I brewed this braggot way back on July 24, 2002, when honey was cheap and when my technique involved a LOT of herbs, usually including roasted dandelion root. My tasting notes say “EXCELLENT tasting beer! Yarrowy but not astringent.”
I’m not big on authentic historical recreations, but it’s fun to imagine that this is the sort of thing that inspired Chaucer’s pen.
Hir mouth was sweete as bragot or the meeth,
Or hoord of apples leyd in hey or heeth.
Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Miller’s Tale”
Recipe Details
Batch Size
Boil Time
IBU
SRM
Est. OG
Est. FG
ABV
6 gal
60 min
0.0 IBUs
15.0 SRM
1.068
1.006
8.3 %
Fermentables
Name
Amount
%
Pale 2-Row - US
2 lbs
15.5
Caramel/Crystal 60 - US
1.5 lbs
11.63
Munich - 60L - US
1 lbs
7.75
Liquid Malt Extract - Light - US
4.4 lbs
34.11
Honey - US
4 lbs
31.01
Miscs
Name
Amount
min
Type
dandelion roots, dried, roasted in 300F oven for 20 minutes
2.00 oz
0 min
Boil
Other
ginger root, fresh, sliced thin
2.00 oz
0 min
Boil
Other
yarrow tops, dried
2.00 oz
0 min
Boil
Other
calamus root, dried
1.00 oz
0 min
Boil
Other
lemonbalm, dried
1.00 oz
0 min
Boil
Other
juniper berries, crushed
0.50 oz
0 min
Boil
Other
licorice root, dried
0.50 oz
0 min
Boil
Other
sassafras root bark shavings, fresh
0.50 oz
0 min
Boil
Other
spikenard root, dried
0.50 oz
0 min
Boil
Other
Yeast
Name
Lab
Attenuation
Temperature
Fermentis Safale S-04
75%
64°F - 69°F
Notes
Braggot is half beer, half mead. I made this back in 2002, when the local wildflower honey was still extremely cheap (and before I switched to all-grain brewing). My technique at that time involved making a two-gallon tea with part of the herbs the day beforeﾗin this case, with the yarrowﾗand refrigerating it in sanitized jars to add to the wort at the end of the boil... a very long boil, as you can imagine. Alternatively, you could just add the yarrow leaf to the wort ten minutes before the end, with all the other herbs, and then steep in the hot wort with the lid on for an additional half hour or so before cooling it down.
Thnx for the Gruit recipes…