2 replies to this topic

[DgNt]

I'm planning on mashing and boiling a single brew and then adding honey to make a Braggot and a Honey Wheat Ale. My plan is to end up post boil with 11.5 gallons of wort which I will split into 6 and 5.5 gallons for the Braggot and Ale respectively.My recipe is: 12lbs 2-Row at 37 ppg and 75% efficiency should get me 333pts 6 lbs Wheat Malt at 38 ppg and 75% efficiency should get me 171 pts 2 oz Willamette at 60 min (4.8%AA) .6 oz Willamette at flameout .6 oz Centenial at flameout (8.8% AA)Yield would be 11.5 gallons at about 1.044 gravity. I usually mash my American Wheat at 152º but am thinking of going a few degrees higher so there will be a bit more residual sweetness.For the Braggot I'll add 8 lbs of honey, at 40 ppg should add 53 points for a 1.097 OG.For the Wheat Ale I'll add 2lbs of honey, at 40 ppg should add 15 points for a 1.058 OG.I'll probably pitch SA-05 for the beer and am thinking of Nottingham for the Braggot -though I may pitch D-47. I want both to finish a little high but not cloyingly sweet. I intend to prime and bottle the braggot to lay down a bit and enjoy over time and to keg the wheat as an easy drinking "light" beer.I'd appreciate thoughts about the recipe overall and especially with respect to yeast selection and any tips on how to add the honey most effectively to my cooled wort (add half the wort and honey and shake like hell before topping of with the rest of the wort?). I'll also add a bit of yeast energizer to the braggot but think the Ale should have plenty of nutrient from the grain. Also, any help on figuring the final gravity of the braggot using various yeasts would be helpful since I intend to bottle and really don't want braggot and glass all over the house.Thanks for the tips... since my first mead is still slowly chugging along, I can't count on experience to guide me on my first braggot.Cheers!

[armagh]

The recipe looks fine, but I would give some thought to dry hopping the braggot. Assuming you will add the honey after the boil so as not to drive off the aromatics, it may overwhelm the malt/hop character. I have been using Wyeast 1388 for braggots lately. It has the horsepower needed for high gravity fermentations. Good luck.

[DgNt]

The recipe looks fine, but I would give some thought to dry hopping the braggot. Assuming you will add the honey after the boil so as not to drive off the aromatics, it may overwhelm the malt/hop character. I have been using Wyeast 1388 for braggots lately. It has the horsepower needed for high gravity fermentations. Good luck.

Thanks for the response; yes, I added the honey after the boil. Braggot OG ended up at 1.090, about what I wanted. I'll consider dry-hopping it if I think it needs it. I don't really have anything in mind as I've only had one braggot, that one didn't have much hop character with a slightly sweet malt and honey flavor. Will let you know how it ends up.I only got about 4 gallons of the Honey Wheat. I've got an American Wheat to rack soon and to increase the volume without diluting flavor I'm going to add some ginger tea to it. If it works, I may do the same with the Honey Wheat (the Am Wheat is for an beer festival so I won't actually enjoy much if at all). I may even make a small batch of ginger beer and candy the spent ginger... not looking forward to peeling all that ginger though.