Brew Day - Brewing in the morning is easier

I realize now that I like brewing in the very earlier hours of the morning because there is no distractions and distractions really drag out a simple brew day. No unwanted calls from work, no kid trying to kill himself and no one else trying to cook in the kitchen.

But we play with the hand dealt, right?

Trying my best to distract my kid, work around others using the kitchen and ignoring incoming calls and even participating in a conference call with work I some how managed to complete my brew day without any errors.

All the ingredients laid out for use.

Today I made up the first of a pair of braggots, a mead and beer hybrid. It was a simple recipe of Marris Otter, Munich and a touch of Honey malt for sweetness. I used a pairing of buckwheat (one of my personal favorites) and Alberta wild flower for the mead portion. The beer half of the braggot was brewed like any other, mashed and sparged, then boiled with a judicial amount of hops used. The mead half was made by dissolving 1.5 KG of honey in 3 liters of warm water. I mixed them together at the end of the boil and I am leaving it overnight to cool.

I got the buckwheat honey for $5 due to a bar code error

I am pretty excited for this batch as its a lot of first times for some of these ingredients. Buckwheat honey, Marris Otter and even Munich (at least in this quantity) are new territory for me. My goal is a hearty mead, with lots of biscuit and bread character.

Really I am envisioning something a viking would quaff down in the early morning before looting, murder and rape.

Check out the recipe here!