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WikdWaze

NewBee
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Aug 2, 2004
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I posted my braggot recipe in the mead section of a homebrew forum, it's quite amusing. When you look at the differences between the responses here, where people understand mead, and the responses there, where they know beer. They seem to be obsessed with the fact that I will end up with a sweet, cloudy product. Of course, I'm obsessed with that idea too, because that's what I want ;D One guy ran the recipe through Promash, a beer calculator, and determined it should have an SG of about 1.200, he recommended cutting the honey from 3# to 1# which would still give an SG of 1.1 and change. They're assuming some fermentables will come from the grains I'm using, I'm trying to avoid that by only steeping the grains to get the flavor, body, and aroma qualities I want. Essentially they're trying to convert my braggot to a honey-beer by reducing the honey and drawing more fermentables from other sources. I'm trying to get the most from the honey and just draw some beneficial characteristics from these adjuncts. Quite amusing to see beer people contemplate a mead ::)

What would a 1.2 SG finish at with 15% ABV?
 
I thought I'd let you know: Borny (the guy who ran it through promash) is both a meadmaker and a brewer. I don't know if he's ever made a braggot, but I think he's pretty qualified to comment.

If you steep the grains, you will most definitely get some fermentables from them. The question is how much, and that depends on the temperature of the mash. His promash estimate of your OG is probably about right, unless you just dunk the grains in cold water. In that case, you are unlikely to get any benefit from them at all.

By my estimates, your 1.200 OG fermented out to 15% ABV will leave you with about a 1.080 FG, syrupy sickeningly sweet. Dry meads start at that gravity. I don't necessarily agree with his suggestion to reduce the honey that dramatically, but I would not recommend using your recipe as is. (Assuming his promash calcs are right.)

By the way, most yeasts won't even start fermenting at that high of a gravity.
 
Borny is an experienced brewer, but fairly new to meadmaking and has only been doing it a few months I believe.

Sounds like his recipe is a reflection of himself. ;) It sounds like a recipe from someone who favors beer over mead.
 
ScottS said:
I thought I'd let you know: Borny (the guy who ran it through promash) is both a meadmaker and a brewer. I don't know if he's ever made a braggot, but I think he's pretty qualified to comment.

If you steep the grains, you will most definitely get some fermentables from them. The question is how much, and that depends on the temperature of the mash. His promash estimate of your OG is probably about right, unless you just dunk the grains in cold water. In that case, you are unlikely to get any benefit from them at all.

By my estimates, your 1.200 OG fermented out to 15% ABV will leave you with about a 1.080 FG, syrupy sickeningly sweet. Dry meads start at that gravity. I don't necessarily agree with his suggestion to reduce the honey that dramatically, but I would not recommend using your recipe as is. (Assuming his promash calcs are right.)

By the way, most yeasts won't even start fermenting at that high of a gravity.
Click to expand...
I do not question his knowledge or experience, nor that of anybody else who disagrees with me. I was merely reflecting on the narrow scope of their field of vision when it comes to something different. There are a great many recipes that start off with 3# of honey, I don't see why mine is suddenly excessive. According to an equation posted elsewhere on this site, my recipe has an SG of 1.169. That's undoubtedly higher than your typical beer, but at 15% ABV it should finish about 8% residual sweetness, which I don't personnally feel is excessive. Many wine drinkers would probably call that amount excessive, but to a southern boy raised on iced tea it should be just fine. The other point they keep bringing up is protein haze. I posted several times that I want a cloudy product, yet they still caution me about the haze. They're letting their fixation with clarity effect their judgement of my recipe. That's the only point I'm trying to make. They think my recipe should turn out a drier, crystal clear product instead of what I designed the recipe for. They are trying to convert it to a honey-beer instead of the sweat mead I planned.

Given the recipes I've seen, I seriously question Promash's ability to calculate anything other than beer.
 
I was going to ask you guys what you thought about Promash.

I posted some number form a patch I have going to a mailing list and one of the guys ran the #s through promash. Seems the Sweet mead I thought I was making by following the resipe from the local brew shop is going to turn out as a dry Hydromel from what this guy tells me.

Basicly the resipe is 15#s honey and 5 gallons of water. and some stuff to feed the yeast. It started out at 1.068 and after 21 days it was at 1.020. the guys seem to thing that those #s are way too low for what I should have. i'm thinking it should add about another 3 to 5 Lbs of huney to sweeten it out.

Could ProMash be giving teh wrong reading based on the information?
 
I've had plenty of sweet meads at 1.020, and dessert meads generally are considered to be in the 1.020+ range.

Let it sit for a bit and sample it. If it is too dry, sweeten it, if not, let it age and enjoy it later.

Oskaar
 
After posting last night I ran accross a formula in another thread so I ran the numbers through it. Acording to the formul I should have had a OG of 1.1125 instead of teh 1.068 I got when i took the reading. they guy at the brew shop said it should have been even higher than that. if I had used 4 gallons of water like I should have instead of the 5 gallons the resipe said to use, I should have got a OG of 1.1135 according to the formula. does that sound right to you guys?

if this is right, the batch isn't as far off as I thought it was. I was able to scrap almost a pound of honey out of the two jars it came in so my OG was probibly closer to 1.105 if that formula is right and my guesstamations are correct.


SG = 1 + [ (lbs x 45) / (gals x 1000) ]

I assume that Gals = total gallons of must after adding honey to the water.
 
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