10.0 lbs Dewolf-Cosyns Pilsen malt
2.5 lbs Dewolf-Cosyns Biscuit malt
12 oz Dried Cherries
6.5 inches Vanilla bean (origin unknown)
3 inches cinnamon stick (i.e. bark)
2.5 oz. "aged" Hallertau hops -- these were orig. 2.5% alpha acid, and lived in the fridge for about 19 months.
2.5 oz dried red raspberry leaves ("tea") -- available in organic food places, etc.
5 tsp yeast nutrient ("Superfood" from The Wine Lab)
1 tsp DAP
yeast Wyeast #1728 (Scottish Ale)
Raise temp of mash to 154F
After about 20 minutes, the temperature was dropping, so I:
Infused 3.75 gal. @ 156, and added some heat to get the temp back to 154, at which point, the mash was allowed to
rest for 60 minutes.
mash out at 171, and sparge.
I collected about 9.5 gallons of liquid from the mash/sparge into the brewpot, to which the honey was added, making the total volume roughly 10 gal. The hops were added at the beginning of the boil, which was allowed to proceed for about 55 min.
The cinnamon, vanilla bean, and 1.0 oz of the raspberry leaves were added 5 minutes before the end of the boil, with the remainder of the raspberry leaves being added at the end. [I don't know if this made much of a difference.]
About 8.5 gallons of liquid were collected into the fermenter, along with a healthy portion of raspberry leaves and hops. [I got fed up with the siphon getting clogged, so I just tipped the pot into the open fermenter, being careful to stop before the trub came out. :-)]
Add the cherries, which were soaked in water for a few minutes to remove the coating of vegetable oil, to the fermenter at this time, and pitch the yeast.
After about 3 days in the "primary", I racked into carboys, where the fermentation was allowed to go to completion (a couple of weeks). After things clear up (another couple of weeks), bottle.
For priming, I used a mixture of honey and malt, and hence got a lot of sediment in the bottles :-), but the sugar content is roughly the same as 3/4 cup corn sugar. NOTE -- do not scale this for volume! It is "3/4 cup for 8 gal.". I also used fresh yeast, Epernay 2 in this case, which I pitched into the priming solution, and allowed to "start" for 24 hours before I used it.
Let it age a couple of months (min), and enjoy!
Comments:
O.G came in at 1.075. Final gravity was very nearly 1.000. Estimated alc. content is 10 % by vol.
I did my best to keep the proportions of honey vs. malt extract close to 1:1, based on my usually getting a mash efficiency of about 28pts/lb/gal. If you get high than this, then you may have to alter the proportions a bit to still be a "braggot".
Source: Steven Rezsutek - (
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Mead Lover's Digest #374, 17 December 1994
