I am planning on making a braggot. I have 3 gallons of clover mead that has been aging for about 4 or 5 months. Does it make sense to add fermenting DME to this mead or should I ferment a new batch of mead with the dry malt extract?
Braggot question.
- Thread starter bernardsmith
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New batch, you really need to boil the DME. Plus you are probably close to the yeast's alcohol tolerance.
You don't necessarily need to boil DME. You can dissolve it in warm water, but there may be proteins that could require fining to get rid of a haze.
If you give us the details of your clover batch, that would help. Do you want hops in it?
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If you give us the details of your clover batch, that would help. Do you want hops in it?
Sent from my THINGAMAJIG with WHATCHAMACALLIT
Thanks for such speedy replies.
I was planning on adding a full schedule of hops (60, 30 , 15 minutes) and perhaps dry hopping. I was also planning on adding yeast to the DME and then adding the mead to the secondary. The alcohol level of the clover mead is not anywhere near the tolerance of the yeast (71B). I aim for a starting gravity of about 1.100 rather than the full blown 3- 4 lbs of honey per gallon of water.
My thinking was to dissolve about 3lbs of DME (perhaps crystal 60?) in about 2 gallons of water and boil for the hour with the hops and then pitch additional 71B allow to ferment about 2 weeks and then add the mead to this brew then age another 3 months or so...
I was planning on adding a full schedule of hops (60, 30 , 15 minutes) and perhaps dry hopping. I was also planning on adding yeast to the DME and then adding the mead to the secondary. The alcohol level of the clover mead is not anywhere near the tolerance of the yeast (71B). I aim for a starting gravity of about 1.100 rather than the full blown 3- 4 lbs of honey per gallon of water.
My thinking was to dissolve about 3lbs of DME (perhaps crystal 60?) in about 2 gallons of water and boil for the hour with the hops and then pitch additional 71B allow to ferment about 2 weeks and then add the mead to this brew then age another 3 months or so...
You can ferment a beer like this and then blend with the mead to make it braggot. In fact, doing it this way gives you a lot of control over the balance between malt/hops and honey as well as getting the body right. You should be able to make something tasty.
Sent from my THINGAMAJIG with WHATCHAMACALLIT
Sent from my THINGAMAJIG with WHATCHAMACALLIT
Thanks for your thoughts, Medsen Fey. I am going to give it a go and hope to obtain the DME in about a week or so. Not certain what hops I want to use - Thinking about Cascade, Citra and Centennial. I made a hopped mead with these three and would like to see how the DME affects the flavor but come to think of it, the honey was wildflower so using the same hops won't really tell me very much... too many variable variables...
