Brew Day - Oak Aged Chicory Vanilla Stout Braggot

Yeah, the name is a mouthful. I basically just described the ingredients. I really out to give it a nice short name. Since it was brewed on Aubrey's birthday, it should be Birthday Braggot.

This recipe (detailed below) was cobbled together from a variety of posts on HomeBrewTalk.com: a braggot recipe, a stout recipe, advice on using chicory, etc.

As always, brew day started much earlier than the brewing process. I had to liquefy the honey by placing the bottle into a styrofoam cooler full of hot water, get the yeast going (in the Wyeast Smack Pack,) cool a gallon of water (it's a partial mash recipe,) and clean like crazy.

The Brewing Details

Brewing has begun

I started by bringing 2.5 gallons of water and 1/2 tbsp of Five Star's ph stabilizer up to 155° F in the cookpot (I use ph stabilizer because I use RO water.) I decided on a partial mash because I was afraid this might turn into a royal disaster and I didn't want to invest the time & effort necessary to do a full grain recipe. The last time I made braggot, back in the 1990s, the fermentation went crazy and blew out the airlock and drilled stopper. There was krausen as far away as 5'.

I steeped the grains in a mesh bag at 155° for 30 minutes. During the last few minutes, I heated 0.5 gallons of water to 170° on the kitchen stove. Once the 30 minutes was up, I killed the fire and sparged the bag of grains with the extra 0.5 gallons of water. Then I mixed in the liquid malt extract and another 1/2 tbsp of ph stabilizer (recommended amount is 1 tbsp per 5 gallons but I didn't want to overload the 2.5 gallons with stabilizer during the initial steeping so I added in two batches.)

I think I made a mistake here. While the fire was off for several minutes before adding the liquid malt extract, I'm afraid I scorched it a bit. There was a lightly bitter, burned flavor in the finished wort. Hopefully that will settle out a bit in the final product.

Boil over. I hate when that
happens. Wasted beer.

At this point, the heat came back on and we headed to the boil. Once boiling, I threw in the hops (loosely held in a hop sock.) After 50 minutes (with 10 minutes left in the boil,) I put the Fermaid K, DAP, and Irish moss into the kettle along with the immersion chiller.

During the final 10 minutes of the boil, I measured out 7 lbs of buckwheat honey. Yes, it's really that dark.

At flame-out, I stirred in the 7lbs of honey and rinsed the container with an additional 12 oz of near boiling water that I heated on the stove (total water is now 3 gallons, 12 oz.) After a 10 minute rest, the water flow in the chiller began and quickly dropped the wort temperature. Sadly, somewhere along the way my digital thermometer lost its mind so I have no idea what the temperature was. I broke my last glass thermometer a few batches back and didn't have a backup to my digital.

Then I poured the wort into the Big Mouth Bubbler (more on that later,) added the gallon of cold water, and topped it to 5 gallons with room temperature water.

7 lbs tare weight

I estimated the temperature at 80 degrees when I took the hydrometer sample. This was a highly accurate estimate done by putting my finger into a glass of room temperature water and then into the wort sample, which was slightly warmer. The hydrometer reading was 1.100 with an additional 0.002 for the temp adjustment.

Not knowing the temperature, I went ahead and pitched the yeast, sealed the fermenter, and placed it in the bathtub expecting an overflow.

Yes, the honey is that dark. Here is in a
white bowl for better contrast.

The chicory, vanilla bean, and oak chips will go into the secondary fermenter sometime next week.

The Fermentation

After three hours, I walked into the bathroom where the fermenter was sitting and heard a click. Sure enough, a bubble about every 10 seconds. An hour later it was at a bubble every 6. By bedtime it was every 2 seconds. And during the night I woke to hear a tiny little motorboat sound coming from the airlock.

Into the fermenter and into
the tub. BTW, that's not krausen,
it's just bubbles from some
vigorous aeration.

The krausen, which I was concerned might blow out the airlock and overflow into the tub, only built up to fill about 1 to 1.25 gallons of space. Since it was a 6.5 gallon fementer (which actually held just short of 7 gallons,) there was plenty of space. By late Monday, Sept 1st, the krausen had begun to recede.

The Recipe

Ingredients

Fermentables

• 6.6 lbs Amber Liquid Malt Extract
• 6 oz Black Patent
• 10 oz Roasted Barley
• 7 lbs Buckwheat Honey

Hops

• 1 oz Summit hops (60 minutes)

Yeast

• 1 pack Wyeast American Ale (1056)

First brew with my
Big Mouth Bubbler.

Flavoring

• 1 oz Oak Chips
• 1 Vanilla Bean (cut and stripped)
• 1 oz chicory, cold pressed in 4 oz water

Adjuncts

• 1 tbsp Five Star ph stabilizer
• 1/2 tsp Fermaid K
• 1/2 tsp DAP (diammonium phosphate)
• 1 tsp Irish moss

The Process

Brewing

1. Heat 2.5 gallons of water + 1/2 tbsp ph stabilizer to 155° F.
2. Steep grains for 30 minutes.
3. Kill the heat.
4. Sparge grains with 0.5 gallons of 170° water.
5. Add liquid malt extract and 1/2 tbsp ph stabilizer to kettle and stir.
6. Put heat on high and bring a boil.
7. At boil, add hops and boil for 50 minutes.
8. After 50 minutes, add DAP, Fermaid K, Irish moss, and immersion chiller to the kettle. Boil for 10 more minutes.
9. After 10 minutes, kill the heat, remove the hop sock, and stir in the honey.
10. Rest (covered) for 10 minutes.
11. Start the water flow to the immersion chiller.
12. Once cooled, collect wort into fermenter, take hydrometer reading, and pitch yeast.

Krausen, krausen, krausen.
After about 12 hours, there was
1 to 1.25 gallons of krausen on top.

Primary Fermentation

1. Then seal and store somewhere that won't be hurt by a krausen overflow (like a bathtub.)

Secondary Fermentation

1. As soon as the initial fermentation ends, put 1 oz chicory into a sterilized hops sock or other device to retain the grounds, place into 4 oz of room temp water, and place in the refrigerator over night. 
2. The next day, sanitize the secondary fermenter.
3. Slice open the vanilla bean, pull out the seeds, and the slice the shell into strips. Place seeds and shell strips into the secondary fermenter.
4. Place the oak chips into the secondary fermenter.
5. Remove the chicory grounds from your water and carefully pour (do not splash) the mixture into the secondary fermenter.
6. Rack your braggot from the primary fermenter into the secondary fermenter.
7. Store for one month.

Bottling/Kegging
Bottle or keg as you see fit.

The drink can be served carbonated or still. If carbonating, I recommend 4 oz corn sugar or 1/2 cup honey. I have not tried these yet, but plan to use 4 oz corn sugar. These amounts are slightly lower than normal priming amounts. This is because of the aggressive fermentation. I don't want bottle bombs.

If bottling, be sure to store somewhere that bottle bombs will not cause carpet damage.

Enjoying
The recommendations I read suggest that 3 months of aging is a minimum. 6 to 9 is better. And 12 is excellent.  Since I am bottling, I will enjoy it at every stage and give an update.

Big Mouth Bubbler Review
So far, I like and dislike it. The ease of cleaning is awesome. I love the option of a 15/16" blowoff tube for highly active fermentations (but I forgot to order one.) The only problem is that it feels very thin. Other reviews I've read say the bottles crack easily. This is disappointing. But I've been handling it with kid gloves so maybe it will survive.

Speaking of enjoying, I found
one last bottle of the
 Graf I brewed last September
in the back of the refrigerator.
It was better than I remembered.
Aging probably helped.