Bochet Braggot

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MasterJeem

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Well, my buddy just gave me a brand new conical fermenter. I've got about 3 different meads bulk aging right now and i think i'm going to try something a bit different. No concrete plans right now, but here's what i'm thinking.

6lbs of caramelized honey
1lbs of chocolate malt
1lbs of caramel malt
.5oz hops of some sort. i'm thinking english ale style
wyeast english ale yeast

i'll steep the malt for about 20 minutes @150 degrees and then boil the must for 60 minutes adding the caramelized honey at the last 15 minutes or so.

does this sound appealing to anyone? i've only made wine and mead before. i've never done a beer, but this popped into my head after doing some reading and i really enjoy a dark english ale (newcastle anybody?). keeping with the mead theme i've been doing since i've started, i wanted to use honey if only for nostalgic reasons and to see how it turns out. i think what appeals to me most is the fact that you can't buy the stuff we make.
 
You got way too much chocolate malt in there, plus your braggots gonna be dark with the honey being burnt and all. Perhaps you want to consider using some more flavorful base Malts in there, like a couple pounds of Munich, and do a mini mash.

And I would just add the honey at flamout
 
I did a chocolate braggot, nothing wrong with jet black mead.

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I only had a little taste when botteling, and it was... weird but good. Only chocolate malt, light dry DME, honey and ale yeast. It's 15% ABV.
 
that looks delicious and is exactly what i'm going for!

however i was considering what dawgmatic said about too much chocolate malt. what would you suggest i do? cut it back to about a quarter pound and use something else? more light caramel? i was also considering vienna.
 
I suggest doing two batches, one of each. :p

But honestly, I have no idea. I only did a tiny batch fermented in a 2 liter coca-cola bottle, so I didn't really have anything to lose and I just went wild with what I had.

Recipe I used: 50 grams of chocolate malt, 50 grams of light DME and 400 grams of honey. Filled with water until I hit 105 OG.
 
Here's my ingredients that I picked up today:

1/2# chocolate malt
1/2# caramel 60
1# breiss Bavarian wheat dme

Cream ale wyeast

6# caramelized honey
 
When are you going to add the hops?

The braggot I helped my son make (10 gallon) we used (going from poor memory) an ounce of bittering hops and another ounce for dry hopping.

It ended up plenty sweet but the hops add a really nice contrast
 
MasterJeem said:
Here's my ingredients that I picked up today:

1/2# chocolate malt
1/2# caramel 60
1# breiss Bavarian wheat dme

Cream ale wyeast

6# caramelized honey

That looks good. If you have any yeast nutrient I would recommend it cause beer yeasts need more vitamins when they have to deal with a lot of honey. A good substitute is to throw some bakers yeast in the boil
 
Yeah, i'll definitely be adding some nutrient and energizer as well as making a yeast starter.

The guy at the home brew store told me that this is going to resemble a nice, creamy dunkel-like mead. He's excited to try it when I'm done, so that's a good sign!
 
Well, to be honest, I'm using 6 pounds of honey and caramelizing that. Not sure what it will end up like when i'm done. I don't really have the means of weighing it
 
now the fact that i'm using 6lbs doesn't really have much science behind it other than the fact that i usually use about 14lbs for my meads, but dont want this stuff to be very potent. i figure i usually can get around 15%abv using around 14, so from the honey i should be getting around 7.5%abv and maybe a few more points from the mashed grains. one thing i'm also considering is that i may not want to burn the honey too much as to make it inedible for the yeast, either. my gravity readings will tell the full story as i experiment with this little concoction, and i'll certainly be keeping this thread up to date.
 
Well, to be honest, I'm using 6 pounds of honey and caramelizing that. Not sure what it will end up like when i'm done. I don't really have the means of weighing it

Weigh the pot alone, then weigh after the boil with the honey still in it and subtract the weight of the pot. Ta-duh!
 
Good idea, but I'm not very worried about it. When I said that I don't have a way to weigh it, I mean that the only thing in my house that resembles a scale is my power measure for reloading bullets and it measures in grains.
 
Any update on this? I have some leftover hops and grains and a big pile of organic clover honey... THinking of making a black braggot.
 
I have an apple cinnamon Bochet Braggot coming along. It smells wounderfull. I think the Bochet aspect really compliments a braggot.
 
its about a year since this has been updated and i am thinking of doing a burnt bochet that im calling Huginn & Muninn because i plan on doing caramelized Malt and Caramelized Wildflower Honey.

The recipe im aiming for is something along the lines of
1/2 lb Caramelized DDME (add about a cup of water in a pot to dissolve and almost begin to carbonize
~1/4 lb of Wheat DME
~2lbs Caramelized Wildflower Honey (1lb removed at the beginning of carbonization, and the other carbonized to burnt marshmallow flavor to add some complexity to the flavors)
~some Cocoa Nibs added in the primary
~a tiny amount of wormwood for bittering added gradually in the secondary after tasting maybe 1 gram total
~ Some combination of Hops including Saaz, Tettnang, Cascade, Warrior, and Spalt
~ Some Medium and Dark toasted Oak chips added at the secondary.

This is probably one of the most complex meads im gonna be trying any time soon. how does the recipe sound?
 
I wasn't aware wormwood added bitterness. Now you have me curious about using it myself. The recipe seems solid enough. I'm looking for a dark, chewy recipe myself. Hope this works out for you.
 
Yeah worm wood is just indescribably bitter, i put about 1/12 of an ounce into a gallon of mead and let it sit with it the entire primary and that stuff (after 9 months of aging) mellowed out to about the level of bitterness you would associate with taking the strongest ipa you have had and doubling it. just ridiculous. the only reason im using it is because i do no boil and need a way to balance the sweetness of the malt and honey. yeast-wise i plan on using an ale yeast and then switching over to a wine yeast after 2 weeks to finish it out. (i also forgot about 1tsp of nutrient in that recipe)
 
I wonder why absinthe isn't bitter then? I can get wormwood at a local market. I might have to experiment with it.
 
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