> Greetings,
> I've got a wedding coming up in about 9 months.
> First
> off, is that adequate time to get a braggot brewed
> and
> drinkable (by June 18, 2005)? Next, anyone have
> suggestions on braggot recipes? I'm open to
> anything
> really.

Dear Mel,

I've made a green tea braggot several times, and it's
always gone over well. It's ready to drink after
fermentation is over, usually in a month or so.

Five gallon batch:

1/2 gallon/ 6lbs honey (I usually use wildflower or
clover)
1 3.3 lb can of muntons wheat malt.
1 box of Good Earth Green Tea. (picture here:
http://www.enkueros.net/27018301783.html )
Nottingham ale yeast.

Bring 3 gallons of water to a boil, dump in the wheat
malt and boil for one hour. Turn off heat, place
entire box of tea bags into the wort, and steep for
1/2 hour. Cool, dump into a 7 gal plastic bucket with
1/2 gallon of honey, add water to 5 gal, mix with
plaster/paint mixer to mix/aerate. (alternatively, mix
the honey in when you steep the tea, and figure out
some other method of aerating after you cool the wort
down) Dump the wort into carboy. Hydrate and pitch
yeast. Ferment around 70DegF. Force carbonate or
bottle condition.

Regards,

Steven

I'm Steven M. Sanders, and I approved this email.

The 9,573,382th wonder of the world: http://www.studiosputnik.com

Thank you for the suggestions, Ross. I haven't seen water barrels as you
describe here, but then maybe I haven't haunted the right hardware
stores. There's a Home Depot not too far from here where I may find the
needful (light bulb switches on over my head – why haven't I thought of
that?!). And there is the flea market in Tel Aviv, where I'm sure I will
also find awesome glass bottles for gift wine. It occurs to me that I do
have some large buckets, old lye containers. Their lids are very tight.
But how does one hack a hole to fit a bung and airlock into a sturdy
plastic lid?

I have been thinking over the issue of larger fermentation vessels. The
idea is, at some point I'm going to stop making meads and wine from
everything I see, and settle down to favorites. Then I will want to make
larger quantities as the fruits come into season, instead of brewing
different experimental 1-gallon carboys every few weeks. The idea of a
large, non-glass secondary appeals because handling a glass carboy of
more than 10 liter capacity is too much for my hands and arms, weakened
by Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. I tend to break those bigger carboys, as they
slip out of my benumbed hands, and they are both scarce and expensive
here.

How does a stainless-steel water kettle sound? They are tall pots
holding about 20 liters, with spigot and close-fitting lid with a small
hole in it. I should think stainless steel would resist invasions of
bacteria better than plastic. The hole in the lid is too small to
accommodate an airlock, though. Does anyone actually use cotton wool to
plug up an opening in the secondary? I wouldn't like to risk ruining the
drink…and I would hate to miss those satisfactory *gloops* coming up
through the water. But I'll do it if I get an assurance from an
experienced person that it's really OK.

Miriam

G'day Miriam,
What about water barrels? In Australia, most of the plastic fermenters
sold in the homebrew shops are basically water barrels with clear
plastic lids, a hole drilled in the top (for the airlock – also a rubber
grommet), and a tap screwed into the barrel near the base. You can buy
nearly the same thing in the hardware store with an opaque lid and no
hole in the top. I've seen them in 32 litre, 25 litre and smaller sizes.

Also, pretty much any food-grade plastic bucket with lid will do,
including the sort that the baker and the delicatessen get. Think large
buckets of yoghurt, honey, basically any liquid or semi-liquid food.

Doug,

I was thinking about adding fruit this way as well. What brand / model
juicer would you recommend?

Cheers!

Jay

703-298-4705
www.jaysbrewing.com

> > I have stopped using frozen/fresh, whole/crushed/mashed fruits in
> > nylon bags in any must in favor of simply juicing all the fruits I use.
> > The nylon bag method was messy, it never seemed to give the fruit flavor
> > that I wanted. When the bag was removed, the loss of volume needed to be
> > replaced since all my primaries are 6 gallons and all my carboys are 6
> > gallons.
> > I have a three piece steam juicer (about $90) that works better than
> > the most expensive mechanical juicer. During each season, I gather or
> > buy the berries/fruits (blackberry, apple, peach etc) then steam juice
> > them, putting that juice into 2 liter soda bottles and freeze for future
> > use. By not keeping the frozen fruit I save on freezer space. When I
> > start a new batch of must I thaw the juice and add to the primary must,
> > usually 1 gallon (4 liters/two pop bottles) in a 6 gallon must.
> > Doug

> > > > ——————————

Go for it. I was only given 7 1/2 months notice that my daughter wanted
mead for he Scottish theme wedding – to find out what the stuff was and
how to make it (21 gal) – using some wine making equipment I hadn't used
in 20 years. A couple of tips – when mead fermentation stuck, I put the
glass carboys in our bath tub and used warm water to get it going again.
When daughter's taste said "this is it", I again used the bath tub with
ice to help drop the yeast. Although it looked almost clear, I rented
a filter pump from my local brew supply store and obtained a crystal
clear (and great tasting) mead that I bottled into many custom labeled 7
oz. give-aways plus bulk mead for serving at the wedding. Such a great
success that I have been making mead ever since (6 years) and increased my
capacity to about 85 gal. at a time, with mead furnished to my other two
kids weddings at their request. I had to find out how to make blackberry
mead for the most recent wedding – but he gave me 3 years to experiment
and optimize.
Carl McMillin
Brecksville, OH

"Doug Honey Love Ranch" <HoneyLoveMead@msn.com> wrote in the last digest:
> I have stopped using frozen/fresh, whole/crushed/mashed fruits in
> nylon bags in any must in favor of simply juicing all the fruits I use.
> The nylon bag method was messy, it never seemed to give the fruit flavor
> that I wanted…[etc]…

Yes, there are various advantages to working with just the juice, but when
I tried that with berries, it seemed like there was "something missing".
The taste was soft. It was pleasant enough, but somehow lost interest.
Not really sure how to describe it. My guess at the time was that it was
due to a lack of tannin that might otherwise have been extracted from the
skins/seeds/pulp. Still, that's only a guess.

• —

Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA

> I've got a wedding coming up in about 9 months. First
> off, is that adequate time to get a braggot brewed and
> drinkable (by June 18, 2005)? Next, anyone have
> suggestions on braggot recipes? I'm open to anything
> really.

>

> If that doesn't seem like enough time for a braggot,
> are there any other meads, melomels, cysers, etc. that
> may age nicely in 9 months time? If not we may have
> to fill those gorgeous 1 liter cobalt swing top
> bottles with some sort of Belgian Wit or the like
> (nice summer brews).

I did a golden braggot in March that I kegged and served a couple of
weeks ago, with lots of rave reviews. Here it is

6 lb. 2-row pale malt
6 lb. clover honey
1 oz. Styrian Golding hops @60 min.
0.5 oz. Styrian Golding hops @ 15 min.
0.5 oz. Styrian Golding hops @ end of boil
Wyeast 1098 British Ale yeast (1/2 gallon starter)

Grain mashed in with 1.5 gallons water @ 174. Held at 144 for 60
minutes, then sparged with 5 gallons water @ 172. 1 hour boil, honey
added after boil finished.

This ended up at about 7.6% ABV, clean golden color and good honey in
the nose without being too sweet. I kegged 3 gallons and took it to a
tailgate party, my beer lovers and the Bud drinkers alike loved it!

Jim

>I have a simple still mead that I started on Mother's
>Day. I cannot see any bubbling from the lock, but if
>I shine a light through the mead, it still looks like
>champagne. Do I need to wait until it stops bubbling
>completely or is it safe to bottle?? I am planning on
>using good quality wine bottles
>with corks.
>Ethel
Hello Ethel,
It is not ready to bottle unless you want a fiss in it when you serve
it. What you see is suspended CO2 if there are no bubbles coming from the
airlock. If you want to bottle now and don't want carbonation, I would
recommend you stabilize the mead and then degass it. Brewer shops sell
a rod with moveable fingers on the end that you can insert in the carboy
and spin which will release suspended CO2 to make your mead still. Some
call it a degasser.

Joe