Fiery Sword
Well-Known Member
I'm typing up this here post today for two reasons: first and foremost I wanted to thank all the good folks here that helped inform and feed my homebrewing "habit" years back when I had all 6 carboys bubbling away! I got a lot of silly questions answered here, and came in touch with a lot of interesting folks who spent a good deal of their time helping me along. It was that encouragement that bookmarked brewing as a hobby I'd get back to after a few years of work-related travel and tiny apartments! Well, this past month I've got all the equipment out of "cold storage" and re-kindled the itch to brew! The catalyst was hearing the news that my sister was getting engaged, and having the idea that their late-July wedding out in Napa Valey needed a special homebrew to mark the occasion. 
....Which brings me to reson for posting #2. I immediately knew what I wanted to brew, a braggot. I wanted it to be a "drinker", on the lighter side of starting gravity and ABV with clean, subtle sweetness and hop balance. So in early December I set out to re-create the two best braggots I've ever had: one brewed by Magic Hat and the other by the Cambridge Brewing Company here in Mass. Lots of net'ing and some converstions with both places made be confident that Marris Otter was the base malt of choice, and a 70/30 ratio of malt/honey would give me the subtle tone I wanted - nothing over the top. SG around 1070 and a straight-up English ale yeast would get me where I wanted to be.
After lots of BeerAlchemy experimentation, I arrived at the below recipe. I wanted high-octane hops with short boil times under the (hopefully not misguided) understanding that it would allow the specific nature of the chosed hops (Warrior pellets from Nikobrew, 2009 @ 15.8) to shine through in a clear yet subtle way. I went with 7# of Marris Otter and .5# of White Wheat, and a single step mash aimed at 154 - pretty vanilla as far at the approach went. I ended up with great efficiency and over-shot the planned pre-boil gravity of 1041 with a 1045.
I am REALLY excited about having chosen to go with raw, un-monkied-with meadowfoam honey.....I bought a 5 galon bucket from a beekeeping buddy out in San Fran and the flavor and aroma simply blew my mind while brewing. Once the honey hit the cooling wort (pulled out the chiller at 135 and mixed it in before contimuing down to pitch temp....I'm on the "don't worry" side of having to pasteurize honey, the stuff stays good of it's own for centuries!) the entire place lit up with an amazing creamy, sweet, almost mashmallowy scent. My final starting gravity ended up at 1074, which I am very happy with. Ended up pitching this past Sunday night (In a blizzard nonetheless!) and by Monday morning (after snowblowing 18") had steady fermentation with a thick white/brown krausen rising up to the bottom of the blowoff tube. It hasn't really worked itself up to a blowoff, which is good because I was worried it might puke too much of the WLP002, but it's chugging away with a bubble per second for the past few days.
I haven't made up my mind about keg conditioning versus champagne bottle conditioning....but this has more to do with the unresolved point of how I'm going to get this brew from Boston to San Fran than anything else. Anyone have any experience with shipping kegs or corked bottles? Or flying with them? Something about a number of cases of corked bottles scares the crap out of me!!
Anyway I hope someone out there gives this recipe a shot some time, it came together better than I could have expected, probably due to it's simplicity. Might have been the tastiest wort I've ever had.....I have a feeling it's going to be specatcular!
Cheers, and again thanks to all of you here who make up the best knowledge resource about homebrewing in the world! -Brian
WEDDING BRAGGOT!
Water:
Used un-adjusted Poland Sprinds water. Their water is perfect for low-SRM beers and is remarkably close-enough to Pilsner water: mineral- and pH-wise I thought it would be perfect without having to play with it at all.
Mash:
7# Marris Otter (3L)
.5# White Wheat (2.5L)
Strike 2 3/4 gallons @ 167 degrees, hit 153 degrees, raised to 154. Mash passed iodine test @ 45 minutes, and registered a 1.045 gravity
Added .25# rice hulls on transfer, sparged +/- 5.5 gallons for about 45 minutes
Hops:
.5 ounce Warrior (30 minutes)
.25 ounce Warrior (1 minute)
Honey:
3.5# raw Meadowfoam (expensive but mind-blowing, mixed in at 135 degrees)
Yeast:
2 vials WLP-002 English Ale
.5 tsp yeast nutrient
Actual SG 1.074
Anticipated FG 1.022
Anticipated ABV 6.4%
Calculated SRM 5.2
Calculated IBU 24.5
....Which brings me to reson for posting #2. I immediately knew what I wanted to brew, a braggot. I wanted it to be a "drinker", on the lighter side of starting gravity and ABV with clean, subtle sweetness and hop balance. So in early December I set out to re-create the two best braggots I've ever had: one brewed by Magic Hat and the other by the Cambridge Brewing Company here in Mass. Lots of net'ing and some converstions with both places made be confident that Marris Otter was the base malt of choice, and a 70/30 ratio of malt/honey would give me the subtle tone I wanted - nothing over the top. SG around 1070 and a straight-up English ale yeast would get me where I wanted to be.
After lots of BeerAlchemy experimentation, I arrived at the below recipe. I wanted high-octane hops with short boil times under the (hopefully not misguided) understanding that it would allow the specific nature of the chosed hops (Warrior pellets from Nikobrew, 2009 @ 15.8) to shine through in a clear yet subtle way. I went with 7# of Marris Otter and .5# of White Wheat, and a single step mash aimed at 154 - pretty vanilla as far at the approach went. I ended up with great efficiency and over-shot the planned pre-boil gravity of 1041 with a 1045.
I am REALLY excited about having chosen to go with raw, un-monkied-with meadowfoam honey.....I bought a 5 galon bucket from a beekeeping buddy out in San Fran and the flavor and aroma simply blew my mind while brewing. Once the honey hit the cooling wort (pulled out the chiller at 135 and mixed it in before contimuing down to pitch temp....I'm on the "don't worry" side of having to pasteurize honey, the stuff stays good of it's own for centuries!) the entire place lit up with an amazing creamy, sweet, almost mashmallowy scent. My final starting gravity ended up at 1074, which I am very happy with. Ended up pitching this past Sunday night (In a blizzard nonetheless!) and by Monday morning (after snowblowing 18") had steady fermentation with a thick white/brown krausen rising up to the bottom of the blowoff tube. It hasn't really worked itself up to a blowoff, which is good because I was worried it might puke too much of the WLP002, but it's chugging away with a bubble per second for the past few days.
I haven't made up my mind about keg conditioning versus champagne bottle conditioning....but this has more to do with the unresolved point of how I'm going to get this brew from Boston to San Fran than anything else. Anyone have any experience with shipping kegs or corked bottles? Or flying with them? Something about a number of cases of corked bottles scares the crap out of me!!
Anyway I hope someone out there gives this recipe a shot some time, it came together better than I could have expected, probably due to it's simplicity. Might have been the tastiest wort I've ever had.....I have a feeling it's going to be specatcular!
Cheers, and again thanks to all of you here who make up the best knowledge resource about homebrewing in the world! -Brian
WEDDING BRAGGOT!
Water:
Used un-adjusted Poland Sprinds water. Their water is perfect for low-SRM beers and is remarkably close-enough to Pilsner water: mineral- and pH-wise I thought it would be perfect without having to play with it at all.
Mash:
7# Marris Otter (3L)
.5# White Wheat (2.5L)
Strike 2 3/4 gallons @ 167 degrees, hit 153 degrees, raised to 154. Mash passed iodine test @ 45 minutes, and registered a 1.045 gravity
Added .25# rice hulls on transfer, sparged +/- 5.5 gallons for about 45 minutes
Hops:
.5 ounce Warrior (30 minutes)
.25 ounce Warrior (1 minute)
Honey:
3.5# raw Meadowfoam (expensive but mind-blowing, mixed in at 135 degrees)
Yeast:
2 vials WLP-002 English Ale
.5 tsp yeast nutrient
Actual SG 1.074
Anticipated FG 1.022
Anticipated ABV 6.4%
Calculated SRM 5.2
Calculated IBU 24.5
