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smilingwyvern
Guest
Guest
What are the basic ingerdience for a bragot? And what is the process for such? All I want is the basics so I can make my own with out messing up good honey on experiments.
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The most basic braggot would simply be about 5 lbs of honey and 3 lbs of light DME in about 5 gallons total volume, fermented with your favorite ale yeast. However I would highly suggest the addition of about half a lb of crystal malt and one quarter to one half oz of your favorite bittering hops. For example:
½ lb Crystal malt
3 lbs light DME
5 lbs Honey (I like clover)
¼ - ½ oz hops (I like cascade or cluster)
Ale yeast (I like London ale)
5 oz corn sugar to prime at bottling
You would bring 2-5 gallons of water to about 150 degrees and steep the grains in a grain sock. I crush the grain myself with a rolling pin for freshness but you can buy them pre-crushed. Remove the grain after 30 min and bring the wort to a boil. Add your DME and hops and boil for 60 min.
Remove from the heat and stir in the honey. Add the wort/must to your fermenter, bring it to 5 gallons final volume, allow it to cool completely, and pitch your yeast. I will usually rack once at about 6 weeks, allow it to clear completely, and bottle it with 5 oz of corn sugar for carbonation.
I find that it’s good after 6 months of ageing but benefits from a year. I like to leave all my meads for 12 months before I touch them because I like them to come to their full potential before I start consuming them.
½ lb Crystal malt
3 lbs light DME
5 lbs Honey (I like clover)
¼ - ½ oz hops (I like cascade or cluster)
Ale yeast (I like London ale)
5 oz corn sugar to prime at bottling
You would bring 2-5 gallons of water to about 150 degrees and steep the grains in a grain sock. I crush the grain myself with a rolling pin for freshness but you can buy them pre-crushed. Remove the grain after 30 min and bring the wort to a boil. Add your DME and hops and boil for 60 min.
Remove from the heat and stir in the honey. Add the wort/must to your fermenter, bring it to 5 gallons final volume, allow it to cool completely, and pitch your yeast. I will usually rack once at about 6 weeks, allow it to clear completely, and bottle it with 5 oz of corn sugar for carbonation.
I find that it’s good after 6 months of ageing but benefits from a year. I like to leave all my meads for 12 months before I touch them because I like them to come to their full potential before I start consuming them.
P.S. I love braggot, and in my opinion a well constructed braggot can be just amazing. If the elements are balanced properly i feel like it brings the best qualities of beer and the best qualities of mead together, and sometimes can be better then either of its parents.
Here's a link to a few good recipes from the Bees Lees II:
http://www.gotmead.com/mead-recipes/bees-lees-ii-6.shtml
http://www.gotmead.com/mead-recipes/bees-lees-ii-6.shtml
I might dabble with a braggot one day. I've read other posts which mention a creamy head - i would think head retention would be difficult with a braggot. Would the addition of some wheat be called for?
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smilingwyvern
Guest
Guest
hanks for the help. Ive been wanting to start a meadery at some time. And before I did that I wanted to get a few recipes and try them before I decided to add them to the list of products i would produce. After I get back from deployment I'm going to start making small batches for "testing reasons". 
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smilingwyvern
Guest
Guest
I tend to avoid hops when making braggots, I hate to have them confused with beer. I will however be using heather in my next one .
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Uh oh! Heather braggot!
Where's Joe Mattioli? Joe loves English Mead and is always in search of excellent Heather Honey. I think he would be conflicted about Heather Braggot though since he thought his braggot made with Orange Blossom Honey was sissified because it had a floral aroma to it.
I'll alert the media and wait for Joe to weigh in here! LOL
Cheers,
Oskaar
Where's Joe Mattioli? Joe loves English Mead and is always in search of excellent Heather Honey. I think he would be conflicted about Heather Braggot though since he thought his braggot made with Orange Blossom Honey was sissified because it had a floral aroma to it.
I'll alert the media and wait for Joe to weigh in here! LOL
Cheers,
Oskaar
Lagerman64 said:I tend to avoid hops when making braggots, I hate to have them confused with beer. I will however be using heather in my next one
Now that would be my kind of braggot. A real man's strong tasteing brew. ;D
No sissified stuff! Heather is strong.
Joe
Well as far as grains go, the plan is to mash 14# Pale malt, 8# Munich and 5# Cara-Pils malt. I'm hoping to make up most of the boil volume, plus the honey, with the runoff. Stop the sparge around 1.004, top off with water if I have too. 24 gallon volume.
