Bronze Age Braggott

[Newsman]

I was browsing the internet and came across this story: http://www.realmofhistory.com/2016/10/28/recreate-iron-age-drink-germanic-tomb/

I saw that Lakefront Brewery had helped recreate it, but never saw anything about the proportions. Anyone have any ideas? The basic ingredients are barley, honey, mint, meadowsweet and yeast.

According to a story done by an NPR reporter, it's "... smooth and pleasant — almost like a dry port, but with a minty, herbal tinge to it. It also packed an alcoholic kick." Sounds like something to make now for next winter, perhaps.

 

[bernardsmith]

Their braggot (if 8% ) looks like 1 lb of DME to every 1/2 lb of honey. I might dissolve 1 lb of honey in a gallon of the wort so that the SG would be closer to 1.075 (or about 9%). That would help push forward the honey flavor. I might then make an extract of the mint and meadowsweet and add that just before I bottle

 

[Newsman]

Cool. So, maybe steep some "base malt" in some hot water for an hour or so and dissolve the honey in that afterwards, then pitch yeast?

 

[bernardsmith]

I think a braggot is a "blend" of ale and mead so it involves more than steeping base malts in water. You need to make a wort and while I am happy to make beers and ales using whole grains, for braggots and apple ales I tend to use dry malt extract (DME)- and that means you can a) boil the extract in a very small volume of water and b) cool the wort by adding enough chilled water to bring the temperature down rapidly to one with which you can mix the honey without heating the honey and so evaporating off the most volatile flavor molecules while still making a volume of ale that is appropriate for the amount of DME you have used.
In other words, I think of a braggot as a very strong ale (in this example, about 9 or 10% ABV so not something that you will drink by the pint)whose key flavors are malt and honey

 

[Radboud]

This is very interesting. The literal translation of the Norwegian word for meadowsweet is 'Mead herb' (Mjødurt).

Do you have an inkling about how strong one should make the herb tea? And what yeast to use?

 

[Newsman]

I think a braggot is a "blend" of ale and mead so it involves more than steeping base malts in water. You need to make a wort and while I am happy to make beers and ales using whole grains, for braggots and apple ales I tend to use dry malt extract (DME)- and that means you can a) boil the extract in a very small volume of water and b) cool the wort by adding enough chilled water to bring the temperature down rapidly to one with which you can mix the honey without heating the honey and so evaporating off the most volatile flavor molecules while still making a volume of ale that is appropriate for the amount of DME you have used.
In other words, I think of a braggot as a very strong ale (in this example, about 9 or 10% ABV so not something that you will drink by the pint)whose key flavors are malt and honey

So, maybe a gallon of water for a couple lbs of DME, then add a couple more gallons of chilled water (maybe "spring" water) and add twice as much honey by weight as DME while it is still warm? Then make your herb "tea" and add it at kegging time?

 

[bernardsmith]

Maybe... But I would simply use the liquid in the wort to dilute the honey - If I use a pound of DME then I might use a quart of boiling water and so add 3qts of chilled water. If I am using home made extracts then I would add them a few weeks after fermentation has ceased and a few weeks before I bottle. If I am adding the herbs or spices I might simply add them to the secondary tied upd in a muslin "bag" and rack the braggot on to them for two weeks or so and then rack the braggot off the bag (you could attach a nylon fishing line to the bag if you wanted and secure the bag to the outside lip of the carboy to help ensure that you can remove the bag with relative ease from the carboy (although if you use wide mouthed carboys that would not be an issue).

 

[Lefou]

A modern braggot can be "strong" or "mild", light or dark. Hopped or unhopped It's all personal preference. If you look at the BJCP, by their very open standards, a braggot is an ale, usually unhopped, brewed with wort containing anywhere from 20-50% honey.

I started a braggot on November 12 with Pilsner, wheat, and a 36% mix of clover honey pitched with Fermentis S04. It's mildly hopped with domestic Hallertau.
The wort was an all grain mash and should be ready by Christmas.