Homesteading in the armpit of the Cape

No activity at all in the braggot yet. Not characteristic of Nottingham yeast at all. I opened the lid and not even a hint of yeast aggregation or Krausen at all. I pitched some yeast energizer in there and shook it up before noon. Checked again at 7pm and still nothing. Past 24 hours now. If there is no activity by tomorrow morning, I think I may rack my Vulcan Warrior IPA into a secondary and pitch the braggot onto that S-05 yeast cake. That should take off and should be a problem for the braggot. It may be the high OG, I haven't brewed anything that high yet. I'm crossing my fingers that we get something by tomorrow, no sense rousing the Vulcan Warrior if you don't have to.

I've been wanting to brew a spice beer for some time but haven't found a recipe I liked. I just happened to have some honey and a can of LME so a braggot came up as an idea. I searched and searched for good recipes and finally came upon Daniel Eskridge's blog of his braggot adventures. Amongst his pages I found his Earl Grey Cinnamon Braggot recipe. I love Earl Grey Tea so I thought this is my recipe!
Here is Daniel's original recipe (http://www.wrongresult.com/homebrew/index.php?showimage=75)

Ingredient List

• 125 oz of water
• 1 lb light liquid malt extract
• 1.5 lb clover honey
• 4 sticks of cinnemon
• 2 bags of Earl Grey Tea
• 4 cloves
• 1/2 packet Nottingham Ale Yeast
• 1 Tbs Czech Saaz Hop Pellets
• A small pinch of Fermax

Process

1. I brought the water up to boiling and steeped the teabags in it
2. When the tea cooled to 160 degrees, I dropped in the crushed cinnamon and cloves (crushed via a ziplock bag and a rolling pin)
3. I then stirred gently as a I added the liquid malt extract, then the honey
4. I brought the temperature back up to 160, added the hops, 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.
5. While waiting for the must to cool, I rehydrated the yeast in water then added a bit of must and fermax after fifteen minutes or so.
6. Using a long handle spoon I fished out a bit of cinnamon and cloves and put it in the carboy.
7. I poured the must into the carboy through a strained funnel. This filtered out most, but not all, of the hops and cinnemon.
8. I then added the yeast to the carboy and capped it off with an airlock

My ingredients were a little larger so I scaled it up for 3 gallons. Here is what I did:

Ingredient List

• 3 gallons of water
• 3.3 lb light liquid malt extract
• 5 lb clover honey
• 12 sticks of cinnemon
• 6 bags of Earl Grey Tea
• 12 cloves
• 1 packet Nottingham Ale Yeast
• 1 0z Czech Saaz Hop Pellets

Process

1. Heated up a couple gallons of water in one pot and set my honey and malt so they would pour easier.
2. Brought 2 gallons of water to a boil and turned off the heat.
3. Put 6 bags Earl Grey Tea bags into the water and steeped until the temperature fell to 160F.
4. Put cinnamon sticks and cloves into a grain bag and crushed them with a marble rolling pin. Put the cinnamon and cloves into my hop sock.
5. Poured LME and Honey into the pot and stirred until dissolved.
6. Added heat until I reached 160F while stirring to keep malt from scorching.
7. Added 1 oz Saaz hops to hop sock and started 45 minute timer.
8. Brought temperature to approximately 170F and turned flame off. Maintained temperature between 160F and 180F for the 45 minutes. Required flame on a few times.
9. Took my immersion chiller out of a bucket of sanitizer that covered it and chilled the must down below 70F.
10. Put my hop sock over the fermentation bucket and poured the must into the bucket, pitched the yeast, secured the lid and airlock and aerated by rocking the bucket.
11. Placed in a swamp cooler in my basement.
    

OG: 1.070 @ 177F = 1.098 @60F.
Smells awesome and tastes awesome!

We got together again to brew up Greg's IPA recipe for 20 gallons of wort. Greg and I each took 5 gallons of wort home and Mark took 10 gallons of wort home. We had a great time, even though Greg forgot to bring the grain mill...thank goodness it is an extract recipe! Here is the recipe by the way:

20 Gallons of Wort
33.00 lbs. Briess LME- Gold
3.00 lbs. Crystal 40L
0.50 lbs. Special B Malt

3 oz of Warrior Hops 60 minutes
2 oz of Warrior Hops 15 minutes
3 oz Cascades Hops 0 minutes

My brew is with S-05 yeast, and I did something really different in an attempt to get that big cascade flavor I wanted.

My procedure, the day after brew day:
Boil 1 gallon of water.
Stir in 1# DME.
Toss my chiller and 2.5oz of cascade.
Boil for 15 minutes.
Chill to around 60F to match the wort closely.
Pitch onto the IPA.

Appearance:
Slight haze, could be chill haze or BIAB, not detracting but haze still. 1/2 finger head, nice slow stream of bubbles coming up inside the glass. Looks like a few more days will help the carb. The foamy head cathedrals on the side of the glass slightly, the pillow stays intact as you raise and lower the glass.

Smell:
Yeasty, bready, earthy.

Taste:
Light, low bitterness, low sweetness, very pleasing taste.

Mouthfeel:
Thin, watery, light carbonation tickles the tongue.

Drinkability:
This one is a refreshing drinker. This would be great on a hot night. At 5.6% these could probably sneak up on you easily. I can't believe I brewed this one. It tastes like something you would buy at the liquor store. YES!