And he was being such a Braggert about her too...
So I've been on an elderberry kick lately, brought on in part by a sincere belief the antiviral properteries of elderberries may be of some benefit in the face of a Covid-19 Coronavirus pandemic. I discovered the old tradition of Ebulon, a beer made with elderberries, and then I started making it as sour beer, like a Flanders Red or Oud Bruin. Well I still have some extremely old malt left in the fridge so I decided to launch the next version which will take the path of a sour, only this time, I'm diving into the deep end of the pool.
This one is going to be a braggot/braggert. I'll aim for a similar 5-6% ABV as I did before, but last time I only did a partial sour, letting it sour enough to get a twang, then pasteurizing it, and letting yeast (T-58 ) finish the fermentation. This time, I'm going to let the mixed sour culture (my Kombucha culture) ferment the thing completely. I know that Saccharomyces Boulardii exists in there, and it is a good yeast that can pull 15-16% ABV, tolerates acidity, and it ferments clean at room temp (and maybe much higher) and doesn't get stinky even when fermenting a batch of tea with sugar and no added nutrients. These are all admirable characteristics. This runs the risk of it becoming way too sour, and ending up as a batch of honey/elderberry/malt vinegar, but that wouldn't be a complete waste so I'm going to give it a try. This would make a Belgian brewer's head spin! :laughing6:
Ingredients
Crystal Malt 10 degree - 1 Kg (more than 5 years old)
Briess light DME - 800g (That's all I had left - 5+ years old)
Maillard Malt liquid Munich extract 900g (3+years old)
Mint honey (beefolks) - 800g (10+ years old)
German Hallertauer Hops (2oz) - (5+ years old)
Dried Elderberries 4 oz (5+ years old)
Florastor yeast and Kombucha culture
nutrient - Fermaid O - 9g
Batch size 4.5 gallons
Fermentation temp 73-75F
Starting gravity 13 Brix (approximately 1.052)
note - I plugged these values into the calculator on brewersfriend.com and it came up almost exactly at this number. That is a useful tool for building batches should you need one.
I steeped the crystal malt, then mixed in the extracts and the honey and fired up the boil. Now some of you are shaking your heads and trying to avert your eyes; "What is he thinking by boiling honey (shudder)?" Well some honey may actually make better mead with boiling. This has been a debate that has been around for quite a while as seen in this thread. This old mint honey still tastes OK but I found that it had some phenolics that didn't sit well with me in meads. I think this may work fine in a braggot, and boiling it should improve the outcome overall.
I added 1 oz Hallertau Hops for 30 min boil, and I added the other 1 oz with 5 minute boil. The elderberries are in a bag added at flameout. Based on the Ebulon batch I started with, I made a Newbee mistake using 2 pounds in a 5-gallon batch which was way too much (unless you are making a port - which, by the way, I just happen to have enough old malt left to do, so guess what's coming next). I'm starting with 1/4 pound. It may be that 1/2 pound will be needed, but I can always add more later. I cooled it with the wort chiller, transferred to a bucket, and then I move it back into the stainless steel brewpot once I dumped the trub and cleaned it up. I will ferment in the brewpot with the lid on. When I am ready, I can easily pasteurize it then keg it up for clearing and bottling. Again, this will prevent a host of lactic acid bacteria and acetic acid bacteria from finding a good home in my equipment.
If I was really smart, I'd probably do this in the brewfridge at a temp in the 60s, but it is busy at the moment, and so I'm going go at room temp recognizing that this warm temp may allow the bacteria to overdo the acidity and create vinegar. I'm going to chance it, but as a small measure of insurance, I'm going to pitch a small starter of Saccharomyces Boulardii that I created by rehydrating some Florastor capsules with GoFerm, and adding to a 1/2 cup apple juice. This will give the yeast that are part of the Kombucha culture a head-start. I'm also giving a little yeast nutrient which may allow them to get a lot of the fermentation done quickly, and then I can wait for the souring to get to the point that it puckers my mouth.
So we will see if I get a sour, fully-mixed-culture-fermented, braggot in the style of a Flanders Red or Oud Bruin.
So I've been on an elderberry kick lately, brought on in part by a sincere belief the antiviral properteries of elderberries may be of some benefit in the face of a Covid-19 Coronavirus pandemic. I discovered the old tradition of Ebulon, a beer made with elderberries, and then I started making it as sour beer, like a Flanders Red or Oud Bruin. Well I still have some extremely old malt left in the fridge so I decided to launch the next version which will take the path of a sour, only this time, I'm diving into the deep end of the pool.
This one is going to be a braggot/braggert. I'll aim for a similar 5-6% ABV as I did before, but last time I only did a partial sour, letting it sour enough to get a twang, then pasteurizing it, and letting yeast (T-58 ) finish the fermentation. This time, I'm going to let the mixed sour culture (my Kombucha culture) ferment the thing completely. I know that Saccharomyces Boulardii exists in there, and it is a good yeast that can pull 15-16% ABV, tolerates acidity, and it ferments clean at room temp (and maybe much higher) and doesn't get stinky even when fermenting a batch of tea with sugar and no added nutrients. These are all admirable characteristics. This runs the risk of it becoming way too sour, and ending up as a batch of honey/elderberry/malt vinegar, but that wouldn't be a complete waste so I'm going to give it a try. This would make a Belgian brewer's head spin! :laughing6:
Ingredients
Crystal Malt 10 degree - 1 Kg (more than 5 years old)
Briess light DME - 800g (That's all I had left - 5+ years old)
Maillard Malt liquid Munich extract 900g (3+years old)
Mint honey (beefolks) - 800g (10+ years old)
German Hallertauer Hops (2oz) - (5+ years old)
Dried Elderberries 4 oz (5+ years old)
Florastor yeast and Kombucha culture
nutrient - Fermaid O - 9g
Batch size 4.5 gallons
Fermentation temp 73-75F
Starting gravity 13 Brix (approximately 1.052)
note - I plugged these values into the calculator on brewersfriend.com and it came up almost exactly at this number. That is a useful tool for building batches should you need one.
I steeped the crystal malt, then mixed in the extracts and the honey and fired up the boil. Now some of you are shaking your heads and trying to avert your eyes; "What is he thinking by boiling honey (shudder)?" Well some honey may actually make better mead with boiling. This has been a debate that has been around for quite a while as seen in this thread. This old mint honey still tastes OK but I found that it had some phenolics that didn't sit well with me in meads. I think this may work fine in a braggot, and boiling it should improve the outcome overall.
I added 1 oz Hallertau Hops for 30 min boil, and I added the other 1 oz with 5 minute boil. The elderberries are in a bag added at flameout. Based on the Ebulon batch I started with, I made a Newbee mistake using 2 pounds in a 5-gallon batch which was way too much (unless you are making a port - which, by the way, I just happen to have enough old malt left to do, so guess what's coming next). I'm starting with 1/4 pound. It may be that 1/2 pound will be needed, but I can always add more later. I cooled it with the wort chiller, transferred to a bucket, and then I move it back into the stainless steel brewpot once I dumped the trub and cleaned it up. I will ferment in the brewpot with the lid on. When I am ready, I can easily pasteurize it then keg it up for clearing and bottling. Again, this will prevent a host of lactic acid bacteria and acetic acid bacteria from finding a good home in my equipment.
If I was really smart, I'd probably do this in the brewfridge at a temp in the 60s, but it is busy at the moment, and so I'm going go at room temp recognizing that this warm temp may allow the bacteria to overdo the acidity and create vinegar. I'm going to chance it, but as a small measure of insurance, I'm going to pitch a small starter of Saccharomyces Boulardii that I created by rehydrating some Florastor capsules with GoFerm, and adding to a 1/2 cup apple juice. This will give the yeast that are part of the Kombucha culture a head-start. I'm also giving a little yeast nutrient which may allow them to get a lot of the fermentation done quickly, and then I can wait for the souring to get to the point that it puckers my mouth.
So we will see if I get a sour, fully-mixed-culture-fermented, braggot in the style of a Flanders Red or Oud Bruin.
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