Some ideas sound great in your head. Some even make it to paper where they still sound good. Despite those two hurdles some ideas still don’t work out in reality… What does Nelson Sauvin, Braggot, White Wine and the Brew Dudes have in common…?  Roll film!!!!

Noting that Nelson Sauvin can have a white wine like character and that John has produced a couple; no several, great meads – he had an idea. “Can I combine the wine-like quality of Nelson Sauvin with wine yeast, honey, and malt and come up with a winey braggot?”

In this case, John completely hits the mark making a very white winey braggot. However, despite the perfect execution and the combination of the ingredients; in reality, it just doesn’t taste all that good. The winey character is too strong. Some of the honey is lost beneath the hops and the white wine yeast (Lavin D47).

John’s proportions are basically 75% honey to 25% malt. He pitched a good amount of yeast and got a good ferment.  Everything went as planned but there was a distinct phenol, maybe medicinal, aspect late in the palate of the braggot. Perhaps in the end, the flavors of a great white wine and a beer/braggot just do not play well together.

Maybe in several months this expensive mistake will age out a bit and the flavors will mellow into something more drinkable. For now, we are left with the reality that sometimes even good ideas don’t turn out. (Although this was a great exercise in seeing a description about hops and then seeing it actually well executed in a beverage.)

CHEERS! BREW ON!