Braggot Brew Day

Yesterday, before most people were awake in the neighborhood, these Brew Dudes were up to some homebrewing activities.

The main attraction was a braggot brew session. I did a small mash (5 pounds of grain) and 1 addition of hops for the full sixty minute boil so the kettle didn’t need constant attention. We checked on it just to make sure it was still rolling with the boil.

While that was going, we bottled and corked the cyser that had been conditioning since December in my basement. Even though we discovered that my auto-siphon had a big crack in it, the transfer from carboy to bottling bucket went okay.

This cyser was the first brew I have ever corked. The newfangled corking device that Mike bought for his foray into wine this past fall is really easy to use. With slightly less than a gallon to package, I was able to cap three 12 ounce bottles for competition and cork three wine bottles for consumption at a later date.

Then, we bottled the Scottish 70 shilling ale. I drew a sample off of the carboy just to get an idea of the flavor profile. That yeast strain does some funny things. There was a definite peat-y note to it. I can’t wait for it to condition in the bottle for a few weeks to see how it is when it matured a bit.

With the Scottish Ale bottled and the wort chilling, 6 pounds of honey was poured into the just emptied carboy – right on top of the yeast cake.

This raw honey was slow moving. It took a while for it to run through the funnel. Once I got the wort cooled to fermentation temperatures, pouring the wort on top of the honey helped to move things along.

I did add a little yeast nutrient and energizer to the carboy before I sealed it. Within two hours, the airlock was bubbling pretty intensely. Hooo boy.

Brew On!