Braggot mmm...

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Sum1Stu

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Ive made my first braggot, small batch only about 1gal. I only did this because the beer kits im using are for 23l and my bucket holds 20, so I save 200g of the extract and used it in this braggot.

Basically its just a coopers draught, mixed with honey to an sg of 1.070.

I doubt itl come out good, I should have used more malt extract though

Can anyone tell me why malt extract beers dont ferment totally dry ? I actually like the residual sweetness and Id want to have some in my braggot ?
 
Caramel
Munich

Any unfermentable sugar addition such as Malto-Dextrin and Lactose can also raise sweetness.

What type of yeast did you use?
 
Well in this case I used lalvin ec 1118 which usually ferments everything completly dry, so quick.

Will this happen with my braggot ?
 
I would say yes its going to be very dry. That yeast will eat every single sugar in there and be waiting for more as its tolerant up to 18%.
 
Well right yeast strains don't attenuate at 100% when they do their job, so there will be some left over sugars but not much. Not positive what ec 1118 attenuates at but I would guess its 75-80% range? In any event with high alcohol tolerance and higher attenuation its going to finish pretty dry.
 
EC-1118 is a monster yeast. But it is also clean and quick. Like a humane serial killer. It will ferment out pretty dry, but a lot of residual gravity are very short chain starches called dextrines. They are between four and 20 sugars long and they add body and sweetness. 1118 will chew away on some of these, but some will also remain.

Give the braggot a good long secondary 1 - 3 months and then it should be on its way to pretty tasty. They are good served still, but at 1.070 you might want to carb this one up when it is ready.
 
I am going to bottle, my small batch I made will not do good in a secondary because of ulllage, or airspace. Gravity is at 1.010 and I just racked off and right now their sitting in bottles with the caps on, but not sealed.


I tasted a small sample, and it seems very strong and bitter. Might be from the yeast and because its soo young still...Im starting to hate ec-1118 but its all I can get my hands on at these winery stores.

Im gonna find a good beer supply store soon...
 
Ok guys, this wasnt a good idea to rack, the ferment is pretty stuck now and might have given up.

Also the taste is very malty/hoppy, it might be because I used too much malt extract/water ratio. Is it safe to dilute it with 20% water ? Or perhaps even 20% of my basic mead which is still finishing fermenting in an airlocked carboy ?
 
Was your extract pre-hopped? If so, I could see this being quite on the bitter side, and needing some extensive aging to mellow out. Back sweetening or combining with mead could help too.
 
Honestly, since its only 1gallon I wouldn't fret and spend to much time trying to find someway to make it drinkable. Sometimes no matter how hard it is you just gotta dump and try again. I doubt at this point mixing it up will give you something you will be proud of.
 
Yes its a coopers kit for beer!

Im pretty sure adding water will help, im just worried its oxidizing since there still sitting in bottle with a stuck fermentation.

Say, when bottling a beer, whats the max gravity that you could have after priming ?
 
The braggot is very, malty, or tastes of really strong beer. I shouldve diluted it more....it is however still fermenting very slow, its kind of going abit quicker since its warmer out now!
 
WOOOWW!!!

ITS GOOOD!!! Definitly thought this was gnna be garbage!

Just opened up my first bottle!! It is carbbed, so im lucky I didnt prime the bottles! I have to check my notes now to see what I did : P
 
Wait a minute, I think this is a sack mead......im tasting notes of cinnamon and nutmeg which I used to make this. Its just it doesnt taste like its 14%+...

I remember having my honey naturally fermenting itself by mistake, and decided to make a batch with this WILD yeast.
 
It is the sack mead, funny story actually...

What I did was after making a few KG's of mead wort, I got the empty bottles of honey and shook em up with hot water (to get the bottom sediment of the honey) and put them into a 2L bottle. 2 days later I noticed it was bubbly, so i shook it, and boom, mess in the kitchen! Was wierded out about a fermentation just happening with no yeast added!!

The wild yeast ended up dying as I was trying to make a 15-16% sack mead, and I had to continue the fermentation with half a packet of ec 1118!

Im unsure of the FG, and SG, but it came out great guys!! I used about 3 small cinnamon sticks, one whole nutmeg, and 1 1/4 oranged quartered to ferment on. I removed the oranges at a certain point, but left the cinna/nutmeg in till it was complete, took not much longer than 30days.
 
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