Ginger Braggot

Base: Recipe for Barkshack Ginger Mead on Page ? of Joy of Home Brewing
Altered Recipe:

5 lbs. (about 2.7 Kg) light honey
1 Dry Beer Malt Extract Kit
285 grams of freshly grated ginger root
1/2 tsp. gypsum
1 tsp. Acid Blend
3 tsp. Andovin Super Nutrient
1 tsp. Irish Moss powder
2 tsp Dried Black Tea (for tannic acid)

August 18/00:Day One

Grated and chopped the ginger root and put it into about 2 litres boiling water. Added the black tea and all the other ingredients (except the honey and beer malt). Once this had boiled about 20 minutes I added the pre-softened malt extract.
Information from the can: Muntona Dry Beer
Solids: 80%-85%
Color: >7 EBC
Bitterness: 25-35 EBU

Boiled the wort with the extract in for 1/2 hour, then began to sparge out the ginger root and tea leaves from the wort the best I could with a colander and a slotted spoon.
10 minutes later I strained the wort into the primary through the colander. Then I refilled the pot with hot water and put it on to boil.
Meanwhile, I sparged the last of the tea out of the wort and added 5 lbs of honey (1 plastic bucket) and added hot tap water to the honey bucket to get all the possible honey.
I mixed it well and took it downstairs to take some readings.

Took Measurements: Temp 53 S.G. 1.058

August 30/00:Day Twelve

Transferred to glass carboy. I took readings and carefully cleaned the equipment and did a careful siphon to avoid the sludge and topped it up and all that other stuff. Then I lost the exact notes on the procedure. Oh well.

October 14/00:Day 57

I have left the braggot sitting far too long on the dead yeast cells lying at the bottom of the carboy. I've been meaning to pull it off for quite awhile now, but I didn't realize that I was on day 57 already! Time seems to fly quicker the older you get. Why is that? Anyway, I chloricleaned the siphon hose and the other glass carboy and then rinsed both thoroughly. I siphoned the braggot into the clean carboy and made sure to get none of the gunk. This was easy, as that gunk was stuck nicely to the bottom of the first carboy. Added a little hot water to top off what I lost (maybe 4 ounces or so). Took S.G. reading and recapped with cleaned blow valve.
The braggot is quite clear and a gorgeous dark amber. I may not even add finings to it at all. I'll see what I think after another month or so. Took Measurements: S.G.: 0.093
1.058 - 0.993 = .065 x 105 = 6.825% by Weight; 6.825 x 1.25 = 8.53% by Volume
Nice alcohol content. The siphoning taste was a lot like the Dry Salvage Ginger Mead, but the black tea taste kind of overlaid it. I hope I didn't blow it with the tea. If so, it is still very drinkable and I'll have to keep it for myself and brew Fred another batch without the tea.

January 04/01:Day 138

The braggot did very little clearing since the last transfer, but it did not need it. I did not even add the finings. It was already as clear as could be. The final aging in the carboy for such a long period can be explained by my lack of motivation to finish it. Financial concerns made it so another batch was temporarily out of the question, so I have no reason to get this one out of the way. Finally I'm ready to start a new batch, so I bottled the Braggot tonight.
I cleaned 70 beer bottles by first shaking Chloriclean in them one at a time, then running them back through hot water. No extra rinsing or washing, so if there is a bleachy taste I need more rinsing and if any go bad that means the process is not clean enough.
I took 3/4 cup of the Braggot and dissolved 1 and 1/4 cups of corn sugar in it on the stove. I added this to the Braggot (now transferred to the Primary) and stirred it really well, adding in oxygen to help yeast production.
Got 67 bottles - no breakage, very little spillage, and no watering down as I usually do when bottling. The only problem was that I completely forgot to do a S.G. reading. But since there was no more clearing, I'm going to call it 8.5% and leave it at that.

Final Appreciation
This stuff ended up being amazing on a brain-haze per drink scale. It seems to be very high in alcohol content - I would say the 8.5% estimate is a bit low. Am I doing the math right on figuring this stuff out? 2 bottles would be enough for most people for an evening, but 3 is over the top.
The taste is not too bad. Those people who don’t like the taste of my darker home brews really enjoy it. Those who do like my darker home brews also enjoy it. It is quite bitter (the tea?) but nicely efferescent and you can’t taste the amount of alcohol you are drinking.
As a side note - the batch didn't last long, being requested at most sittings constantly until it was all gone.

Alcohol Content (Jan. 05/00)
1.058 - 0.993 = .065 x 105 = 6.825% by Weight; 6.825 x 1.25 = 8.53% by Volume

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