Apprentice's Rough Braggot

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crusaderp

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Hello, everyone!

I am very excited to finally post in this forum - which I have consistently stumbled into over the years through Google. Gotta say this is by far my favorite of the homebrew forums simply because of the brown color scheme. :p

Now that I am finally in my career and can afford to brew, I have revitalized the passion. So I decided my first brew would be a rough braggot. In the past, I made the mistake of boiling my wort at 212 for an hour, pitching the yeast at 100F (It takes a LONG time for 4.5 gallons of water to cool) and never racking - getting the yeastiest mead you'll ever taste.

So for my first batch, I am experimenting with a very simple recipe:

2lb Rye
1lb Chocolate Rye
2lb Clover Honey
2lb Wildflower Honey
1oz Cascade Hops (Probably won't affect the flavor profile much)

Went ahead and steeped the wort in steps using a single gallon of water...

20 min at 100F
20 min at 125F
50 min at 153F

(Pitched the honey and hops in the last 20 min)

Dumped into a 5-gallon bucket.
Added 2 gallons of cold water.
Added 3 teaspoons of Yeast Nutrients

(Filtering sucked. I need to work out a better filtering method)

Upon reaching near room-temperature, I whisked to add oxygen for several minutes then pitched the yeast. (12% alcohol Wine Yeast)


I am really looking forward to finally tasting a 50% Rye beverage. The wort was sweet and smokey like a darkroast coffee or a guiness.

Will rack into a carboy after a couple weeks.

Any thoughts on this project, journeymen and artisans?


My original idea for this was to use a hardy grain like Rye as it is resistant to cold weather - as well as honey as mead is one of the oldest beverages. It is in the spirit of the Vikings. To Val Halla!
 
Hello, everyone!

I am very excited to finally post in this forum - which I have consistently stumbled into over the years through Google. Gotta say this is by far my favorite of the homebrew forums simply because of the brown color scheme. :p

Now that I am finally in my career and can afford to brew, I have revitalized the passion. So I decided my first brew would be a rough braggot. In the past, I made the mistake of boiling my wort at 212 for an hour, pitching the yeast at 100F (It takes a LONG time for 4.5 gallons of water to cool) and never racking - getting the yeastiest mead you'll ever taste.

So for my first batch, I am experimenting with a very simple recipe:

2lb Rye
1lb Chocolate Rye
2lb Clover Honey
2lb Wildflower Honey
1oz Cascade Hops (Probably won't affect the flavor profile much)

Went ahead and steeped the wort in steps using a single gallon of water...

20 min at 100F
20 min at 125F
50 min at 153F

(Pitched the honey and hops in the last 20 min)

Dumped into a 5-gallon bucket.
Added 2 gallons of cold water.
Added 3 teaspoons of Yeast Nutrients

(Filtering sucked. I need to work out a better filtering method)

Upon reaching near room-temperature, I whisked to add oxygen for several minutes then pitched the yeast. (12% alcohol Wine Yeast)


I am really looking forward to finally tasting a 50% Rye beverage. The wort was sweet and smokey like a darkroast coffee or a guiness.

Will rack into a carboy after a couple weeks.

Any thoughts on this project, journeymen and artisans?


My original idea for this was to use a hardy grain like Rye as it is resistant to cold weather - as well as honey as mead is one of the oldest beverages. It is in the spirit of the Vikings. To Val Halla!

Welcome to the forum and to the hobby, and congrats on the new job!

I think you might have a few points of confusions about the general process of brewing. Have you read any brewing books to learn general techniques?

I would recommend John Palmer's How to Brew, it's a great place to start.

Some potential issues I see, or things I found confusing:

-I'm not sure what filtering you needed to do
-It doesn't sound like you boiled at all, so you won't get any hop utlization
-Whisking your wort sounds like a good way to get an infection
-Mead can take a year or two to clear and be ready to drink, so I'm not sure how long you're waiting, but my impression is not nearly long enough
-Wort is the sugary liquid produced at the end of the mash, so when you say "steeped the wort" I think there's a terminology issue going on

I'm not pointing any of this out to be hostile, just trying to help!

Overall it sounds like you'll make a beverage that's alcohol and may not taste bad! I have never made a braggot before and I've never personally liked the examples I've tasted (too sweet and too much honey flavor), so yours might be good with the spicy rye flavor. I would consider adding juniper berries and spruce tips for a couple weeks to add some more bitterness and flavor, and to be REALLY in line with traditional viking drinks.
 
I really appreciate your response, Rhaegar. If I may address some of your pointers...

"-I'm not sure what filtering you needed to do" I did not use a bag for the rye. I mixed it all together in the pot. At the very end, all I had was a little metal coffee filter. That's a damn nightmare when you're dealing with several pounds of grains. I ended up lifting much of it out with a spatula. Definitely will research a better method next time.

"-It doesn't sound like you boiled at all, so you won't get any hop utilization" Hops were a last minute idea. Pitched them with the honey thinking "Why not?" so I did not actually read about boiling a braggot because no hops were used in any recipes I had looked at. So better luck next time!

"-Whisking your wort sounds like a good way to get an infection" often times in the past, I never had a decent way to add oxygen into the wort at the very end. In fact, I always pitched the yeast at too high of a temperature and would see it violently release carbon dioxide within hours. This is the first time I properly chilled my batch and wanted to get as much oxygen as possible. I have read of others whisking so we'll see how this one turns out.

"-Mead can take a year or two to clear and be ready to drink..." I was aiming for six months. Will rack in two weeks to get rid of the cake on the bottom. Perhaps I will opt to wait longer.

"-Wort is the sugary liquid produced at the end of the mash" Definitely a bad choice of words. I was thinking the mash and wort are the same as mash eventually becomes the wort. Thanks for clearing this up.

I really appreciate your insights, man. Will let you guys know how it turns out!
 
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