Dark Braggot

[barls]

heres what ive been thinking of since im going to be away for a while on the boat.
im thinking of 2kg of bloodwood honey in this that ive had sitting in the cupboard and the yeast is still up in the air as i like the aweet mead in a braggot but i might use ether the 1388 belgian yeast or a british style. whats everyones thoughts.

Recipe Overview
Wort Volume Before Boil: 18.00 l Wort Volume After Boil: 15.30 l
Volume Transferred: 15.30 l Water Added To Fermenter: 4.70 l
Volume At Pitching: 20.00 l Volume Of Finished Beer: 19.00 l
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.054 SG Expected OG: 1.078 SG
Expected FG: 1.005 SG Apparent Attenuation: 93.7 %
Expected ABV: 9.8 % Expected ABW: 7.8 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 56.2 IBU Expected Color (using Morey): 22.4 SRM
BU:GU ratio: 0.72
Mash Efficiency: 80.0 %
Boil Duration: 60.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 18 degC
Fermentables
Ingredient Amount % MCU When
Australian Traditional Ale Malt 3.600 kg 60.0 % 5.1 In Mash/Steeped
Australia Joe White Choc Chit Malt 0.400 kg 6.7 % 45.1 In Mash/Steeped
Sugar - Honey 2.000 kg 33.3 % 1.7 End Of Boil
Hops
Variety Alpha Amount IBU Form When
German Northern Brewer 8.0 % 48 g 47.4 Loose Pellet Hops 60 Min From End
homegrown mt hood 4.0 % 40 g 8.8 Loose Whole Hops 15 Min From End
homegrown mt hood 4.0 % 20 g 0.0 Loose Whole Hops At turn off
Other Ingredients
Ingredient Amount When
Yeast Nutrient 5 g In Boil
Whirlfloc Tablet 1 In Boil
Yeast
Whitelab 720 - sweet mead
Mash pH: 5.2
pH Adjusted with: Unadjusted
Mash Schedule
Mash Type: Full Mash
Schedule Name: Single Step Infusion (67C/152F)
Step Type Temperature Duration
Rest at 67 degC 60

 

[syd_03]

Never brewed one so no idea, sounds tasty to me though.


Are we still going to be brewing this tomorrow?

 

[barls]

no most likely sunday now as i just want to relax tomorrow rather than worry about it.

 

[Airgead]

Looks like a top idea. Let us know how it turns out.

Cheers
Dave

 

[syd_03]

No worries mate, and fair enough too (seeing you are being a top bloke and sharing the love). See you tomorrow.

No home made kebabs this time though, didn't get a chance. I'll have to pick upsomething to bring tomorrow morning.

 

[barls]

will do i was thinking id put this one on then go away from sept till end of november so ill see how it goes.

 

[Airgead]

will do i was thinking id put this one on then go away from sept till end of november so ill see how it goes.

Good plan. Braggots do like a bity of aging. I'm drinking one now that's only been in the keg a week and it really needs another 4-5 weeks before it comes really good. Its all I have at the moment though so I'll have to drink it before its prime.

Cheers
Dave

 

[barls]

i find after about 3 months acceptable and 6 months excellent,

 

[barls]

brewed and pitched the other day, currently sitting with 3 inches of krausen in the front room.
ended up having to scavange so honey as i was short 500g of the blood wood but found a nice one from up the coast.

 

[raven19]

Krausen is good!
(Maybe swap some notes with Brewer Pete who loves his braggots/meads/etc...)

Bloodwood honey sounds awesome.

 

[barls]

actually been waiting for him to pipe up he must be busy. this is not my first braggot as ive got the one i do constantly anyway with only good comments about it

 

[pdilley]

Sorry Barls,

Im out in the shed every night building beehives in a rush as global warming? has me caught with me pants down and with no hives and bees swarming in a week or two which is almost a month ahead of normal swarm season I am ending up too tired after to even post new pictures or sit in front of the computer

You got some good replies and as you say got some braggots under the belt so I can get time this Sunday to chat about it but looks good.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[pdilley]

Curse you now you got me thinking about this recipe. I work on my mead program at luch when at work so if you give me the numbers for just the beer wort alone I'm curious as to what my program would put out as final volume and expected starting gravity.

As it stands you will get a 1.402 litre increase in volume from the honey addition but without the malt bill gravity value I wont be able to run a valid SG estimate. If I go on the after boil and pre pitch volume and gravity readings you'd shoot up to 1100 from 1078 given above. A good gravity for your average Mead to a wine like alcohol volume in the finished product.

I'm curious how the beer program calculates honey as there is a tiny fraction of sucrose in an average sample of honey. I'd see honey as 38.2% Fructose, 31% Glucose, 17.1% water, 7.2% Maltose, 4.2% Trissacharides and Higher Carbohydrates, 1.5% Sucrose with a 0.5% mix of minerals, vitamins and enzymes.

 

[barls]

that could be right pete, the 1078 i posted is a reading from a refractometer at pitching. the beer component was only a 1049 after the boil and dilution to the final volume.
should be interesting as my brewery smells of peaches atm from the yeast. its strange really it is.

 

[barls]

its down to 1020 at the moment so moving nicely. tastes great too.

 

[pdilley]

Sounds Absa-bloody-lutely awesome!

Brewing Meads has got to be one of the nicest smelling things you can do to your house ever when it comes to all fermented beverages.

Drinking them when all the planning and balancing comes out in the final product is even better but those initial aromas :icon_drool2:


Gets a rag to mop up the drool


Off to brew a North German Wheat Beer, so out for a few hours.

EDIT: Yeah your Refract won't be spot on as nothing is pure sucrose in solution. All the lovely sugars will skew the readings ever so slightly and a Braggot is a heady mix of both grain based and honey based sugars. If you give it a go again I can work out all the numbers and give you a go with calculating your own ethanol skew values so you can run the entire fermentation on refractometer alone. I have to admit I have not even opened my new high end hydrometer, even for my beers. I'm pretty much 100% hydrometer free brewing at this point.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[barls]

its even better when they are packed in to champers bottles

might take you up on that offer next time pete and looking forward to the software your working on, so let me know if you need someone on a mac to test it for you,

 

[pdilley]

Will do barls, though I'm typing this on a Macbook Pro right now


I'll decide what to do as time permits. If I don't get a lot of free time. I might release it as-is in the basic state for free where you have to assemble all the pieces (install 2 other pieces of software) to run it and make it a free taste software for any future full version with printing, saving of recipes, fruit additions, spice additions, blending engine for Meads, blending engine for Beers, etc. etc. etc. that could be a pay-for version.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[barls]

ill just keep waiting then. im using beeralchemy atm

 

[barls]

just bottled this after a couple of months ageing in my fermentation fridge at 1 degree.
i did taste it while bottling, its a nice and chocolatety but has a small alcohol after taste which is ageing out.
looking forward to trying this in a couple of months.