Cap and Cork

I’ve always had a penchant for things old.  Perhaps I was born too late?  If you look up braggot (sometimes bracket) on Wikipedia, you’ll find the following (under the main heading of Mead):  Braggot marks the invention of Ale which was originally brewed with honey and hops, later with honey and malt — with or without hops added.  After searching for some recipes and pointers on the net, I’ve come up with the following recipe for a one gallon batch:

• 1 to 1.25 pounds of Extra-light or Light Dry Malt Extract (DME)
• 2 cups of Honey (1.5 pounds)
  •  Honey is approximately 0.75 pounds per cup
• 1 to 1.5 TBSP Fuggles Hops (or other low alpha acid hops you prefer)
  • 45 minute boil
• Irish Moss
• Coopers Ale Yeast
• 1 oz of priming sugar

Typical recipes I’ve seen keep the Malt to Honey ratio at about 1:1 with amounts per gallon as listed above.  Remember that DME is “stronger” than liquid malt so this is nearly a true 50/50 braggot.  I wasn’t sure how much carbonation to go for so I simply stuck with the standard of 1 ounce per gallon of priming sugar.

Please check over at the recipe page for fermentation notes, observations and tasting comments! CLICK HERE