Brewed Braggot

[Curtis2010]

Last brewing season I made a blended braggot from a sweet mead and an IPA. It was absolutely delicious (mead & IPA brewed separately and then blended). So, this season I am going to try a brewed (not blended) braggot. First shot at the recipe attached.

Looking for suggestions.

View attachment Brewed Braggot 2012-11-16.pdf

 

[kev]

Good deal. Your recipe didn't show up. What type of honey did you use? I brewed a traditional (blended) braggot earlier this year. I used buckwheat honey for the mead and an ESB recipe for the ale. Goes down like silk. Saving a few bottles for new years eve, can't wait to see how she aged.

 

[Curtis2010]

Hmm, not sure why it did not show up for you. It is an PDF attachment which I can open from this thread on my machine.

I use a local varietal honey common in the mercados here in Guatemala. Very light in color and in taste. Make a very nice mead.

I keep trying to save mead for aging, but it just disappears too fast!

 

[Curtis2010]

Hmm, not sure why it did not show up for you. It is an PDF attachment which I can open from this thread on my machine.

I use a local varietal honey common in the mercados here in Guatemala. Very light in color and in taste. Make a very nice mead.

I keep trying to save mead for aging, but it just disappears too fast!

 

[kev]

Solution to your disappearing mead problem: make bigger batches. I make 8 gallons at a time, usually once a year. Couple that with brewing beer about every week and I can usually keep mead ( at least one bottle) for a year. Though for some odd reason never any longer. Maybe not enough will power on my part. It's just too good. Cheers,
Kev

 

[Curtis2010]

Yes, I am in the process of scaling up for 10 gallon batches (both beer and mead). One of my big constraints here in the tropics is sufficient temp controlled space. Just installed a second chest freezer today which will hold about 6 corny kegs.

I am in the process of brewing the Brewed Braggot today. Punta Dario Pilsner (a Bo. Pils) is on the agenda for tomorrow.

 

[Curtis2010]

Brewed this braggot yesterday. And OMG! The wort is delicious!

Made a couple of screw-ups, but the result is still awesome. Sure hope fermentation goes well. I may crawl into my nice big new chest freezer and cry if it does not!

Hops Additions. Using Columbus and Cascade, both starting in "C", easy to mix them up and I did. First two additions were Columbus rather than Columbus followed by Cascade, but the wort still tastes great. I think in the future I will start plastic bagging each hops addition separately ahead of time to avoid mix-ups.

Honey weight vs. volume. At least in they way that I am using BrewSmith it does not change volume/OG calculations based upon the volume of honey (this may just be a stupid user error). Honey by default in the BS database is measured by weight not by volume. As a result, the calculated OG was way off. Measured OG was 1.117 -- Wow!

Update: Aha! Just reviewed my recipe and caught a math error. Made a mistake converting honey weight to volume. That accounts for some of the OG difference. Accidentally used about 7.2lbs of honey instead of the originally planned 6. And fermentation has started!

 

[kev]

From what I've read (& not doing any research or math), your OG doesn't seem excessive. I'm not aware of any software measuring honey by volume. It is on pounds/oz. I use Promash myself. It will help me figure out how many pounds I need, but doesn't help a damn with total volume. I think at least with making a blended Braggot it is good. That way you can tailor one to the other, be on top of your gravities, more flexible with yeast strains. I use White Labs champagne yeast for the mead and I think White Labs 007 for the ale. I wouldn't want to run the risk of either half coming out weird or not fully fermented. Do you plan on using more than one strain? If you don't mind what strains and when did you decide to add them?
Cheers,
Kev