Hi, I made a one gallon braggot for the first time. I used 2 lb honey, 1lb specialty grains and 1/2 lb dme; the OG was 1.109 the fermentation so now 1.031 . I added E 1118 after the lavin 71b in hopes of continuing fermentation but to no avail. I would like to add frozen cranberries for tartness but I am scared it will lower the ABV . Any suggestions would be helpful.
How did you measure final gravity? Hydrometer or refractometer?
It’s possible you could have a FG that high with champagne yeast, as it will have a hard time with the complex sugars in DME and extracted from the grains. If you want to dry it out more, try some WLP-099, which can metabolize malt sugars. There’s not a lot of sugar or water in cranberries, so it shouldn’t have a big impact on ABV. If you aren’t worried about head retention, you can also use dried cranberries which will have even less impact. Dried fruit often times has a vegetable oil coating, which will kill any foam if you carbonate it, but if you look hard enough you can find dried fruit without oil.
Hi Porkchop,
Thank you for the reply. I used a hydrometer for the FG. What I should have done was use a beer yeast first then add a champagne yeast. I also feed the must x2 with yeast nutrients . WLP-099 is a pricey fix for me for a one gallon mead. I also added1/2 pack of safeale -05 no luck; too late an addition. Could I dilute the must with sterile tap water to lower the alcolhol and SG for a beer yeast .. I have Safeale us S05,safeale k-97, safeale s04, ferm go and fermaid K. Then add for honey to a mead OG than add E1118 or Lavin71? Also if I boil the frozen raw cranberries I will have to add pectinase.
Bassin75
I wouldn’t boil the cranberries - just thaw and add them. You’re already at 10.4%ABV, so your braggot is pretty much a sanitizer.
Any reason in particular you want to lower FG? Does it taste too sweet?
If you did go the WLP-099 route, it would be worth making something else with it and then adding a portion of the resulting yeast cake to your braggot - this would have the advantage of acclimating the yeast to the high alcohol environment, and it’ll be pretty much free if it goes towards a different batch.
Hi Porkchop
I want sure 10% abv would be high enough to sanitize the cranberry addition. I will be go ahead with the cranberry addition with the must as is and remember what I did wrong for future reference. Being a mead would it hurt to add a 1/2 camden tablet and some K sorbate before the fruit addition? Also, can I carbonate this braggot like a beer with a priming sugar in a bottling bucket or leave it as a still mead?
Thank you for the help.
Bassin75
Sure, even if you added a little extra champagne yeast at bottling, you should be able to prime with sugar and have it carbonate. The US-05 probably should have been able to drop gravity a little, but pitching into high alcohol is a pretty tall order for any yeast. The champagne yeast will only metabolize the simple sugars you add to prime, so even with a pretty high final gravity you’ll be good to go.
I wouldn’t bother with k-meta or k-sorbate if you’re planning on carbonating. 10% will not strictly sanitize the cranberries, but the risk is so small that I wouldn’t worry about contamination. Give it a little time to ferment out the sugars added from the cranberries, though.
I just found the W1388 belgian ale yeast that saved from the batch of BOMM mead I made. I will make a small starter tonight feeding it a little must and if it still is still alive I will add it to the must with the cranberries. Perhaps I can get the yeast to use the dme and grain sugars that E1118 couldnt ferment. I’ll post my results…
Thank you for the help!
Bassin75
