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Braggot Carbing

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T

ThorsSon

NewBee
Registered Member
May 27, 2008
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I have been making mead for a while now, but so far have only made still meads, methegens and melomels. I've never made beer, or any carbonated beverage.

I made a wheat braggot that is in secondary. It is a very high gravity beverage. I want to carbonate it... but I am a little afraid that the gravity might be too high, and I may have bottle bombs on my hands, if I am not careful.

Here is the recipe:

6 lbs of liquid wheat malt extract (60% barley, 40% wheat)
12 lbs of wildflower honey straight from my local apiary
1/4 tspn Wyeast nutrient
2 packets of Lalvin EC-1118 yeast
filtered water to fill to 5 gallons.

OG was 1.139

The fermentation seems to have stabilized at 1.031. This seems like an awfully low attenuation rate (78%) for EC-1118... but it could be that I have unfermentable sugar from my malt that is causing the high gravity.

Gravity has been at 1.031 for over a week. I have raised the temperature of the must to 80° F in a hot water bath last night... I plan to keep it warm for a few days and see if the gravity changes any.

If my gravity is actually stable, would I be OK carbing this beast? Or would I be begging for bottle bombs?
 
W

wayneb

Lifetime Patron
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Feb 7, 2007
5,794
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Evergreen, CO (west of and above the Denver smog!)
That does seem a little high, but we need to know more about your malt extract to be able to judge for sure. Do you have any information on the composition of that wheat-malt extract?

Are you expecting to bottle condition, or force carb with CO2?

Also, I almost forgot to ask -- can you check the pH of this must?
 
T

ThorsSon

NewBee
Registered Member
May 27, 2008
5
0
0
W

wayneb

Lifetime Patron
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Feb 7, 2007
5,794
11
38
Evergreen, CO (west of and above the Denver smog!)
Hmmm... that doesn't say much that is of any help, but traditionally, malted wheat yields a pretty high concentration of fermentable sugars (as opposed to flaked wheat and wheat malt often used in hefe-weizen), and bock beers that use malted wheat along with barley malt typically have finishing gravities around 1.008-1.010 prior to conditioning, so I would guess that you probably have a stuck fermentation. If the increased temperature (try a little stirring up of the lees into the wort as well) doesn't do it, then I'd be suspicious of pH. If you measure it and it is less than 3.2, add some potassium bicarb, and see if that doesn't get things going.
 
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