Dark strong braggot

This recipe was my first attempt at a braggot. I wanted to go to the Dark side with this one, with some malted roasty flavors and a floral subdued brightness with the honey. This is for a 1 gallon batch food the sale of the experiment, brewed in December 2013. Just cracked open the first tonight with some friends I promised a beer to. They are celebrating yuletide tonight and I beer it with them originally as well. They are not fans of beer or mead but both had their share.
To date this is the second best thing I've ever brewed.
Base beer is a simple stout

On to the recipe:
2.5 lbHoney, Orange BlossomAny45 %
2.0 lb2-Row (US)Any36 %
0.25 lbDe-Bittered Black (BE)Any4 %
0.25 lbCaramel/Crystal 40L (US)Any4 %
0.25 lbCaramel/Crystal 10L (US)Any4 %
0.25 lbBiscuit (BE)Any4 %
Hops

AmountHopTime
0.5 ozNugget (US)60 min
Yeasts

NameLab/Product
Safale US-05Fermentis US-05

I mashed at 152 for 60
Fermented at 70-74.

I let the base beer ferment for 3 days before adding the honey. The og of the base beer was 1.045 ish.
I let it sit in the fermenter a total of 4 weeks. The whole thing ended at 1.01.

I want to do this again but maybe try a different yeast. The s05 did a wonderful job but a more expressive yeast I think would work great.

Tel me what you guys think.

A key characteristic of Braggots is a balance between honey and malt with roughly 50% of fermentables coming from each. This recipe at first glance looks to favor grains. The specialty grains probably don't contribute a lot to fermentables, but will to the taste.

Is 0.5 lbs honey a typo?

One handy thing about Braggots/Meads is that they lend themselves well to blending so if a batch isn't quite what you wanted then you can brew another and blend. I like to keep a basic mead on hand for this purpose.

Yeah it is a typo, it's supposed to be 2.5 pounds of honey. Edited main post

This came out amazing FWIW. Very complex flavor, it was dry stout upfront roast, and finished with a nice floral bitter citrus note. I just came across a bottle I forgot about and these notes are based on that bottle. Like I said before though, when I do this again, I think I may try WLP530 or another Belgian strain.

In Dec 2014 I left a keg of Smokey Braggot conditioning...and just returned home for the first time since then. Just tried it today, yum.

I smoked my own grains for this starting with 2 row, roasted to amber, then smoked. Smoked using Kahun Nuts (sort of like a very small oily coconut...very concentrated coconut like flavor). The smoke was a little intense so I also brewed a keg of plain mead, to use later for blending. Just sampled the Smokey Braggot today and, pleasant surprise, it was smooth a melow with just the right amount of smokey, no blending needed. Bonus: now I have 5 extra gallons of mead! I left it with a little CO2 pessure on it so it also has a nice beer like head when poured. Nice color and clarity too.

Bottled some to share later today.

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Very nice. This was admittedly my first experience fermenting honey except for a few times I added it to thin out a few ipas.

It definitely opened me up to doing meads. Thinking a few traditional, than a bochet. Might bug some of you experienced in the way of the bee when I do start trying.

Yes, mead definately opens up some additional options, especially given its suitability for blending. For example, my first braggot was not planned. I brewed an IPA I wasn't happy with so blended it with a plain mead, and wow! It was now a delicious braggot instead of a flawed IPA.

Bottled 4 bottles today with the intent of sharing a bottle with friends and giving the rest away as gifts...well...none was left to give away, all 4 bottles are empty now...goes down way easy. :beer:

Curtis2010 said:

Bottled 4 bottles today with the intent of sharing a bottle with friends and giving the rest away as gifts...well...none was left to give away, all 4 bottles are empty now...goes down way easy. :beer:

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Same thing with this, I'm not 100% on the final ABV, but it was an easy drinker. Than you go to stand up, and realize it's much stronger than the taste let on.

Another idea for this thread: use caramelized honey. I brewed a little test batch of Brochet recently and it turned out amazing. A Braggot-Brochet I think could be delicious.

Definitely is delicious! I had a beer called Killer Bee that was a porter with caramelized honey additions. It could have had a little more body, but the flavor combo was excellent.