Brewing a Braggot anyone?

StephenRich · Post by **StephenRich** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 11:18 am

Does anyone have any experience or expertise brewing a Braggot? I love the style, and have had some very good examples - but they are hard to come by, so its time to do it myself.

Most of what I have read seems simple enough - Design a beer where 50% or so of the fermentables come from honey. Mash as normal, lauter as normal, then add your honey to the boil (with any water needed to achieve volume)...

Seems too simple.. haha.. Anything I should be aware of for when to add the honey? Or the variety of honey? Yeast or ferm requirements? Any help would be awesome. Thanks!

matt7215 · Post by **matt7215** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 11:49 am

i would add the honey at high krausen

StephenRich · Post by **StephenRich** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 12:11 pm

Why into ferm rather than boil?

JasonTremblay · Post by **JasonTremblay** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 1:39 pm

StephenRich wrote:Why into ferm rather than boil?

Usually, you get a couple reasons.

The first is that boiling tends to drive off aromatics -- so aroma / flavour additions of spices and herbs (including hops) tend to be at the end of the boil or in the fermenter (and then, usually in the secondary since CO2 might also scrub aromatics).

The second is that some brewers feel that adding simple sugars (like honey) to the boil tends to make yeast, for lack of a better word, lazy. In the presence of so many simple sugars, the yeast will chew through those and leave the slightly longer sugars untouched leading to a sweeter beer / braggot than you would otherwise have.

I don't know about #2 -- pitching rates and mash quality seem to have a larger effect on attenuation than sugar, but it might be an issue on an industrial scale where everything else is precisely controlled.

As for #1 ...

If you're spending the money on good quality honey, I wouldn't boil it 60 minutes -- a 10 minute boil should kill any (potential) bugs in the honey if you're worried about a possible infection. And if you drop the honey in during secondary, the combination of low pH, hops, and alcohol should also keep any bugs in check (and, honestly, breweries dump FRUIT into secondary ferementations all the time, and fruit's freakin' nasty compared to honey).

markaberrant · Post by **markaberrant** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 1:59 pm

Braggot is an extremely wide open style. You don't even have to add hops. Way too many ways to build a recipe.

Think about what you want the end result to be, and then work your way backwards.

StephenRich · Post by **StephenRich** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 5:51 pm

I'm mostly trying to get a handle on how to use the honey, and if I should be aware of any yeast or fermentation issues. This is all very helpful so far. Thanks all!

xocoatl · Post by **xocoatl** » Wed Oct 17, 2012 3:27 pm

Wondering if more of the honey character would come through by brewing a beer and a mead separately, then blending after fermentation. Would also give the option to make the mead and let it mature for a year or so, then blend with a fresher beer.

Might have to do some experiments

phat matt · Post by **phat matt** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 11:31 am

My suggestion would be to add some yeast nutrients to the wort. at 50% of the fermentables alot of the needed nutrients will be missing.

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 12:43 am

I've only done one and the nottingham yeast was at the limit around 12% abv... bottles didn't all prime very well. Gambrinus honey malt adds a nice residual sweetness. Yeast nutrient is good.