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I was wondering if anyone here has had any experience brewing Braggot? There is scant information on the net and whatever recipes I find tend to vary greatly. I was thinking of doing a small batch, and using pale LME and honey at a 50/50 ratio. Plus a small amount of crystal grain. There seem to be varying opinions on hopping braggot, so I thought I'd just use a light hop and aim for something in the 10-15 IBU range. I don't know what sort... maybe saaz??

The other option is to go for something darker to accentuate the richness of the honey colour. So an amber malt extract, darker crystal grain and maybe a slightly heavier hop. Maybe something german like Hallertau?

Any thoughts?

Braggot is a flavoured mead using malted barley and some makers suggest is needs to be 50% honey to qualify as a braggot (aka Bracket).

Flavoured meads are broadly categorised as follows:

1. Melomel: fruit, other than apples or grapes
2. Cyser: Apples
3. Pyment: Grapes
4. Hippocras: spiced pyment
5. Metheglin: herbs, spices, and
6. Braggot: malted barley

In terms of characteristics, braggots sit between beer and mead:
beer -> braggot -> mead -> pyment -> wine

Way back in 1984, Bryan Acton and Peter Duncan wrote a book titled "Making Mead". Their braggot recipe was:

1lb Malt Extract
1 lb Heather Honey
7 pints water

boil above 15' skimming surface
add 1/4 oz citric acid and yeast nutrients
cool and pitch ale yeast
mature 3 months and serve slightly chilled.

Here's a hopped barleywine/braggot cross I found on the net:

HONEYTHUMPER

3 lbs Amber DME (Munton)
3 lbs Light DME (Munton)
5 lbs Honey (generic clover type from the supermarket)
1 lb Briess Crystal malt ( 10 lovibond) - steep at 150*F for 20 min.
1/3 lb flaked barley (unroasted/unmalted) - steep at 150*F for 20 min
Add all ingredients to "grain tea" and boil - add the following hops (pellets)
2 Oz Northern Brewer 45 minutes
1 Oz Cascade 15 minutes
1 Oz Cascade 5 minutes
Yeast - Muntons dry ale - reconstituted as per package instructions
Primary fermentation 10 days at 65-68*F
Secondary 1month - Bottle condition at least a month for best results.

As for hopping, some like to and some don't. The hops may help balance out the alcohol notes with bitterness and there are others who prefer the complex sweet / alcohol combo without hops getting in the way. So, you may wish to do a batch with hops and another without. Northern Brewer and Cascade / Centennial / Chinook would be fine.

Hope this helps...

Cheers,
TL