braggot theory

[Meriadoc]

They were just pure malt extract? Not the ones with hops in them too? Those are definitely a different story, I've only seen malt extract in the 3 kinds, but I also haven't been to every LHBS!

Sorry -- yes, these are generally hopped LMEs. I haven't tried any, 'cause it doesn't seem like any greater effort to throw in hops of my own choosing into the brewpot. But, if you're worried that you won't like a braggot, but you've managed to find a beer style you can handle, one of these "specialty" LMEs might be just the ticket! With that in mind, if one doesn't wish to choose hops on their own, then these LMEs allow for a greater variety than "light, medium, dark"...!

And yes, you can do all kinds of things with those 3 kinds of ME, lots more to the story for sure.

right... and i was just trying to point out that "light, medium, dark" isn't the extent of choices in the extract homebrewer's world...

 

[AToE]

Sorry -- yes, these are generally hopped LMEs. I haven't tried any, 'cause it doesn't seem like any greater effort to throw in hops of my own choosing into the brewpot. But, if you're worried that you won't like a braggot, but you've managed to find a beer style you can handle, one of these "specialty" LMEs might be just the ticket! With that in mind, if one doesn't wish to choose hops on their own, then these LMEs allow for a greater variety than "light, medium, dark"...!



right... and i was just trying to point out that "light, medium, dark" isn't the extent of choices in the extract homebrewer's world...

Ah ok, that makes more sense, around here we call those hopped malt extracts "kits" rather than just ME, because they're more or less intended to be fully finished wort, just add water and yeast and go, no boiling or nothing. You are totally right of course, they could make for interesting ingredients in new recipes as well. Also I know lots of people that just do "kit hacking" as it's called, taking a beer kit and adding extra hops, or some specialty malts, coffee grounds, so forth and so on. A really simple hack would be to just as you suggest here, grab one of those kits and add honey, instant braggot.

 

[commonsenseman]

Yeah, a pre-hopped kit might be a great way to make a braggot. Just take the kit & add honey, instant Braggot.

Nowadays they do have a couple more types of Malt Extract (unhopped) available. Pilsner, Wheat & sometimes even Munich are available, so you have even more choices for the "base".

I guess I should rescind my previous comment about it being unbalanced & replace it with this: For my pallette, anything with malt in it that doesn't also have hops in it tastes out of whack. Malt has unfermentables in it that leaves it with residual sweetness, the hops are added as a preservative & to balance the sweetness. I've tasted the wort from my starters before, not good at all. I would compare it to a JAO without any pithyness added from the oranges, it would taste cloying & out of balance. Just my opinion though, if you really don't like hops then by all means, go for it. I guess I would pose the question, if you don't like hops, why would you make a Braggot? Again, technically bjcp doesn't require hops to be in it, so there must be some cases where there isn't.

Maybe it just doesn't sound good to me.....

 

[moonie]

I just bottled 5 gallons of a light ale braggot I make. It has about half the fermentables from honey, a small amount of bittering hops boiled for 30 min and a bit of fuggles dry hopped in the primary.

The result is a nice ale with a slightly floral aroma and aftertaste and just a hint of bitterness.

I use .5oz of bittering hops and 1oz of fuggles for the entire 5 gallons. It is currently bottle conditioning and should be ready in about 2 weeks. Alcohol content is right at 6.5% with a finishing gravity of 1.005.

 

[Mars Colonist]

So Ive made a lot of beer and a good bit of mead... but have yet to tackle a braggot.

I was disappointed at nearly every braggot I tried at Mazer Cup.. the body was thin (by my perception) on what seemed like every single one. Is it typical that the body is so thin?

Honey, consisting almost entirely of simple sugars, it seems will thin out the body on a normal beer, especially when at 40%+ of the fermentables.

Has anyone made a braggot where they either used a very high mash temp (160-162°F) or used a higher than normal proportion of specialty malts to leave the beer more dextrinous (ie 20%+ crystal malt)?

Im thinking about doing a Imperial Stout with buckwheat honey... try to get it to finish in the normal 1017-1020 rather than soooo dry.

 

[machalel]

One of my planned brews is a 'big' braggot. I was thinking of doing a porter or stout, and mashing high like above.

The other thing you could do is to add 5% or so of oats, as they are used in beer all the time to increase mouthfeel and body.

 

[machalel]

On a slightly different topic, has anyone tried any braggots made with more unusual base beer styles? I normally only see people making brown ales, old ales etc.

What about a Lager braggot? Saison braggot? Wiezen braggot? California common braggot? pLambic braggot?

 

[skunkboy]

Lambic braggot would certainly be interesting...

 

[wayneb]

Has anyone made a braggot where they either used a very high mash temp (160-162°F) or used a higher than normal proportion of specialty malts to leave the beer more dextrinous (ie 20%+ crystal malt)?

Yes - and it works well. So well, in fact, that my entry into the Braggot category at the previous Mazer Cup (2011) did not score uniformly well. Half the judges liked it; the other half said it was too "beer like." Guess braggots with more body than usual can fake out a judge. ;D

 

[machalel]

I guess that's one of thE potential problems... A judge expecting a honey beer will think it tastes too much like mead, but a judge expecting a malty mead will think its too much like beer.

 

[Penguinetti]

Yes - and it works well. So well, in fact, that my entry into the Braggot category at the previous Mazer Cup (2011) did not score uniformly well. Half the judges liked it; the other half said it was too "beer like." Guess braggots with more body than usual can fake out a judge. ;D

I think if I were to try making braggot (mind you, it wouldn't be for a while -- baby steps, baby steps), I think I'd prefer going this route. I'd enjoy the body.

Do you have a brewlog for your braggot? I ask, even though I'm just going to go check as soon as I'm done posting... 8)

 

[Mars Colonist]

Do you have a brewlog for your braggot? I ask, even though I'm just going to go check as soon as I'm done posting... 8)

Im going to guess it is this one. (Patrons)

Also, AToE's rebrew of the same. (Patrons)

 

[Penguinetti]

Nice Mars.

I was gonna guess that one, or the 2nd batch he did, Erik the Red Braggot.

I do have a question though. I noticed AToE conditioned it like a mead, rather than an ale. Being that they're like an ale, would that suggest that they don't need as many months of conditioning?

 

[wayneb]

Erik the Red actually faked them out. With the Braggot-docio, it was way over the top with everything, so nobody had an excuse for saying that they couldn't "find" something in there! ;D

 

[fathand]

I do have a question though. I noticed AToE conditioned it like a mead, rather than an ale. Being that they're like an ale, would that suggest that they don't need as many months of conditioning?

I have only made one braggot, so take that for what its worth, but what I've come to find is that the more age on it the better mine has gotten. This surprised me because my thinking was similar to yours Penguinetti.

Also unlike most of the braggots I have sampled the recipe I used was not a darker/stronger beer base where age would benefit, i.e. stout, barleywine. I made the recipe below in August 2011 and just now is the honey flavor really starting to show.

This recipe is based on a simple Braggot recipe I found by Joe M.

5 gallon batch

½ lb Carmel malt 40L
7 lbs 2-Row
6 lbs Honey (5 lbs Clover/1 lbs Buckwheat)
1 oz hops (whole cone Cascade)
Nottingham Dry Yeast
3 tsp of DAP
5 oz corn sugar to prime at bottling

 

[Boogaloo]

^^^^^^ This guy needs to go. Starting to see the same posts popping up everywhere.

 

[Jas53]

^^^^^^ This guy needs to go. Starting to see the same posts popping up everywhere.

Forwarded to Oskaar a couple hours ago - hopefully it'll happen later today.

 

[ChadK]

Forwarded to Oskaar a couple hours ago - hopefully it'll happen later today.

These same types of messages have been appearing every couple nights for a week or so now. It's really getting old. And a bit frustrating since they will sometimes post on threads I'm watching so I can't just mass "mark as read"

 

[pain]

Folks, please be patient with the mods, we get hundreds of registrations a day, and over 100K visitors a month to the site and have fairly difficult anti-spam measures in place, enough that I get angry emails from some folks who can't get through them, or get banned because they share an IP with a previous spammer. I feel that our anti-spam measures are equal to or exceed 99% of forums.

Sadly, the spammers still hammer us. We're working to keep it clear, and I think the moderators do a bang up job of keeping it down.

Work with us here. GM is one of the most spam-free forums I've seen, due the hard work of the moderators.

Please make sure you report the *post* (not the thread) when you see a spam msg, and we'll nail the poster and their posts. That saves us time searching an entire thread for a single post.

Just click the little triangle with the exclamation point in the top right part of each post, that will send that post to the mods. From there we can do a hunter/killer on the poster.

The mods and I have real lives and jobs that get in the way of meadmaking and running the site, LOL, so it might take a few hours before something gets taken down. Be patient, we'll get there!

Thanks for your support, and now returning you to your regularly scheduled forum......

(Vicky...back to juggling the 2 businesses while trying to get GM queued up for a much-needed upgrade/refresh)

 

[ChadK]

Folks, please be patient with the mods, we get hundreds of registrations a day, and over 100K visitors a month to the site and have fairly difficult anti-spam measures in place, enough that I get angry emails from some folks who can't get through them, or get banned because they share an IP with a previous spammer. I feel that our anti-spam measures are equal to or exceed 99% of forums.

Sadly, the spammers still hammer us. We're working to keep it clear, and I think the moderators do a bang up job of keeping it down.

Work with us here. GM is one of the most spam-free forums I've seen, due the hard work of the moderators.

Please make sure you report the *post* (not the thread) when you see a spam msg, and we'll nail the poster and their posts. That saves us time searching an entire thread for a single post.

Just click the little triangle with the exclamation point in the top right part of each post, that will send that post to the mods. From there we can do a hunter/killer on the poster.

The mods and I have real lives and jobs that get in the way of meadmaking and running the site, LOL, so it might take a few hours before something gets taken down. Be patient, we'll get there!

Thanks for your support, and now returning you to your regularly scheduled forum......

(Vicky...back to juggling the 2 businesses while trying to get GM queued up for a much-needed upgrade/refresh)

I am not at all upset with you or the mods, Vicky. Y'all do do a bang up job. I'm upset with these idiots who somehow think that the members of a mead forum would be interested in their products and the tactics they use to advertise them. I mean really? Do they really think that inconveniencing their potential audience is going to garner them potential sales? Even if I lived in India (Does GM have that many members from India that would make it worth their effort to advertise here in the first place?), would I think "Wow, that company that made me miss a reply to a post I'd been looking for with their stupid spam ad is the one I'm gonna go with?"

Keep up the good work (and the good fight,) my bile is in no way directed at you.