Orange Blossom Special Braggot

[socpsy]

I wanted to brew a fairly sweet, low-hop braggot with a good raw OB honey. Here's my recipe:

Ingredients

5lbs Raw Orange Blossom Honey (from eBeeHoney.com)
4lbs Liquid Wheat Extract
1lb CaraWheat
8oz Carafa III

1oz Fuggles leaf hops

1pk Wyeast American Ale II

Procedure

Prepared the crystalized honey and enough water to make 2 gallons and put into 6gal carboy

Steeped grain in bag and 3gal water at 170 degrees for 30min
Removed grain and added LME and brought back up to 3gal
Boiled for 60min
Added the hops after 15min boil time

After boil, cooled wort to 80 degrees and poured into carboy.
Aerated with air pump/stone for 25min
Added yeast and airlocked.

Fermented for two weeks and bottled.

The boil occurred on 2/5/10; bottling on 2/20/10

OG: 1.074
FG: 1.014
IBU: 5.9
SRM: 26
ABV: 7.3

I took some to my brew club meeting this week. Given its very young age, it tastes pretty good. One member wanted the recipe to make for his brother's wedding.

This braggot is quite sweet and the OB honey flavor comes through very nicely. I'm going to let this one alone for a couple of months before tasting again.

 

[Meriadoc]

OB Braggot -- How to scale down to 3 gal?

If I wanted to scale this recipe down, for a 3 gal experiment for my first braggot, how would I go about it?

Ingredients

3lbs Raw Orange Blossom Honey (from eBeeHoney.com)
2.4 lbs Liquid Wheat Extract
0.6 lb CaraWheat
5oz Carafa III

These, I'd just scale exactly, using 3/5 the original amount, right?

1oz Fuggles leaf hops

1pk Wyeast American Ale II

The yeast, I'd assume, I'd use as quoted. How about the hops? Use one ounce, or scale this back, too?

Procedure

Prepared the crystalized honey and enough water to make 2 gallons and put into 6gal carboy

Steeped grain in bag and 3gal water at 170 degrees for 30min
Removed grain and added LME and brought back up to 3gal

OK; so we've got two things going here -- 2 gal honey/water must and 3 gal wort. Just scale these back, proportionally, too? That way, I'd have a 1.2 gal honey must and a 1.8 gal wort. Is that correct?

Thanks!

Merry

 

[Meriadoc]

My attempt at the braggot...

Well, I took the plunge and made a scaled down version of this braggot. I put together a 3-gallon batch on 8/15, and it's been going gangbusters. (One change -- I had clover honey hanging around, not orange blossom, so I used that. Heck -- now I can call this one "The Clever Braggart"!!!)

Looking over Dave's original recipe, I noticed that there wasn't any mention of priming sugar to carbonate the braggot. I'm assuming that we're waiting for fermentation to cease before bottling...? If so, what was the amount of honey used as priming sugar?

I seem to recall that the "How to Brew" book had a guide on how much sugar to use for priming, and also, a conversion guide for using honey...

Thanks!

Merry

 

[Jord]

I've used this calculator with good results before:

http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

It doesn't list honey for priming but if I remember correctly honey is "typically" around 80% sugar so you can estimate the amount based on that or by using the mead calculator. Be sure to dial the actual priming syrup in using a hydrometer though.

 

[socpsy]

Merry,

Sorry I have not replied to your posts. I've been getting ready for classes to start and recruiting for my SCA shire. Consequently, I've not been keeping up with my forums.

Jord's recommendation is for the priming calculator that I use too. I used corn sugar for priming and it was added at time of bottling.

As I said in my initial post, I was going to let this one sit for a while. I still have most of the batch, which is over 6mo old now. I took a couple of bottles to a post-demo gathering last week and folks raved about it. I think it can still benefit from a little more time, so I'm going to continue to hold on to it. I think it will make a decent drink for the fall. The orange blossom honey really added a nice citrusy component to the drink.

 

[Meriadoc]

Dave,

Did it take the full 15 days to complete primary? I pitched my must / wort on the 15th, figuring it would be done by the time I headed out of town (ie, the day after tomorrow!), but it's still going gangbusters today!

Merry

 

[socpsy]

Dave,

Did it take the full 15 days to complete primary? I pitched my must / wort on the 15th, figuring it would be done by the time I headed out of town (ie, the day after tomorrow!), but it's still going gangbusters today!

Merry

I don't recall the exact details of when it started to slow down, but I believe that it run its course in the first 10-12 days. I don't believe there was much activity after that.

 

[Meriadoc]

Well, after about 21 days, I racked into secondary. Today is bottling day. Based on a post I saw around here, I'll be using 3/5 cup honey as my priming sugar for the 3 gallon batch.

I'll let yinz know how it goes, after I'm done...!

 

[Medsen Fey]

Based on a post I saw around here, I'll be using 3/5 cup honey as my priming sugar for the 3 gallon batch.

If I'm doing my math right, 3/5 cup of honey works out to be a little more than 14 grams per liter of sugar. That's roughly 3.5 volumes of CO2 and could potential be too much for a beer bottle to tolerate. You might want ot back that down just a bit - 0.45 cups (about 3.5 fluid oz) would be the equivalent of using 3/4 cup in 5 gallons, and would give about 2.5 volumes of CO2.

Better yet, go by weight.

Socpsy, how much priming sugar did you use?

 

[AToE]

If I'm doing my math right, 3/5 cup of honey works out to be a little more than 14 grams per liter of sugar. That's roughly 3.5 volumes of CO2 and could potential be too much for a beer bottle to tolerate. You might want ot back that down just a bit - 0.45 cups (about 3.5 fluid oz) would be the equivalent of using 3/4 cup in 5 gallons, and would give about 2.5 volumes of CO2.

Better yet, go by weight.

Socpsy, how much priming sugar did you use?

That's weird, I thought 1 cup of honey was totally standard to prime 5 gallons, so 3/5ths for a 3 gallon batch sounds right.

Then again, everything I've primed at around this amount comes out VERY carbonated.

 

[socpsy]

Socpsy, how much priming sugar did you use?

I don't have my notes here, but I'm pretty sure that I was shooting for about 2.0 volumes. My previous braggots were more like 2.5.

I used the priming calculator at TastyBrew.com and used corn sugar, not honey. I'm thinking probably about 3.0 oz.

I go up to 3.0-3.5 for my wheat beers without any problems. I don't think I'd want to leave them in hot place, though!

 

[Meriadoc]

If I'm doing my math right, 3/5 cup of honey works out to be a little more than 14 grams per liter of sugar. That's roughly 3.5 volumes of CO2 and could potential be too much for a beer bottle to tolerate. You might want ot back that down just a bit - 0.45 cups (about 3.5 fluid oz) would be the equivalent of using 3/4 cup in 5 gallons, and would give about 2.5 volumes of CO2.

Better yet, go by weight.

Socpsy, how much priming sugar did you use?

Yikes...! Well, I used about 4.5 oz of honey, so hopefully that doesn't cause a problem. I left the case back home, and headed back to school, taking 4 bottles with me.

Two questions:
I used Grolsch bottles ... any ideas whether they'd be more / less / the same in terms of their ability to hold CO2 without turning into braggot grenades?

Also, I'm used to my beers being ready in about 2 weeks, but getting a bit smoother with age. I was thinking I'd make these available to family / friends around Thanksgiving, when I'll be back home. Is there anything I can do (e.g., try one in a week, or two, or three) to test the 4 bottles I have, in order to gauge if there might be any problems?

(In other words, short of drinking them all quickly, so they don't burst, what can I do to stave off potential problems?)

Thanks!

Merry

 

[wayneb]

Since they are Grolsch bottles with flip tops, you could periodically vent them - quickly - to relieve excess pressure.

 

[Medsen Fey]

Yikes...! Well, I used about 4.5 oz of honey, so hopefully that doesn't cause a problem.

4.5 oz by weight, or fluid oz? If that is fluid oz (a bit more than 1/2 cup), I'd watch them carefully and as soon as they carb up adequately, I'd keep them chilled. You'll be a little above 3 volumes but that really shouldn't be a problem.

I used Grolsch bottles ... any ideas whether they'd be more / less / the same in terms of their ability to hold CO2 without turning into braggot grenades?

You can explode them (even if they are filled with Grolsch - done that.) Just mix South Florida heat, with a small beer fridge that fails. What a frickin' mess.

 

[Meriadoc]

4.5 oz by weight, or fluid oz? If that is fluid oz (a bit more than 1/2 cup), I'd watch them carefully and as soon as they carb up adequately, I'd keep them chilled. You'll be a little above 3 volumes but that really shouldn't be a problem.

Yeah, by volume. Had a small scale nearby, but forgot to use it. (Chalk it up to bottling day pre-festivity samplings of other wines nearby...)

So, maybe I'll make another trip home, and then bring them back with me. My fridge will have to transform from dorm-food-fridge to 100%-beer-fridge, but worse things have happened...

At what temp should they be safe? In other words, if they spend time in an unheated garage, at what temp might I expect that they will stop fermenting due to cool temps...?

 

[Fisher kel Tath]

hrm, I couldn't sleep and considering brewing this next, so I punched it into ProMash (cause I just got the program as well)

it says IBU of 16 something...

 

[wayneb]

3 volumes of CO2 should be well within the capability of any beer bottle to withstand, including those Grolsch bottles, at normal room temperature (say 72F/22C or below).

There is no reliable way to predict at what temperature a yeast may become dormant. Some yeast strains can work at incredibly cool temperatures. You should assume that all the priming sugar that you added will eventually be consumed by the yeast, generating CO2 in the process.

 

[socpsy]

hrm, I couldn't sleep and considering brewing this next, so I punched it into ProMash (cause I just got the program as well)

it says IBU of 16 something...

My calculations were using the recipe calculator at hopville.com. Out of curiosity, I looked at my calculations for the same recipe on iBrewMaster. The latter gave me about 12 for IBU. I'm thinking that the 12-16 range probably makes more sense based on the AA of the Fuggles that I used.

 

[Fisher kel Tath]

My calculations were using the recipe calculator at hopville.com. Out of curiosity, I looked at my calculations for the same recipe on iBrewMaster. The latter gave me about 12 for IBU. I'm thinking that the 12-16 range probably makes more sense based on the AA of the Fuggles that I used.

Yea you could of gotten 5 but it would of had to have been a 15min boil, not 45min

 

[Meriadoc]

Since they are Grolsch bottles with flip tops, you could periodically vent them - quickly - to relieve excess pressure.

OK, so... if I were to get back to the batch a week after bottling, and just opening and immediately re-closing each one, might do the trick?