2016 RCE jimjohnson/The_Professor -- Bragget

[The_Professor]

Due to my unexpected hospital stay and recovery our RCE was delayed quite a bit but it looks like we are on track to get it brewed up this month.

We decided to try our hands at an Ancient British Liquor, called Bragget from this book c. 1845ish.

Take a look at both the above recipe and the BJCP 26B Braggot.

The plan is do do about half the volume in the Bragget recipe. So two gallons rather than four. We do plan to use "first runnings" for the Bragget and make a second beer from the "second runnings". We are using this Parti Gyle Estimator to help plan the bill. I believe we are both planning 1/3 for the "first runnings " which gives us a wildly crazy high OG. There are close to a dozen spice/herb additions for the Bragget. It should be interesting to see what we get in attempting to follow this olde recipe.

For the "second running" beer we are both making whatever we choose. I am sorta following the "1839 Reid IPA" from Ron Patterson's The Home Brewer's Guide To Vintage Beers (The Barclay Perkins website guy). So I'm shooting for the 1.057 OG and 177 IBU of that recipe but changing the hops to a totally modern EKG, Fuggle, Bramling Cross combo.

[mashani]

Both the Braggot and the old style IPA sound cool to me. I don't have that book so I don't know what recipe your following, but I know how crazy some of the old British IPAs were compared to what we think of as "balanced", especially since they typically use sugar and don't have much if any crystal. Are you going to secondary and age that one for a long time and then dry hop it later, or just brew it and bottle it? I know some of those old ones with stupendous levels of IBUs were aged in wood, and then dry hopped right before they bottled it and shipped it after aging. I think a lot of those aged beers ended up infected with Brett too from the barrels. I'm considering doing a stupidly high AA low gravity IPA and letting my Brett hammer it this summer for that very reason.

I'm likely going to brew some "holy roman empire" reconstructionist Abbey beers this summer. I don't know if you like Belgian yeast, but if you want to play around with that kind of idea, let me know. They will be mostly herb flavored, some will even have a bit of salt in them - but very little hops (if any), it just depends on what herbs I can get.

[The_Professor]

Here it is, hopefully legible.

recipe.jpg (119.82 KiB) Viewed 3502 times

[mashani]

Yeah. That's like a 20% over hopped old school Burton ale, except the gravity is about 10 points lower then an old Burton ale. I'd love it. It's impossible to use too much EKG in my opinion. It's one hop you simply can't over do somehow (unlike Fuggles). So now your wanting to make me throw more Goldings into my upcoming beer (as of right now I'm using 8oz). But then again mine is going to end up 10 points lower then this too, so 8oz is probably enough. I also discovered that the EKG I ordered is 6% AAUs, which is kind of high for EKG, so I may tweak my recipe a bit, still thinking about that, it depends on if I want to push the proportional bittering levels up as high as your recipe here.

[The_Professor]

Perhaps you would like to know that I found a couple beers I was looking for when I bought that book. I was interested in mild and keeping ale.The book has a nice 10.45 ABV, 73 IBU 1832 mild; as well as a 10.72 ABV, 112 IBU 1835 stock ale. All EKG for both, mild malt for the mild and pale ale for the stock.

[jimjohson]

I'm just planning a "session IPA" and as it's my first foray into the IPA field, I'll be happy if it just comes out "drinkable".

[mashani]

Perhaps you would like to know that I found a couple beers I was looking for when I bought that book. I was interested in mild and keeping ale.The book has a nice 10.45 ABV, 73 IBU 1832 mild; as well as a 10.72 ABV, 112 IBU 1835 stock ale. All EKG for both, mild malt for the mild and pale ale for the stock.

That's cool. What is the book? I'd like to check it out.

There is an 8%+ "Export Mild" on Barclay Perkins that I've been meaning to brew, but haven't gotten around to it mostly because I don't brew a lot of beers that big. But I will one day.

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2011 ... ad-xx.html

Based on talking to friends from across the pond about various locally brewed pub beers they drink, I have come to the conclusion that even now the style guidelines for British Beer as defined by BJCP are like the Belgian ones. As in what Americans think British/Belgian Beer is - artificial buckets based on export beers - not necessarily what it really might be if brewed by a local and served locally. These 1800 recipes are kind of extreme because they were meant to kill off and/or bury any off flavors from infected beer for any kind of "keeping" ale - anything low abv and/or low hopped was not for keeping, it was for immediate consumption - but the CAMRA type of Brits do still brew lots of beers well outside the style guidelines as defined by BJCP. So I'm all for going crazy with the British beers.

[The_Professor]

That's cool. What is the book? I'd like to check it out...

Ron Patterson's The Home Brewer's Guide To Vintage Beers.

The Whitbread Export does sound nice.

[The_Professor]

Looks like this Sunday will be RCE brew day.
I'll repost a couple links in this post rather that have anyone look for them.
Doing this Bragget recipe. 1/2 batch, so winding up with 2.0 gallons (1.5 "strong ale" + 0.5 honey/spices) rather than 4.0 (3.0 "strong ale" + 1.0 honey/spices).
So I will be using "first running strong ale" for the mead and making a second beer with the second runnings.
Using this calculator I input the OG for my 2nd running beer (1.057) and let it calculate the rest.
The calculator says 1.0759 for the total batch OG. In Qbrew I get 1.076 OG for 12.0 lbs of British 2-row. I'm using the 1/3, 2/3 split. so the second running beer will be 3.0 gallons.
I won't rehash the entire recipe in the link.
I'll be using 1/2 lb of "Wildflower Sage" honey in the 1/2 gallon of water. I am aiming to wind up with that volume when it gets mixed with the (1.5 gal) "strong ale".
For the 1/2 handful items (1/2 of 1/2 handful for this recipe) around 1/4 cup depending on the item.
1/2 of the ginger is about 2 tbsp--the only actual measurement of herbs/spices in the recipe.
Somewhere around 1/4 or 1/8 tsp for "a little" depending on the item.
3 or 4 cloves for "a few".
I will be doing the mixing of the Bragget and spices after the boil of the second runnings.
As I mentioned in a post above, I will be sorta doing a recipe for an 1839 IPA.
So I am using only Crisp Pale Malt for the grain bill.
The IPA recipe calls for 90,60, and 30 minute hop additions for a total of 177 IBU using only EKG.
I'm going to use a mix of EKG, Fuggle, Bramling Cross.
0.6 oz each @ 90
0.5 oz each @ 60
0.5 oz each @ 30
dry hop with the remainder of the 2 oz bags.
I'm whimping out with only 171 IBU.
I am going to use Mangrove Jack's British Ale yeast (M07) for both the Bragget and the IPA.
Should be an interesting brew day.

[jimjohson]

ONLY 171??? lol I'll be shooting for something in the 60s

[jimjohson]

I'll be making a session IPA at 60 IBUs going to bitter with galena. Flavor, aroma, and dry hop with Styrian Golding.

[jimjohson]

Well I got both in the fermentation chamber. The Bragget 's OG was .074, and the IPA 's .063. if it finishes @ .010 like it's suppose to it'll be a 60 IBUs @ 7.3% ABV, not a bad for an English IPA.

[The_Professor]

The brew day yesterday was interesting.

I think there were two issues that effected the outcome of my two beers. One, that had crossed my mind, was that the calculations in the Parti Gyle Calculator should have been pre boil volumes and gravities. If it's not preboil then you are stealing some of the wort from the second runnings for the first. The second is that I just use the markings on my pots and buckets for volume and my first runnings were over volume.

The OG for my Bragget is 1.093 (22 brix). The aroma from the herbs and spices as they simmered was really nice. Earthy and spicy. No idea what the flavor will be. The volume for my Bragget is where it should be, 2 gallons. I discarded the bit that was over volume with a good bit of coldbreak. I should have just added it to the second runnings.

My second running IPA wound up with a lower gravity than planned. About 1.045 (11.0 brix) rather than the planned 1.057. During the boil when I realized the gravity was going to be low I held the last hop addition back. I used the 30 minute addition for a hop stand instead. I'll still do the dry hop.

I used the Mangrove Jack's British Ale yeast for both of the brews. I rehydrated the yeast before pitching it.

I do want to brew a parti gyle again sometime. A Belgian Tripel and Dubbel.

[The_Professor]

I took a Brix reading on the Bragget today, 12.75 (1.026 8.92 ABV so far). It's still cloudy. I'll move it to secondary next weekend. I also took a very small taste sample. It's interesting and seems to be good.

I'll check the Brix on the second running IPA tomorrow when I move it to secondary.

[The_Professor]

I dry hopped the second running IPA tonight. Will bottle on Sunday.