Hello.

I plan on making my first braggot, and one person that I know who is familiar with mead making is telling me that I'm going to have to ferment warm in order to get it to dry out enough. I told him I was planning on fermenting at around 70F (I have a temperature control unit) and he is saying "no, no, more like upper 70s". I don't really understand why he would say that, and frankly he can't offer a good explanation. Does anyone who is familiar with fermenting braggot or beer with honey additions have an opinion about this? My argument was that not only should this be fine fermenting at 70F, but in addition I don't want the temperature to get much higher because with such a high gravity beverage I would be running the risk of producing some hot alcohols if things get too warm.

I suppose this probably depends on the base beer that one uses for the braggot, e.g., if you use a belgian tripel as a the base beer, some temperature ramping would probably be appropriate during fermentation. I am thinking about brewing a hefeweizen as a base and adding honey to that.

Thanks!

fermenting in the 66 - 70 range will work just fine, just make sure to give it multiple nutrient additions during fermentation.

basically you are fermenting a high gravity beer, I assuming you are using a beer yeast. I start low in the 66F range, and then keep bumping the temp up a degree or two when the fermentation slows. Use a good pitch of yeast and do a starter. I also add some nutrients after a day. The honey does not leave much body or sweetness so I hop lighter. I did not like the braggots that I made with wine yeast. I really don't go much over 7% abv with my braggots.