With the first Gruit conditioning in the bottles, I figured I better start another just in case the first was marginally drinkable 
Wanted to do a straight Mugwort ale. Originally, I was going to follow Buhner's recipe using Brown Sugar and Molasses as the fermentables, but I had a pound of DME, so I went for a malt/honey mix of fermentables. Not sure how much honey is necessary before it is a braggot..this probably doesn't count.
1 lb Amber Dry Malt Extract (Lovibond 7). Actually I THOUGHT I had some Extra LIGHT DME, but it turned out to be Amber.
2 oz Crystal Malt 20L (this is going to be pretty dark!)
6 oz Local Wildflower Honey
10 g Wildcrafted cut/sifted Mugwort (from Wildweeds.com).
7 g Coopers Ale Yeast
Set 1 gal tap water to heat. Steeped the Crystal Malt in a muslin bag after cracking with a rolling pin in the water and removed at 180 deg. F. [Edit: I should have taken it out at 170! I misremembered what I had read. 180 is too high, but it was only there for a few minutes from 170-180 so I doubt MUCH damage was done. I'd imaging the Mugwort added more tannin than the Crystal.]
Added DME at the boil and boiled 30 min.
At the same time, boiled 10 g of Mugwort in 1 pt tap water for 30 min.
After DME wort had cooled to ~180 deg F, filtered in the Mugwort 'tea'. (NOW it is really WORT!) After cooling further to 160 deg F., added 6 oz (by weight) of Wildflower Honey.
Cooled in cold water bath in sink while rehydrating yeast in 1 cup boiled water cooled to 100 deg F.
Funneled wort into carboy at @85 deg F and topped off with filtered water.
OG calculated to be 1.060
Actual OG = 1.063 correcting for temp.
Pitched yeast after additional cooling (Wort at ~82 deg F, Yeast at 85 deg F) and shook to aerate. Fitted with blowoff tube.
This time I didn't leave as much headspace in the 4 L carboy. Maybe a mistake as there was LOTS of foam last time. Hope there is enough surface area for the top fermenting yeasties and not too much waste in the blowoff.
Temp has been pretty high in the basement this summer (74-76 deg F) so after initial fermentation starts, I will cover carboy with a wet towel 'swamp cooler'. The Cooper's yeast seems to do well at high temps, hence the continued use rather than a Danstar Windsor that Buhner always recommends.
Wanted to do a straight Mugwort ale. Originally, I was going to follow Buhner's recipe using Brown Sugar and Molasses as the fermentables, but I had a pound of DME, so I went for a malt/honey mix of fermentables. Not sure how much honey is necessary before it is a braggot..this probably doesn't count.
1 lb Amber Dry Malt Extract (Lovibond 7). Actually I THOUGHT I had some Extra LIGHT DME, but it turned out to be Amber.
2 oz Crystal Malt 20L (this is going to be pretty dark!)
6 oz Local Wildflower Honey
10 g Wildcrafted cut/sifted Mugwort (from Wildweeds.com).
7 g Coopers Ale Yeast
Set 1 gal tap water to heat. Steeped the Crystal Malt in a muslin bag after cracking with a rolling pin in the water and removed at 180 deg. F. [Edit: I should have taken it out at 170! I misremembered what I had read. 180 is too high, but it was only there for a few minutes from 170-180 so I doubt MUCH damage was done. I'd imaging the Mugwort added more tannin than the Crystal.]
Added DME at the boil and boiled 30 min.
At the same time, boiled 10 g of Mugwort in 1 pt tap water for 30 min.
After DME wort had cooled to ~180 deg F, filtered in the Mugwort 'tea'. (NOW it is really WORT!) After cooling further to 160 deg F., added 6 oz (by weight) of Wildflower Honey.
Cooled in cold water bath in sink while rehydrating yeast in 1 cup boiled water cooled to 100 deg F.
Funneled wort into carboy at @85 deg F and topped off with filtered water.
OG calculated to be 1.060
Actual OG = 1.063 correcting for temp.
Pitched yeast after additional cooling (Wort at ~82 deg F, Yeast at 85 deg F) and shook to aerate. Fitted with blowoff tube.
This time I didn't leave as much headspace in the 4 L carboy. Maybe a mistake as there was LOTS of foam last time. Hope there is enough surface area for the top fermenting yeasties and not too much waste in the blowoff.
Temp has been pretty high in the basement this summer (74-76 deg F) so after initial fermentation starts, I will cover carboy with a wet towel 'swamp cooler'. The Cooper's yeast seems to do well at high temps, hence the continued use rather than a Danstar Windsor that Buhner always recommends.
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