Braggot advice

[Caveman Pete]

Howdy y'all, so I'm looking at trying out a Braggot, and was wondering if any of y'all could recommend a recipe to start with? I've made a melomel, acerglyn, cyser etc. But never made a braggot, or beer yet. So I guess a simpler recipie, preferably a 'hearty' one if that makes sense. Thank you.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

You might try Ken Schramm's "Hefty Braggot"
For a 5 gallon batch:
Amount Item
8 lbs Pale Malt
2 lbs Vienna Malt
1 lbs Dextrine Malt
3.0 oz Cascade Hops (25 IBU) 60 min
0.50 oz Cascade Hops (8 IBU) 30 min
1.00 oz Cascade Hops 2 min
2.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient
2.00 tsp Yeast Energizer
9 lbs Honey
10 g Lalvin D-47

Est Original Gravity: 1.120 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.018 SG

I made this recipe a while back, but subbed Goldings hops & added nearly double the amount, as Goldings have a lower AA%.
I just like Goldings more than Cascade.
Regards, GF.

 

[Caveman Pete]

Awesome thx, any advice on how you do the mash with the hops? Or is there a good reference you know on that part of it? (I've never done anything with hops or malt b4)

 

[bernardsmith]

If you have never made an all grain beer before I would work with either dry malt extract or liquid malt extract. Despite what brewers say, DME and LME do not need to be boiled to kill any lurking bacteria. They should have zero. So you need only to boil these if you are adding hops. Boiling for 60 minutes will extract the hop bitterness but you are making a braggot and not a beer and so there is no essential reason to want the bitterness to counter-balance the sweetness that is inherent in beer (a finishing gravity of about 1.015) so boiling for 15 minutes should be enough to extract flavor from the hops. You need to decide, though, whether this braggot is to be quaffed like a beer (so an ABV of about 6% or less) or sipped like a mead (and so would be 12 -15% ABV).
Like GF suggests you could go with a citrusy hop or you might choose a more exotic flavor such as from Nelson Sauvin.
If you choose to go with DME or LME you might look for a pale ale malt.

 

[Caveman Pete]

Ok that answers sonrhing else I was figuring out thank you! I'm going more for something to sip on like a mead. So not having to boil it as long since you don't want the extra bitterness, then how much hops would you use?(I'm sure it changes the quantity, same with using the malf extract instead of straight malt)