Braggot - Mead/Beer Hybrid

I bottled up my second attempt at a Mead a couple weekends ago and decided to immediately fill the fermentor with a new batch.  Mead is easy to prepare compared with beer but, since it typically has a high OG and a lot of easily fermentible sugar, it tends to get boozy and benefits from a long aging period to mellow.  Given this long timeline for production I'm thinking minimizing the downtime of my 1 mead fermentor is a good idea.

This time I'll be trying to make a mead that includes wort - this is known as a Braggot.  This is a beverage with a history going back to the ancient Sumerians.  These had historically been made with various spices.  For mine I'll be using hops.

I'm going to try to get about 70% of my sugar from the Honey.  For 2 gal, 5 lbs of honey would get me to 1.088 SG and then 3 lbs of malt should get me another 0.040 points.  I'll mash the grain inside on the stove top and than boil for about 1 hr with the bittering hops.  I'll chill in the sink and then add the worm wort to the honey

I'm going to use the Nottingham yeast already in the fermentor from the previous batch.  I'll also throw in a bit of bread years (which did an impressive job on my first Mead) just in case the Nottingham has given up the ghost.

I plan to give this Mead a good 9-12 months to ferment out.

Recipe Details:

• Grain/Adjunct:
• 3 lb Pale Malt
• 5 lb honey
• 1 oz acid malt
• Hops:
• 0.5 oz Fuggle (Pellet, 4.7% AA) at 60 min
• Yeast:
• Nottingham Ale Yeast (2nd pitch)
• 1 tsp bread yeast 
• Water:
• 3 gal spring water
• 0.25 tsp yeast nutrient

Results:

• OG:
• 1.127
• FG:
• 1.024
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 79%
• ABV:
• 13.82%

Brewing Notes:

• 11/24/19 - Brewday:
• Mashed 3 lbs of malt in 2 gal of spring water on the stove top.  I split the grain into 3 muslin grain sacks.  Mashed in the high 140s to low 150s

• Mashed for 2 hrs
• Removed the grain sacks and squeezed out the wort
• Boiled for about 1 hr
• Added my hops at the start of the boil in a muslin sack
• Let the post chill in a cold water bath in the sink

• Poured the 5 lbs of honey into the fermenter on top of the remaining yeast from my previous mead
• Rehydrated dry bread yeast
• Poured in the wort once it had chilled down to the 80s
• Had to top up with about half a gal more of spring water
• Stirred well until the honey was dissolved
• Added yeast nutrient
• Added the bread yeast
• Measured the gravity with a refractometer
• Moved the fermenter to to a utility sink in the basement
• 11/26/19 - Fermentation is underway and there is a karausen formed

• 11/30/19 - Krausen has fallen but still a lot of bubbling.  I needed to use the sink so I've moved the fermenter to it's permanent location (a dark corner of the basement where it will not be disturbed).  The mead is very cloudy at the moment 
• 3/7/21 - Bottled today.  Netted just about 2 gal which got me 18 bottles.  Measured the gravity as 1.024.  The mead is very strong.  Has a sweet honey flavor and I think I can detect a bit of malt in there as well.  Will do a deeper dive during the official tasting