Making a Braggot

[McJeff]

First off ive never brewed beer. I think i have the basic concept of a braggot, you basically exchange some of the normal honey for malt. My question is do you need to boil the malt and what does boiling it do?

 

[bernardsmith]

I think it depends... If you use dry malt or liquid malt extract (DME or LME) then you really do not need to boil the extract. The reason for boiling is multi-fold. Indeed, boiling extract results in a darker brew than you would expect if you had used equivalent grains.
1) if you use malted grains you need to to convert the starches to sugar (that takes heating in a volume of water) and then you need to evaporate some of that volume to leave you with the SG you want to start the beer with.
2) There is some concern that the proteins in the grains will remain in the beer unless you force the proteins to collect during what is called the hot break.
3. The addition of hops requires boiling as the alpha acids (which cause the bittering) need to be boiled for about 60-90 minutes to isomerize. Flavor hops and aroma hops require less boil time and perhaps no boil time (respectively)
4. There is some concern that the grains may carry unwanted lacto-bacteria that boiling kills
5. There are chemicals (DMS) produced by the grains that cause unwanted flavors and boiling (as long as you permit some of the boiled water to evaporate removes this chemical...