Top Bar Beekeeping Forum

[taipantoo]

I'm going to make a barley wine style braggot from a recipe in THE COMPLETE MEADMAKER by Ken Schramm.
Here is the recipe:
Makes 5 Gallons (18.92L)

Whole grain option:

4 lbs. (1.82kg) crushed pale malt
0.5 lbs. (227g) crushed crystal malt

Alternative extract option:

3.3 lbs. (1.5kg) pale malt extract syrup or 3 lbs. (1.36kg) pale dry malt extract

Ingredient for both methods:

2 oz. (56.7g) Cascade hop pellets, ~5.5 alpha acid units (optional)
10 lbs. (4.55kg) medium amber honey
2 tsp. (19.8g) yeast nutient
2 tsp. (19.8g) yeast energizer
10 g Lalvin D-47 yeast

I'll be using the extract version with the hops and adding the 0.5 lbs. of crushed crystal malt.

My son, Miah is coming over with a home brewer friend of his and they are going to make a batch of beer and my Son-in-law, TAD, is coming down from Vermont to brew two batches of beer.

The weather doesn't look good for Sunday morning so I'll probably be putting up tarps in the back yard.

I hope this all works out.

Any comments?

Tai
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Tai

Member of ECBA Essex County Beekeepers' Association
http://www.essexcountybeekeepers.org
Merrimac, Massachusetts
United States of America

[Shapleigh's Bees]

Looks like a good recipe, the beer/mead combination should help with some of the yeast problems with just honey in the mix. I only made one batch of mead, and it came out horrid.

What's the specific gravity of this brew? Looks like 13 pounds of sugars.

Good luck, sounds tasty.
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D'you know that bees and dogs can smell fear?

[taipantoo]

The recipe doesn't say what the O.G. will be.
It just has a warning not to exceed the alcohol tolerance of the yeast I'm using.
I do know that 1 lb. of honey or malt will raise the O.G. by 0.008 and I'm adding the 0.5 lbs. of crushed crystal malt to the extract recipe.
I will also be adding 1/2 cup of honey at bottling for a mild carbonation.
I'll have to let you know when I float my hydrometer.

Your mead may improve with age, but then again, if your not a mead drinker, there may not be anything wrong, just not to your liking.
_________________
Tai

Member of ECBA Essex County Beekeepers' Association
http://www.essexcountybeekeepers.org
Merrimac, Massachusetts
United States of America

[taipantoo]

If I read my hydrometer right and did the temperature correction, my O.G. is 1.089.
_________________
Tai

Member of ECBA Essex County Beekeepers' Association
http://www.essexcountybeekeepers.org
Merrimac, Massachusetts
United States of America

[geowend]

===Now what I need to do is find out what the actual recipe that Dogfish Head Brewery uses to make their Midas Touch...it is the perfect blend of a wine, a mead, and a beer....(grins)

[Droner]

[Gordo]

I had some great success with substituting honey for dextrose in a beer kit recently. After a good bit of research, I subbed 1.5kg of unpasteurized honey (left over from a mead project a couple of winters ago) for 1kg of dextrose in a Munton's brown ale beer kit. I staggered the honey introduction as an expeiment as well: 1kg at the pitching of the yeast and the other 500g three days later. Greg can attest to the results. My only regret is that I'm running out and the only thing I can be certain of is never getting it to taste the same again.
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Gord Campbell
Geek at Large and General Pain in the Butt
http://blog.cruachan.ca