Thoughts on Braggot?

[a_merryk_hunt]

I was thinking about doing a wheat braggot for my next test batch, and would like some input on a recipe I've been tinkering with. Looking for something simple, but with some depth of flavor and body. Extract preferred, as I do not have the space and/or equipment for grain brewing.

Aiming for ~1 gallon bottling volume.

Current recipe idea:
1Lb wheat LME (LHBS sells a wheat extract that is a blend of 65% wheat, and 35% 2-row barley)
1Lb honey
??oz lemon drop or sorachi ace hops (going with citrus/fruity profiles, due to how well that works with wheat beers)
Safale US-05.

Estimated OG: 1.074
Estimated FG: 1.007
Estimated ABV: 8.94%

May scale back the honey and/or LME, to bring down the gravity and ABV, but don't want to lose body.

 

[MaxTheSpy]

Your recipe looks good, Personally I would do this in a 1.5 gallon fermenter so you can get your full gallon out of it. I wouldnt scale back the honey too much, 1 pound is pretty light as is.

 

[a_merryk_hunt]

I have a 2 gallon bucket i was planning on using for this. Targeting 1 gallon as the bottling volume.

Yeah, definitely light compared to the couple of batches I should be clearing and bottling soon. Shooting for a cross between an American wheat (og 1.040-1.550, fg 1.008-1.013, 4-5.5% abv) and a standard mead. 1.074 og and about 9% abv seemed respectable to me.

 

[a_merryk_hunt]

Wouldn't let me attach a new image to the reply for some reason.

 

[MaxTheSpy]

Wouldn't let me attach a new image to the reply for some reason.View attachment 611539

Thats awesome software! I use spreadsheets for most of my stuff. It works but it feels a little outdated with all the technology we have nowadays. I am however using tilt to monitor gravity and temperature.

 

[a_merryk_hunt]

Brewsmith 3 for android. Not freeware, but mostly spot-on with estimates on starting gravities.

I was looking at tilt units earlier, they seem very ipressive. Maybe I'll be able to spring for some at some point in the future when i'm more experienced.

 

[MaxTheSpy]

Brewsmith 3 for android. Not freeware, but mostly spot-on with estimates on starting gravities.

I was looking at tilt units earlier, they seem very ipressive. Maybe I'll be able to spring for some at some point in the future when i'm more experienced.

Send me a message here on the forums and I will send you all the data I collect in terms of accracy. Im testing them right now for 4 days each, measuring before and after with hardware hydrometer.

Ill let you know if they are worth it or not

 

[a_merryk_hunt]

Message sent

 

[a_merryk_hunt]

Mostly finalized recipe. Does anyone have any input for the unknowns?

Aiming for ~1 gallon bottling volume.

Current recipe idea:
2oz carapils for body and head retention
1Lb wheat LME (LHBS sells a wheat extract that is a blend of 65% wheat, and 35% 2-row barley)
1Lb honey
0.11oz lemon drop hop pellets at 60mins in boil
0.3oz lemon drop when wort cooled to about 175°F
Safale US-05.

Estimated OG: 1.074
Estimated FG: 1.007
Estimated ABV: 9.04%

-------

Steep carapils in 1/4 gallon water at about 155°F for 30 minutes.
Rinse grain with additional 1/4 gallon.
Bring to boil.
Add first dose of hops and malt extract at start of 60 minute boil.
After boil bring wort to 175°F and add 2nd dose of hops.
Rehydrate 2-3g yeast per usual with Go-Ferm.
Top up with remainder of 1 gallon of water.
Bring wort to 105°F, move to fermenting bucket leaving behind particulates from grain and hops.
Add honey and stir well to dissolve and oxygenate wort/must.
Pitch yeast. Put lid and airlock on bucket.

Unknowns:
-Aeration/degassing like standard mead, or minimal interference like beer?
-Fermaid-O/TOSNA (minimal at most, due to beer wort being a more suitable environment for yeast), or no?
-Still or carbonated?

 

[growlrr]

This may seem like a silly question, but steeping a quart of water @ 155F for 30 minutes and then the 2 quarts for a 60 minute boil, how do you not boil almost all the liquid away? Even with a lid on, it would seem that you'd lose a lot of volume. Will you just top it off with as much water as needed to get back to one gallon overall? I've never done a long boil on a small batch...

 

[a_merryk_hunt]

This may seem like a silly question, but steeping a quart of water @ 155F for 30 minutes and then the 2 quarts for a 60 minute boil, how do you not boil almost all the liquid away? Even with a lid on, it would seem that you'd lose a lot of volume. Will you just top it off with as much water as needed to get back to one gallon overall? I've never done a long boil on a small batch...

I had been thinking about that exact issue. Will likely top up to make sure volume of water going into fermenter is as close as possible to 1 gallon, plus volume of malt and honey. Also keep a lid on the pot as much as possible.

 

[a_merryk_hunt]

Just got around to brewing this late last night. Here is the finalized recipe:

Aiming for ~1 gallon bottling volume.

Wheat Braggot recipe idea:
2oz carapils for body and head retention
1Lb wheat LME (LHBS sells a wheat extract that is a blend of 65% wheat, and 35% 2-row barley)
1Lb honey
0.11oz lemon drop hop pellets at 60mins in boil
0.3oz lemon drop when wort cooled to about 175°F
1/2 Packet Safale US-05.

Estimated OG: 1.074
Estimated FG: 1.007
Estimated ABV: 9.04%
-------
Steep carapils in 1/4 gallon water at about 155°F for 30 minutes.
Rinse grain with additional 1/4 gallon.
Bring to boil.
Add first dose of hops and malt extract at start of 60 minute boil.
After boil bring wort to 175°F and add 3nd dose of hops.
Rehydrate 5g yeast (a little under 1/2 of the packet) per usual with Go-Ferm.
Top up with remainder of 1 gallon of water (added a little extra, due to evaporation during boil).
Bring wort to 105°F, move to fermenting bucket leaving behind particulates from grain and hops.
Add honey and stir well to dissolve and oxygenate wort/must.
Pitch yeast. Put lid and airlock on bucket.

------

Missed my target gravity by about 4 points (1.070 actual og), and my target volume was high as well (aiming for 1.25-1.5 gallons in primary, wound up with about 1 gallon). Could have added more water, but didn't want to lower the volume further. A small sample of the wort/must had very little hop flavor. May dry hop in secondary, depending on how it tastes at the end of primary.

The 2nd hop addition in the screenshot is due to noticing that the alpha acids listed on the pack were lower than the estimates in the BeerSmith app.

Was up in the air about whether or not to use TOSNA for this, due to wort being a more yeast friendly environment than must. Decided to add Fermaid-O in amounts equal to gravity given by the honey, not total OG. Will be dosing with about 1.4 grams in 0.35 gram increments.

Was also kinda worried. The yeast didn't react the same way wine yeasts do to the rehydration protocol with Go-Ferm and tempering with must/wort. Already have some action in the airlock after about 10 hours though, so they seem to be happy.

Keeping my fingers crossed on this one. Seems to be a lot of missing, unavailable info, and conflicting opinions regarding braggots. So, I'm having to kinda play this by ear and see how it goes.

 

[a_merryk_hunt]

Brew pics\screenshots.

 

[Miraculix]

Woops, a bit late but with so much wheat, carapils is unnecessary. It is also not a good malt for stepping as it is still quite starchy, as not all starches have been covered to sugar. But anyway, shouldn't hurt too much, might be a bit cloudy though.

I personally would not have used any hops, to let the honey shine, but that is more of a personal taste thing I guess.

Let us know how it turns out!

 

[a_merryk_hunt]

Woops, a bit late but with so much wheat, carapils is unnecessary. It is also not a good malt for stepping as it is still quite starchy, as not all starches have been covered to sugar. But anyway, shouldn't hurt too much, might be a bit cloudy though.

I personally would not have used any hops, to let the honey shine, but that is more of a personal taste thing I guess.

Let us know how it turns out!

Will be updating this regularly (probably at least every 2 days until I rack from primary).
As for the honey/hop suggestion, that was why I went with a very low alpha acid hop. Want a slight amount of hop flavor and a little citrus character along with it.
Only added the carapils at such a low temp due to the honey detracting from the final body (some of the starches may have converted, my stove sucks and is hard to get a consistent temp on. Jumped up to 180F for a few minutes, and had to pull it off of the burner).

We'll see how it goes though. Worst case, it's only a test batch and I'm stuck with 1 gallon of something that isn't all that great. At least I didn't go for 3-5 gallons lol.

 

[Miraculix]

Will be updating this regularly (probably at least every 2 days until I rack from primary).
As for the honey/hop suggestion, that was why I went with a very low alpha acid hop. Want a slight amount of hop flavor and a little citrus character along with it.
Only added the carapils at such a low temp due to the honey detracting from the final body (some of the starches may have converted, my stove sucks and is hard to get a consistent temp on. Jumped up to 180F for a few minutes, and had to pull it off of the burner).

We'll see how it goes though. Worst case, it's only a test batch and I'm stuck with 1 gallon of something that isn't all that great. At least I didn't go for 3-5 gallons lol.

Carapils has no diastetic power, so no matter what temperature you steep it at, it will not convert it's remaining starches unless you introduce enzymes ie base malt.

1 gallon is always a good size for stuff like this,I am also doing a lot of this small experimental batches. My last braggot was actually a failed try to steep only carahell, which is almost identical to carapils, and then introduce the honey. I was hoping to get lots of residual sweetness from the carahell but did not work out at all. Didn't get much points out of the carahell. Those light crystals really need to be mashed with base malt

 

[a_merryk_hunt]

Carapils has no diastetic power, so no matter what temperature you steep it at, it will not convert it's remaining starches unless you introduce enzymes ie base malt.

1 gallon is always a good size for stuff like this,I am also doing a lot of this small experimental batches. My last braggot was actually a failed try to steep only carahell, which is almost identical to carapils, and then introduce the honey. I was hoping to get lots of residual sweetness from the carahell but did not work out at all. Didn't get much points out of the carahell. Those light crystals really need to be mashed with base malt

Thanks, I'll keep these things in mind for my next batch. Who knows when that will be, lol. So many batch ideas, so little time.

 

[Miraculix]

Thanks, I'll keep these things in mind for my next batch. Who knows when that will be, lol. So many batch ideas, so little time.

I know

 

[a_merryk_hunt]

A little under 24 hours: 1.064 SG, foaming quite a bit, glad I'm not using a carboy.

 

[MaxTheSpy]

What? You don't want to blow out your airlock and create a permanent spot on your ceiling?

 

[a_merryk_hunt]

What? You don't want to blow out your airlock and create a permanent spot on your ceiling?

Nah, especially not in an apartment. Lol

 

[MaxTheSpy]

Nah, especially not in an apartment. Lol

I blew up the sceling in my class room in highschool with an overactive yeast... Turns out by the time I was called into the pricipals office the teacher said that it was a test for his next weeks lesson that didnt turn out.

As a homebrewer himself he was always covering for me.

 

[a_merryk_hunt]

Gotta love when yeasts ferment violently

 

[a_merryk_hunt]

72 hours: 1.030 SG, still foaming pretty vigorously.

 

[Blacksmith1]

That foam is going to skew your sg reading. The CO2 being generated will cling to the hydrometer and lift it a bit.

 

[a_merryk_hunt]

That foam is going to skew your sg reading. The CO2 being generated will cling to the hydrometer and lift it a bit.

Of course. I twist/jiggle the hydrometer to try to knock as many bubbes off as possible once it settles and check several times for inconsistency.

 

[a_merryk_hunt]

5 days: 1.020 SG

6 days: 1.016 SG

8 days: 1.010 SG

 

[a_merryk_hunt]

Gravity pics

 

[a_merryk_hunt]

When sampling, the flavor is good but seems like it needs something. Primary fermentation should be finishing soon, was thinking about dry hopping with an additional 0.1-0.3oz of lemondrop for 1-3 days to boost the citrus notes that seem to have blown off during fermentation.

 

[a_merryk_hunt]

Day 9: still at 1.010 SG. Added additional 0.3oz of hops to fermenter. Doesn't need much additional flavor, will check again in the morning.

Day 10: primed with 0.68oz turbinado sugar, fined with gelatin, and bottled. I don't expect this to be much clearer after it finishes carbonating. Added fining agents simply to help pull yeast out of suspension when priming has finished and clean up a small amount of the cloudyness from the high % of wheat used. Due to bottle conditioning, sediment is to be expected anyways.

 

[a_merryk_hunt]

Quick update. Took a peek at the bottles on day 2 of bottle conditioning. This is already clearing up a lot more than I expected. Not sure about this bottle having a layer of foam though. None of the others have that. Tested seal a few hours after priming, it's definitely holding pressure.

 

[a_merryk_hunt]

Final update.
2 weeks after priming, hops a little too strong, drinks almost like an underhopped american pale ale with a thin body.
3 weeks after priming, this seemed to hit it's peak. Flavor from dryhopping has receded a bit and lets the wheat and honey show nicely. Much of the haze has flocculated out, quite clear (the picture does not do it justice).

 

[Dynachrome]

I reached an age for my three adult sons. Talk to me about my brewing adventures. My oldest just asked me about a braggot tonight. I had always just thought of it is not-beer.

This thread makes it sound fairly interesting. I especially like the last post where it comes off as a light American IPA.

https://www.bjcp.org/style/2015/M4/M4A/braggot/