# Hefty Braggot



## pdilley (11/5/09)

HEFTY Braggot, 
from The Compleat Meadmaker

Notes: Modify to your mash style, BIAB, hop preference, etc.

This is an all-grain recipe for those familiar with all-grain brewing techniques. This is a big ale-mead, meant for cool nights in the fall. The head is rich, dense, and creamy, and the aroma is so profound it will push its way into your nose after each swallow. The flavour is caramelly sweet, with the honey and malt just hanging on your tongue alongside the hop bitterness in a long-lived aftertaste. It goes beautifully with hearty meat dishes like steak pie or pot roast, but will also compliment spicy dishes.

If you are a hop lover, you can virtually double the amount of hops in this recipe. The body will stand up to it, and though the sweetness/bitterness balance will be aggressive when young (6 to 9 months,) it will mellow to a low roar over the course of a year. This braggot-de-garde is definately one that can be cellared two years or more without appreciable loss of appeal.

Makes 5 US Gallons (18.93 Litres)
8# (3.64kg) pale ale malt, crushed
2# (907g) Vienna malt, crushed
1# (454g) dextrin malt, crushed
3oz (85g) Cascade hops (25 IBU) 60 min.
1 oz (28.35g) Cascade hops (8 IBU) 30 min.
1 oz (28.35g) Cascade hops, 2 min.
9# (4.09kg) honey -- one with a big big aroma, or a blend of several varietals
2 tsp yeast energizer
2 tsp yeast nutrient
10g Lalvin D-47 yeast, rehydrated

OG = 1.120 (29.1 Degrees Plato)
FG = 1.018 (4.6 Degrees Plato)

I use an infusion mash. Mash in grains with 11 quarts (10.41 Litres) water at 180F (82 C), hold at 146F (63C), rest 30 minutes, test for starch conversion. Heat to 165F (74C) to mash-out. Sparge with 3.5 US Gallons (13.25 Litres) at 185F (85C). Sparge directly onto bittering hops in boil kettle. Boil 60 minutes, adding hops as scheduled. After 60 minutes, cut heat, add yeast energizer and nutrient, honey, and stir. Chill to 70F (21C), transfer to fermenter, aerate vigorously, pitch yeast.

Extract Alternative Method:
Those seeking to use extract can substitute 6# (2.72kg) of amber dry malt extract, add water to 5 gallons (18.93 Litres), and proceed with the boil. if it is not practical to boil 5 gallons of liquid with the equipment you have, you can also boil the extract with a smaller quantity of water, adding hops and honey as indicated, and add water to make up the 5-gallon batch size before pitching.

Make sure you use a fermenter with plenty of head space. This ferment will be vigorous, and will generate LOTS of krausen. Bottle with 3/4 cup (178mL) of corn sugar, or keg and carbonate by your chosen method.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete


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## flattop (11/5/09)

Thanks BP, since i put up the request i guess i better brew it!


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## flattop (11/5/09)

P.S what is dextrin malt? Or is it just DEX?


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## pdilley (11/5/09)

flattop said:


> P.S what is dextrin malt? Or is it just DEX?



From Mr. Palmer:

*Dextrin Malt* 3 L Also known as American Carapils, this malt is used sparingly and contributes little color but enhances the mouthfeel and perceived body of the beer. A common amount for a five gallon batch is 1/2 lb. Dextrin malt has no diastatic power. It must be mashed; if steeped it will contribute a lot of unconverted starch and cause starch haze.


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## Pumpy (11/5/09)

Ken Schramm is the American Mead Guru ,

I reckon that would blow your head off .

you would not be drinking pints of it ?

would you ? :blink: 

pumpy


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## pdilley (11/5/09)

If you don't control yourself you may well end up drinking Pints of it. Then next thing you know it will be morning and you are in the middle of africa, stark naked, swinging your todger round and round and whistling in amazement as a heard of gazelles charge your way through the bush.

Mead needs respect unless you are built like a Viking. But it tastes so good!

Dilemma!


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## Pumpy (11/5/09)

Brewer Pete,

Is there any good commercial examples of mead in Australia you can recccomend .

so I can try what it should taste like ,and that I like it 

Pumpy


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## pdilley (11/5/09)

I have never found one here that is good 

There is Maxwells, you can get it plain which is best chilled like a white wine, or with spices which is best heated up for cold winter by the fire, or rarer to find is the aged Mead which is 3 years, some of that in the barrel which is more brandy like.

However, Maxwells is really sweet, and I'm not a big sweet person per se' but I took a bottle of the spiced one with me to the States for Christmas and being cold and festive season I thought it a good match, all the SWMBOs of everyone over there just couldn't get enough of the stuff. If you have a lady, serve the sweet ones, if its yourself, you might like it drier.



Cheers,
Brewer Pete

EDIT: Picture





SPICED





BRANDY / LIQUOR LIKE (tiny bottle)





PLAIN / WHITE WINE LIKE


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## pdilley (11/5/09)

Oh and like with commercial beer, you can make a lot better Mead in your own home brew.


Now if I could only get my hands on some Watermelon Honey! Dark as the devil but tastes like watermelon!


Cheers,
Brewer Pete


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## Airgead (12/5/09)

The Maxwells stuff is pretty ordinary. There used to be a good place in Mudgee but the meadmaker retired and they closed down. I'm not sure of any other out there though I have heard rumours of one or two in Victoria.

My Braggot is nowhere near 1.120OG. I keep mine around 1.050 (so you can drink pints). My malt bill is simpler too. Pretty much all ale malt with a touch of wheat to help with head retention. I also don't pollute mine with American hops h34r: 

Braggots don't have to be huge.

Cheers
Dave


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## brettprevans (12/5/09)

Pumpy, Chateau Dorrien makes great mead.


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## Pumpy (12/5/09)

citymorgue2 said:


> Pumpy, Chateau Dorrien makes great mead.




Thanks for that CityMorgue .

Seems strange we dont have many mead suppliers in Australia.

might be an opening there!!

will give ethem a buzz

Pumpy


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## pdilley (12/5/09)

Airgead said:


> My Braggot is nowhere near 1.120OG. I keep mine around 1.050 (so you can drink pints). My malt bill is simpler too. Pretty much all ale malt with a touch of wheat to help with head retention. I also don't pollute mine with American hops.
> 
> Braggots don't have to be huge.
> 
> ...



I would have to argue if your OG is 1.050 that you won't be brewing Mead, but more on a technicality Honey Beer or something even weaker in both parts, the malt and the honey. I can talk you through the recipe and show you what I mean if you wish to post it.

If you follow the math, most every Mead recipe has a honey dilution ration of 3:1, for every 1 cup of honey mix in 3 cups of water. Once it is diluted, have a swig. Notice the power of the honey flavours and honey aromas, some of that is going to be destroyed through the fermentation process. Mead is most similar to one thing in the beer world, and that is Barley Wine, not an Ale. Barley Wines have starting gravities near 1.100 and so does the US-05 Mead I put down. Thats a near 3:1 ratio.

if you were to make a honey must only and forget the malt portion of the fermentable bill, you will have a very diluted honey flavour and aroma. Lets run the gravity points through simple volumetric calculation to see how much we are diluting the honey flavours and aromas at 1.050 gravity points.

1 litre of honey is 1.425 gravity contribution for your average good quality honey.
(1.425 + 7 litres of water times 1.000 gravity contribution from each litre) divided by 8 litres total volume.
*In [2]:* (1.425 + 7) / 8
*Out[2]:* 1.0531250000000001

Thats close to your starting gravity of 1.050. Now take your 1 cup of honey and add in 7 cups of water. Compare how drastic the reduction in starting flavour as well aroma is from the first Mead mixture of 1 cup of honey to 3 cups of water.


Now if you are making a brew of total 1.050 Starting Gravity points, and without your recipe, let me be generous and say you are getting .025 points from honey and .025 points from the malt contribution.

(1.425 + 16 litres of water times 1.000 gravity contribution from each litre) divided by 17 litres total volume.
*In [3]:* (1.425 + 16) / 17
*Out[3]:* 1.0250000000000001

That means if you are diluting your honey flavour and aroma at a ratio of 16:1 which is pretty poor contribution from the honey of anything flavour or aroma wise. Again now you need to take 1 cup of honey and dilute it with 16 cups of water. Take a swig of this and see what you are contributing.

At 1.050 points if you had 0.025 contribution from malt you are doing the same dilution to the malt flavour contribution. So you end up with what I would consider a week beer mixed with really weak honey drink. Quaffable, yes. It wouldn't agree to well with my expectations from something blended with Mead.

EDIT: Pumpy, thats why I told you I remembered the low ABV Mead "like" drinks I swear were 7% or much higher in ABV.

I would not like a drink with a 16:1 honey dilution contribution, which becomes more diluted after fermentation is complete. But I also do not like Beez Kneez at all.

A Braggot is Mead and Beer, but I would argue Mead diluted 16 times is not Mead anymore if you were to assign a Style Guide to it. 1.050 is a 16:1 diluted Mead + 1/2 diluted Beer. A huge loss in taste from honey and a halving of taste contribution in Malt.

I might have more money in a glass or two of this Mead in honey than a brewer would have in his entire batch of a 1.050 OG brew.

One sip of Hefty Braggot would knock you on the floor in taste, and honey cost  Harden up and release the honey money for one brew of this and see what you think of the taste of Mead and Beer together in one.

Not trying to take a shot at you Dave, just go through the thoughts in my head and show everyone the taste contributions at varying levels and why I might not like some recipes over others. *hugs* you still rock in my book. I'll give you the hops though, its a personal thing, originating in the States, American hops will be the cheapest to buy the LHBS over there.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete


EDIT: I spell like a looney on when using my phone.


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## Airgead (13/5/09)

Pate

As it happens I have the recipe in front of me...

2kg Honey (last time I used an ironbark)

2.5kg Ale Malt
300g Wheat Malt

Northern Brewer to 25IBU at 60 mins
30g Tetnanger at 10 mins

Add honey after the boil (while it is chilling).

Ferment with WLP002.

OG is 1.062 FG 1.015 for an ABV of 6%. Actually that's a bit stronger than the last time. My efficiency went up and I didn't compensate in the recipe. I usually keep it to 5%.

Ends up with a really nice malt and honey flavour with just enough bitterness to balance.

And yes, it is a honey beer not a wine strength product but that's historically what a Braggot was. Big giant braggots, like many big giant things (7% 'session beers' for example) are an American invention....

Cheers
Dave

Edit: If you look at Digby (the easiest available historical reference) you find the following recipe for mead (attributed to a Mr Webb) - 



> To make Bragot, He takes the first running of such Ale, and boils a less proportion of Honey in it, then when He makes His ordinary Meath; but dubble or triple as much spice and herbs. As for Example to twenty Gallons of the Strong-wort, he puts eight or ten pound, (according as your taste liketh more or less honey) of honey; But at least triple as much herbs, and triple as much spice as would serve such a quantity of small Mead as He made Me (For to a stronger Mead you put a greater proportion of Herbs and Spice, then to a small; by reason that you must keep it a longer time before you drink it; and the length of time mellows and tames the taste of the herbs and spice). And when it is tunned in the vessel (after working with the barm) you hang in it a bag with bruised spices (rather more then you boiled in it) which is to hang in the barrel all the while you draw it.
> 
> He makes also Mead with the second weak running of the Ale; and to this He useth the same proportions of honey, herbs and spice, as for his small Mead of pure water; and useth the same manner of boiling, working with yest, and other Circumstances, as in making of that.



If you do the maths, 8-10 pounds of honey in 18 gallons of wort works out to around 2-3 lbs in a 5 gallon batch which is of course 1-1.5kg. I've actually made mine a bit strong...

The wort in question used 2.5 bushels of malt to make a hogshead of ale which I am not even going to guess at the strength of.


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## Airgead (13/5/09)

Actually I will have a guess at the strength of the wort... my google fu is strong today.

A bushel of malt is pretty close to 25kg. A hogshead, as defined in 1688 is 248l (51 Imperial Gallons). So they were using 62.5kg in 250l (close enough) so 250g/l. That's around 6.25kg/25l.

If you assume a regular sparge with around a 60-70% efficiency you would end up somewhere around 4-6%. First runnings would be closer to 8 maybe with the second at 2-3 (any experts in parti-guile brewing like to comment?).

Looks like my recipe resembles the braggot made with the second runnings...

Cheers
Dave


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## pdilley (13/5/09)

Airgead said:


> To make Bragot, He takes the first running of such Ale, and boils a less proportion of Honey in it, then when He makes His ordinary Meath; but dubble or triple as much spice and herbs. As for Example to twenty Gallons of the Strong-wort, he puts eight or ten pound, (according as your taste liketh more or less honey) of honey; But at least triple as much herbs, and triple as much spice as would serve such a quantity of small Mead as He made Me (For to a stronger Mead you put a greater proportion of Herbs and Spice, then to a small; by reason that you must keep it a longer time before you drink it; and the length of time mellows and tames the taste of the herbs and spice). And when it is tunned in the vessel (after working with the barm) you hang in it a bag with bruised spices (rather more then you boiled in it) which is to hang in the barrel all the while you draw it.
> 
> He makes also Mead with the second weak running of the Ale; and to this He useth the same proportions of honey, herbs and spice, as for his small Mead of pure water; and useth the same manner of boiling, working with yest, and other Circumstances, as in making of that.



20 Imperial Gallons would be 90 litres with 4.5kg of honey addition as 10 pounds. Thats a 19 to 1 ratio. (Assumption is current measures in use today Imperial -> Metric are the same as the measurement amounts used when the book was written).

If you are following the above recipe when making the modern honey ale recipe you have, then you are in your target ballpark.

Your litre component of that level of honey would be 3.1578 litres.
Your total litres of "Strong Ale Wort" is 90 litres

Your Gravity contribution from honey looks like:
In [16]: ((3.1578 * 1.425) + (90 * 1)) / 93.1578
Out[16]: 1.0144063621081649

Unless Imperial Gallons were not in use back when that book was written then that should be an accurate reflection of the honey contribution.
19:1 dilution of water to honey is imparting 

What is defined at "Strong-wort"? - High gravity I would assume as to result in a Strong or High ABV Ale?

Then it goes on about a pre-hop Gruit mixture of bittering herbs and spices. Adding double and tripple the amount to normal bittering. As you need the long aging time to mellow the resulting Mead. But which Mead? Are there recipes listed earlier on from this one in the book for the small Mead and the stronger Mead? The last comment suggests additional Gruit mixture used after primary fermentation and during bulk aging.

I agree with the second runnings as your Malt bill is low compared to the original recipe. Its a strong ale with a little bit of honey. 

If you can grab more of the recipes I'd appreciate it, digging in and analyzing them is actually quite fun.


P.S. Big Giant things are not just American, whats the deal with the Big Giant bloody sheep in Gouldburn! "The Big Marino" 

Cheers,
Brewer Pete


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## Airgead (13/5/09)

Brewer Pete said:


> What is defined at "Strong-wort"? - High gravity I would assume as to result in a Strong or High ABV Ale?



I think it is referring to the wort from the first runnings.



> If you can grab more of the recipes I'd appreciate it, digging in and analyzing them is actually quite fun.



The whole book is available on gutterberg (having been written in the 1600s its well out of copyright) - http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16441/16441-h/16441-h.htm

The standard ratios used are 3 or 4:1 for a mead with 6:1 or weaker for a hydromel (there is one at 18:1 - hydromel as I made it weak for the queen mother). There are also a bunch of recipes using 1 quart/gallon which I think is 4:1.

There is a bunch of interestign stuff in Digby. The use of separate types of yeast for a start. Those recipes that mention yeast often use Wine, Ale or Beer yeast (recognised as three different things). Even back in the 1600s they didn't use bread yeast in a mead (at least not very often anyway)  



> P.S. Big Giant things are not just American, whats the deal with the Big Giant bloody sheep in Gouldburn! "The Big Marino"



You forgot the big banana/pineapple/crab/gumboot etc. :lol: 

Cheers
Dave


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## brettprevans (13/5/09)

strong wort is usually meaning the first runnings. Back when they used first runnings for high gravity beers and 2nd runnings for table beers. or when they sold the first runnings off to noblemen etc and kept the table beer for themselves etc etc.

the only problem with the compleat meadmaker recipes is that it doesnt give you enolugh info or anticdotes to give you enough of an idea to make your own semi-uneducated or semi educated guesses at how to change it. Radical Brewing by Mosher is the sort of thing im getting at. I dont know why but I wouldnt go cascade in my braggot. its doesnt seem right to me. probably just my preconceived notions of what a bragghot would be back in the day.

I also wouldnt have thought a braggot would have been much above 8% or else it falling within semi barley wine terrirory


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## pdilley (13/5/09)

citymorgue2 said:


> strong wort is usually meaning the first runnings. Back when they used first runnings for high gravity beers and 2nd runnings for table beers. or when they sold the first runnings off to noblemen etc and kept the table beer for themselves etc etc.
> 
> the only problem with the compleat meadmaker recipes is that it doesnt give you enolugh info or anticdotes to give you enough of an idea to make your own semi-uneducated or semi educated guesses at how to change it. Radical Brewing by Mosher is the sort of thing im getting at. I dont know why but I wouldnt go cascade in my braggot. its doesnt seem right to me. probably just my preconceived notions of what a bragghot would be back in the day.
> 
> I also wouldnt have thought a braggot would have been much above 8% or else it falling within semi barley wine terrirory



There's the one book I didn't get that I wanted to. I got Designing Great Beers instead - not armchair reading, but need a strong expresso to thumb through that one.

This recipe is 6:1 ratio Honey, getting 1/2 of the fermentable points from the Honey bill and 1/2 of the fermentable points from the Malt bill.

If it was just honey and water it would be the hydromel ratio, hydromels are popular for French home brewers, but the English standard lists 10% ABV, while in Quebec the hydromel is 15% ABV. Hydromels are defined as light Meads with little honey flavour or aftertaste. If that is the definition for a 6:1, ratio then 19:1 is not going to give much contribution when having to come out through malt and hops.

I will have to brew Daves recipe and he will have to brew this one then we can compare. If you raise your total malt+wheat contribution up to 4.5kg to 5kg Dave, what do you think will happen to the honey contribution with that recipe?

I can get at recipes on google for old braggot recipe that claim British origin with a higher honey component than the malt component, so it seems all over the shop.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete


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## pdilley (13/5/09)

I'll add two more braggot recipes of for analysis, if not tonight then tomorrow. One from Ken and one not from Ken.


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## Airgead (14/5/09)

Brewer Pete said:


> I will have to brew Daves recipe and he will have to brew this one then we can compare. If you raise your total malt+wheat contribution up to 4.5kg to 5kg Dave, what do you think will happen to the honey contribution with that recipe?
> 
> I can get at recipes on google for old braggot recipe that claim British origin with a higher honey component than the malt component, so it seems all over the shop.
> 
> ...



Historically, 'styles' were more vague descriptions than anything the BJCP would recognise. There were no prescribed strengths for anything (I'm not even sure they had a way of measuring ABV back then). Adulteration and watering were rife.

My general impression of Braggots is that anything that has a significant fraction of its fermentables from honey is a braggot regardless of strength. I would say that a significant fraction is anything over 10% (ie: more than you would use of a speciality grain). Below that and its a honey flavoured beer (bees knees anyone?). I generally brew them at 40-50% from honey. I have done up to 60%.

I'm brewing a batch of braggot in the next couple of weeks (as soon as I have a free fermenter). Lets arrange a bottle swap.

Cheers
Dave


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## pdilley (14/5/09)

Airgead said:


> Historically, 'styles' were more vague descriptions than anything the BJCP would recognise. There were no prescribed strengths for anything (I'm not even sure they had a way of measuring ABV back then). Adulteration and watering were rife.
> 
> My general impression of Braggots is that anything that has a significant fraction of its fermentables from honey is a braggot regardless of strength. I would say that a significant fraction is anything over 10% (ie: more than you would use of a speciality grain). Below that and its a honey flavoured beer (bees knees anyone?). I generally brew them at 40-50% from honey. I have done up to 60%.
> 
> ...




See the Blueberry Braggot post as I might be starting that in a few weeks if the group brew thinks its ok since they are all Northern Hemisphere brewers. If not we can pick a style. Would like to get an AHB group brew going on one of these recipes as it would be great to compare and contrast how each of us fared with a single recipe.

I have found a 13th century velum from England with a Mead recipe. Since I know some German and some Norse I can read it easily but it might be difficult for a modern English speaker (thank the French for that). Even more so I found a good history of Honey that crosses into religion and cultures and references at least back 4,000 years. Meads are supposed to be 8,000+ years of brewing history.

I also got some African Mead recipes from Ethiopia, but you might not like the fact they still use Wild Airborne yeast fermentation  But there has to be a crossover point from wild yeast to cultivated yeast and I think I'll have to learn a little Babylonian Cuneiform or some Hieroglyphics to get any really old recipes past what we have today which are still quite modern in the span of 8,000 years of history with the beverage.

Check the history post, I really enjoyed reading it!


Cheers,
Brewer Pete


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## Pumpy (14/5/09)

I am just going to wait until Brewer Pete has finished his good posts ,then I am going to print it all off sit in bed and read it all get me some honey, the French lady next door is nice  and make some mead 

If he ever stops :unsure: 

Pumpy


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## pdilley (17/5/09)

For those who would like to know just how many litres of honey will be the same as 9 pounds, I've been working on my Mead Master Brewing program a little more and have my honeyscale engine up and going.

I also have a more accurate pounds to kilograms engine, so 9# = 4.08233133 kg. So I should have really made it 4.08kg but the .01kg isn't going to do much.

In [18]: '%.2f' % (honeyscales.pounds_to_litres(9))
Out[18]: '2.86'

In [19]: '%.2f' % (honeyscales.kilograms_to_litres(4.08233133))
Out[19]: '2.86'

Both are sanity-checking each other so 2.86 Litres of honey will be the equivalent of 9 US Pounds of honey.

I'll wrap the entire program in a nice GUI that runs on all computers, Macs, Windows, Linux if I don't pull my hair out first. Cross-platform programs are a pain, each system decides to screw up on different pieces... grrr...


Cheers,
Brewer Pete


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## Feral Shane (17/5/09)

MMMMMM Mead now I want to track down the my local apiarist and steal all his honey and put it to good use.


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