Insane Idea!

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claphamsa

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Ok, maybe not insane..... Im gonna brew a nice oatmeal stout this weekend..... it seems there is always extra flaver left over... once i get my gallons for boil... do ANOTHER sparge or so... and make a braggot?

As I said, crazy, let me know what yalls think!
 
I think this depends on what your usual eff. is, I mean, if you get 65% usually, then sure, as there are plenty of sugars still in there for another sparge for your braggot. On the other hand though, if you normally get north of 80% or so, then there's almost nothing left to sparge out, and your mead would just have a very very slight maltyness, with some tannins from oversparging. When doing this most that I have seen do it partygyle style, using the first runnings for the "bigger beer" in this case your oatmeal stout, and the second runnings for a braggot, I believe BigKahuna did this for his holiday stout, maybe he'll pipe in soon.
 
Sparge volume: Sparging with a larger volume of water (then boiling the runnings down) will give you better extraction efficiency, since you will extract more of the available sugars. The danger of over-sparging is that you will tend to extract astringent tannins from the grain husks, as the pH rises throughout the sparge. The pH rise can be offset by adding a small amount of food grade lactic or phosphoric acid to the sparge water.

Sparge temperature: Sugars are less soluble at low temperatures; you should try to maintain the temperature of your grain bed at 150F or above during sparging. But there is a tradeoff here as well -- sparging too hot can lead to excess tannin extraction, just as over-sparging can.

taken from a brewing website, I've seen it written in a few places before as well
 
didnt know there was such a thing as oversparging.....

As mentioned yes there is.

However if your efficiency is poor like it would be with a high gravity beer and a 60min boil then there should be plenty of sugar left for an extra batch sparge to make a braggot. The gravity of the wort will be pretty low before adding the honey but it should work.

Craig
 
Actually I do this with every big batch I do.
I batch sparge, and just ensure that my runnings do not drop below 1.010. Usually I can collect 2 gallons or so, and then I just add around 5-6 lbs of honey. It is more like a mead than a solid braggot, but there is malt's in there so I call it braggots.
But I have never done it with a dark stout. Give it a shot and let us know how it goes.
 
You are talking about doing just what I did with my "Super Sparge Braggot" from when I made my Christmas Stout. I used Madhiva Wild Flower Honey...and it tastes like a Belgian beer....12% alcohol (I used D-47) but basically, you have a great idea, and I hope you did it!
 
ok took the final runings from my oatmeal stout (4 gallons) added ice (it was 100) put in bucket on top of yeast cake from apfelwine.....then added about 17 LBS of honey.... for a total volume of 6.5 (or so) gallons. check back in June!
 
So Senor Clap - how's the ferment on this freaky frankenbrew coming along?

I'm a thinking of an ordinary bitter, or saison, braggot in the spring/summer.
 
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