fermentation WLP655 Belgian Sour Mix I was chosen. The tentative plan for honey in this braggot is 10lbs added in 4lb increments every 7 days. This will hopefully allow the bacteria to start fermenting the honey without becoming overwhelmed before the next addition. The schedule for this will be to allow initial fermentation for 6 days, then 4lbs of honey on days 13, 20, 27, and 34. After the final honey addition it is planned to remove the airlock and inset a dowel rod into the stopper and leave the carboy alone for approximately 10-11 months at which point it will have to be bottled due to a move.

Both batches will be bottled in brown beer bottles due to the presence of hops in the wort.

The honey being used is a mix of soybean, alfalfa and clover honeys collected in 2006 by the UIUC bee research facility. The honey is darker in color due to the age and has a distinctly molasses taste.

*Disclaimer* The process of each mead is subject to change and I will do my best to update this thread as soon as possible. Also pictures may appear at random:rockin:
*Note* This initial recipe and process post will be changed periodically to reflect actual method

I do hereby want to make my opinion clear! You Are Crazy!

Cheers.

if by crazy, you mean crazy awesome, keep up updated!

guess I should add that my wimpy 30' copper chiller is not enough for an 11 gallon batch. It's taking forever to chill!

Freezeblade said:

if by crazy, you mean crazy awesome

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Ya...that's kinda what I meant.

OK update already.

Due to horrible efficiency, ~50%, the lambic will not be dilluted rather 3gallons of wort will be used. OG for the wort 'corrected' to 1.056. The WLP570 for the triple has been used once before in a beer that attained 12% ABV. The purpose of using the once used yeast is to encourage the braggot to come closer to 14%abv.

Ok I took pictures but since I have class at 0900 they wont make it up until tomorrow.

tooomanycolors said:

OK update already.

Due to horrible efficiency, ~50%, the lambic will not be dilluted rather 3gallons of wort will be used. OG for the wort 'corrected' to 1.056. The WLP570 for the triple has been used once before in a beer that attained 12% ABV. The purpose of using the once used yeast is to encourage the braggot to come closer to 14%abv.

Ok I took pictures but since I have class at 0900 they wont make it up until tomorrow.

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I live right down the road.....I'd be happy to taste any of this once it's done. =)

And the process begins(well last night)...

Boil time, with protein nasties


Mashy mash


yea its 8.5 inches deep


Wort chillin

No steam this time

The lambic

Day 1


Day 2

The trappist(style)

Day 1


Day 2

Update time:

Tonight I made the first addition of 4lbs honey to the trappist style, this was done by dissolving the honey in warm water and chilling the mixture until pitching.

Nothing added to the lambic but it stinks oh so good

Also I made some adjustments to the recipes for each, so far the only change has been the amount of honey and the schedule for adding it to the wort/must.

And sorry no pictures tonight, I dont want the moderators to relocate me to the photo forum just yet

this is a wicked idea, how's it looking?

tooomanycolors said:

And sorry no pictures tonight, I don't want the moderators to relocate me to the photo forum just yet

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MMMM...Good Point.

There will be an actual update here soon, but I want to say that the next pictures will be when the carboys have become full, so after the final honey addition to each

Cool! It's so neat to see other people take up your own idea and run with it! Maybe you can send me some of the lambic when it's done? Are you going to carb it?

So I said I would post an update a few days ago and I forgot however on that day, last saturday, I made the second addition of honey to the trappist style, and the first to the lambic.

Ill post pictures after the final additions to each.

Label idea for the lambic

Final additions for both have now been made, the next issue is to find an oak rod to seal the carboy

pictures later

tooomanycolors said:

Label idea for the lambic

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I like the viking ship, it's a good idea. Why the trippy stars background?

why not, a lambic mead is a pretty trippy idea, so why not a trippy background?

Cuz it's too busy. It'd look a lot better if you nixed the background and the map, keeping everything else and replacing the background with either a solid color or a normal ocean.

phissionkorps said:

Cuz it's too busy. It'd look a lot better if you nixed the background and the map, keeping everything else and replacing the background with either a solid color or a normal ocean.

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He speaks the truth.

You could go with a nice stylized ocean, really cartoony/vectory maybe?

But as it stands it makes my eyes hurt.

How soon will pictures come?

How's this? I whipped up a quick one.

tooomanycolors said:

Label idea for the lambic

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Ill think about the label, I do have another 10 months or so before anything will happen.

and pictures will come when I get off my lazy you know what

New label is much better.

I do like the new label.

Hard to say what this is going to taste like...but just the effort you've put into it....it deserves a cool label.

OK since this has been brought up in another thread, I will actually make an update on this one this next coming weekend when i get back from break.

Happy thanksgiving all

Freezeblade said:

How's this? I whipped up a quick one.

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I really like this label! I'd also like to see someone start a topic on label making - whose using what program, graphic design tecniques used, image sources, etc...

What forum fits that type of discussion?

Although it is predominately beer labels, here is the label display and discussion forum: Label Display & Discussion - Home Brew Forums There are a lot of artists on here and they really help you out when you need it. I use a combination of Gimp, Microsoft progs for simple texts, illustrator and my future brother in law, since he's an artist.

Tusch said:

Although it is predominately beer labels, here is the label display and discussion forum: Label Display & Discussion

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Whatever you do.....Keep the picks here though....This is the "Official Diary" of this project, and I for one, would like to have all of this greatness in one place!


And what the heck.....UPDATE US MAN!

For the label, I used Photoshop CS3. as much as vectors (illustrator) are important in label-making, I'm just far more comfortable using Photoshop and raster-based graphics.

"all of this greatness in one place!"

Agree!!

Where did you do the research for this project? You seem to have a very clear idea of where you want to go, right from the start. Odyssey in the making.. Homer would be proud!!

I am certain Homer was a brewer.

Research was just reading what I could, not much available, talking to brewers here and in the local club, and kinda guessing as I went, I should be able to taste the triple on Sunday, and I still need to get an oak rod for the lambic, which Ill get done early next week.

Hope everyone had a nice holiday

I will go get the oak rod this evening for sure, as for tasting the non lambic that will have to wait until my roommate finds and cleans my wine thief, hopefully can do that tonight as well and get some comments and maybe a couple pics up as well.

Ok so no pictures tonight my camera is at home... Anyway the lambic now has wood, but I didnt taste it since the theory there is dont **** with it till next summer. The triple has a smoky character and if anyone can explain that go for it.

The plan now is to rack the triple off the lees this week, and maybe add some honey who knows. I did not take gravity readings because Im lazy and at this point dont really care, havent seen bubbles in over a month.

One question to you all though, should I rack the lambic if nothing shows in a week or so and repitch or go with the common mead theory of dont **** with it?

So far no sign of a pellicle on the lambic, so I may rack and repitch sometime in the coming week.

help, my mead has mold on it.....haha oh wait its supposed to its a LAMBIC!!!!!





The triple doesnt look spectacular so no pictures of it.

tooomanycolors said:

help, my mead has mold on it.....haha oh wait its supposed to its a LAMBIC!!!!!

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Ah yes, time will spoil all lambics.
That does look cool, do you mind if I steal your recipe and scheduling if it turns out great?