Spicy Braggart Braggot

[Richard]

An attempt at something a little different for the winter months - hybrid spiced beer/mead. 10 gallons using HG technique.

8lbs (2.5 Litres) Local Wildflower Honey
10lbs 2-Row Malt.
4lbs Wheat Malt.
2lbs Vienna Malt.
1lb Munich Malt.
4oz Caramunich II.
2oz Roast Barley.

2oz Challenger 8% @ 60.
2oz Fuggles 5% @ 20.

1tsp Dried Ginger @ 0.
1tsp Ground Cinnamon @ 0.
1/2tsp Ground All-spice @ 0.

2oz Aurora Dry-Hop.

Nottingham Yeast.

Mash 4.5 gallons @ 154, Sparge 4.5 gallons @ 168. Create beer as normal, adding the honey at flameout and ensuring a uniform distribution throughout the wort. Split between two carboys and top up with cold water.

[HappyHax0r]

This might be interesting .

[Richard]

OG ~1.061 (~70%). Smelt as I'd hoped after dilution - slight spiciness, big honey, rich maltiness. I'm going to take a sample before I throw the dry hops in, to figure out if it actually needs it. I think the dry-hop will cut well with the heavy floral notes from the honey, which can be overwhelming on their own.

[Richard]

Floral portion of both the aroma and the taste are far too strong, and I'm putting this down to the particular honey I used. I'm going to shop around for some different honeys and make some mini-batches of mead for a taste test. Unfortunately this will likely double -or more- the cost of honey in my recipes, but if something's worth doing it's worth doing right

First stop: Costco.