Stout braggot

[michaelhult]

Hi all! I made my first stout yesterday and my OG came in lower than I wanted or expected. 1.035. So I added 2 pounds of honey and brought it up to 1.054.

My question is will my primary fermentation take longer because of the honey? I've made mead before and it's always a long ferment. But my beer is usually done within 5 days.

Grain bill
6 lbs 2 row pale
1 lbs caramel 30
1 lbs black malt
I used nottingham ale yeast


Thanks for your responses!

 

[michaelhult]

If anyone is curious on day 5 the FG was 1.014. Nottingham chewed through the honey no problem.

 

[wisemannp]

How's it taste? Sounds interesting..

 

[michaelhult]

It's pretty good. Funny thing about it is the first taste that hits you is sweetness and that quickly goes away to coffee and the bitters. Its just carbonated enough now to drink. Should get better in a few more days.

Side note: I split the batch in half. Bottled half and put other half back in fermenter with 1.2 pounds of raspberries for a week. I removed the raspberries and will now bottle. I had a taste test and the slight sweet followed by the raspberries and coffee flavors is awesome! It compliments the bitters well.

Hops was millennium 14.5 a.a. for 60.

 

[wisemannp]

Well looks like I found my side project! Did you keg or bottle? I haven't made a braggot yet and wondered how the CO2 bitterness from force carbonating in a keg would blend with a sweeter braggot.

Not surprised on the honey's fermentation speed, I just did a mead with Nottingham (I was too lazy to go to the LHBS and get EC1118) and the normal 45 bubbles per minute I'm used to subsided down about 5-7 bpm within about two weeks-ish. It's still sitting around next to some apfelwein in the basement.

 

[michaelhult]

I bottled. I haven't advanced to the keg system yet but think I need to. I give lots of homebrew beer and wine away to family and friends. But sometimes don't get the bottles back in a timely matter.

 

[Lefou]

I whipped up a golden English-style braggot using Belgian Pilsner, wheat, and Crystal 20L. Thirty-six percent honey, OG of about 1.047 with S04. The wort was a bit darker than planned. It actually looks more like a pale ale or dark amber...
Should be bottled just after Thanksgiving and ready by Christmas, easy.
Thinking the honey contributed more color than the calculator implied. BJCP standards are pretty liberal for a braggot. I lightly hopped it with domestic Hallertau @2.5AAU for about 15 mins. for taste and aroma.