Daniel's Blog of Braggot Brewing Gone Wrong

Sourwood - Bottling

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 04:55 -0700

Bottle it, yummy

Sourwood Mead

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 15:13 -0700

Started a new mead today using Sourwood honey. Same recipe as last mead but different honey.
Initial Gravity: 1.115. I've been looking forward to doing a sourwood mead for a long time, but it has taken me forever to collect enough honey. It turns out that large groves of sourwood trees have been mostly wiped out by development. Luckily, there is still some left. One of my local grocery stores carries some, but they only get in about 3 pounds every 3 months. So I've just been buying everything off the shelf.

Renn Fest Sweet Mead - Bottling

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 14:36 -0700

I decided it was time to bottle my Renn Fest Sweet mead. Since this is going to be flat, it was a pretty simple process. I sanitized the bottles, then just siphoned the mead in. Most of the bottles were flip tops, but I had 5 wine bottles that I had to use my corker. To do that, I soaked the corks in water that had been boiled (and cooled) for about 10 minutes, then just popped them in using the corker. Then I covered them in PVC bottle seals which I held on while inverting the bottle and giving the neck a quick dip in boiling water.

The final gravity was 1.064 (no change from last weeks racking.)

The picture above is the globe theater (the recreation, not the original which no longer exists). I took it while in London in April.

Renn Fest Sweet Mead - Racking

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:48 -0700

The air lock finally slowed to a bubble every 30 seconds on my Renn Fest Sweet mead. So I racked it into another carboy.

The procedure was pretty simple. After sanitizing all of my equipment I siphoned the mead from one carboy to another.

I gave it a quick hydrometer check and got a reading of 1.064. That's very high, but not too bad when you consider the initial reading was 1.12 which means I've got about 7% alcohol now. It tasted great, just like the stuff from the renn fest. It was still VERY cloudy though.

Sweet Cyser - Bottling

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:46 -0700

After letting it clear for a few weeks, I siphoned my Sweet Cyser into bottles. I decided to leave this one flat and didn't do any priming.

The image above is Luke Fildes' "Simpletons, The Sweet River"

Renn Fest Sweet Mead

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:13 -0700

My wife has requested that I make mead like they serve at the Renaissance Festival. From what I could tell it was pretty much no frills honey+wter+yeast. Though I did pick up a vial of yeast specifically designed for sweet mead.

The picture is Vermeer's "A Lady Drinking and a Gentleman ".

Ingredient List

2.5 gallons of water
10 lbs clover honey
1 vial of Wyeast Sweet Mead Yeast
A small pinch of Fermax

Process

I brought the water up to a boil for about 10 minutes to kill any microorganims, then let it cool for about another 10 minutes.
I stirred gently as a I added the honey
I then dropped the brewpot in a cold water bath to rapidly bring the temperature down.
I violently stirred the must for about five minutes with a ladle often picking up and pouring ladle-fulls back in. This was to get O2 dissolved into the must
I poured the must into the carboy through a funnel.
Finally, I added the yeast to the carboy and capped it off with an airlock

Original Gravity
1.120

Sweet Cyser - Two Week Hydrometer Check

Sun, 18 May 2008 14:33 -0700

It's been two weeks for my Sweet Cyser in the fermentor, I gave it a quick hydrometer check. 1.000! Totally dry. Checking around, that means I'm looking at about 10.5% alcohol. I'll bottle it when I get the chance.

The picture above is Pieter de Hooch's "Woman Peeling Apples"

Sweet Cyser

Sun, 04 May 2008 14:43 -0700

I'm still a little tired of Braggot, so I've decided to try and make a simple, but sweet cyser. Cyser is an apple cider - mead hybrid. Having had trouble with a stuck fermentation on my last cyser, I made sure to get as much oxygen into this one as I could. So there was a lot of vigorous stirring and shaking invovled.

The picture is Claude Joseph Bail's "Apples with a Tankard and Jug".

Ingredient List

1 gallon of apple juice
1 lb clover honey
1/2 packet Nottingham Ale Yeast
1 Tbs Czech Saaz Hop Pellets
A small pinch of Fermax
A small pinch of Irish Moss

Process

I brought the apple juice up to 160 degrees then stirred gently as a I added the honey
Next, I added the hops and irish moss, and heated for 45 more minutes, then dropped the brewpot in a cold water bath to rapidly bring the temperature down. This was to pastuerize the must.
While waiting for the must to cool, I rehydrated the yeast in water and fermax
I violently stirred the must for about five minutes with a ladle often picking up and pouring ladle-fulls back in. This was to get O2 dissolved into the must
I poured the must into the carboy through a strained funnel.
I shook the carboy for about five minutes to try and get even more O2 dissolved in.
Finally, I added the yeast to the carboy and capped it off with an airlock

Original Gravity
1.080

Dry Braggot - Bottling

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:18 -0700

I allowed three weeks for primary fermentation on my Dry Braggot and then decided it was time to bottle.

I dissovled 6 teaspoons of sugar into 1/3 cup of boiling water, let it cool then distributed it evenly among 6 flip top bottles. Then I just siphoned the braggot in.

I'm a bit out of practice and forgot to take a hydrometer reading.

The picture above is Alberto Pasini's "Desert Encampment"

--Daniel

Basic Ale

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:13 -0700

My wife is pregnant with our first child. Consequently, we have gone into money saving mode. Beer has been cut from our grocery list as both frivolous and expensive. Now, I of course drink all of the braggot that I brew, but I only make a gallon or so every few months. I drink a pint of beer however, several times a week. So now I've decided to brew my own beer.

When I google beer recipes, I get hundreds of results, but everything that comes up is ridiculously complex. I started to wonder if mixing 18 varieties of malt, half a dozen types of hops and two or three different yeasts produced something so different from just DME, a handful of hops, and an ale yeast. So, I decided to start as simple as possible.

The picture is John van de Velde II's Still Life with Tall Beer Glass

Ingredient List

125 oz of water
1 lb pale dry malt extract
1 packet Nottingham Ale Yeast
1 Tbs Mount Hood Hop Pellets
A pinch of Irish Moss
A small pinch of Fermax

Process

I brought the water up to boiling, then stirred gently as a I added the dry malt extract
Next, I added the hops, and boild for 60 more minutes
I added the Irish moss and boiled for another 15 minutes
I then dropped the brewpot in a cold water bath to rapidly bring the temperature down.
While waiting for the wort to cool, I rehydrated the yeast in water then added fermax after fifteen minutes or so.
I poured the wort into the carboy through a strained funnel.
I then added the yeast to the carboy and capped it off with an airlock

Original Gravity
1.050