My latest article for The Bulletin came out on Sunday, in which I delve into the ancient braggot style of honeyed beer. In particular, I dig into the new Braggot released by The Ale Apothecary. I was able to slip in a mention of Eugene’s Viking Braggot Company as well.

While there is no set definition of what braggot is, the simplest version is a blend of mead (honey wine) and beer. Historically, braggot has also been created by fermenting honey and malted barley together, by sweetening beer with raw honey and spices, by refermenting finished beer with honey and many other methods.

Braggot is not a style that is commonly available commercially, although Viking Braggot Company in Eugene is a small brewery that specializes in it. Viking offers several braggot-inspired ales year -round. The brewery’s recipes typically consist of 30 % honey to 70 % barley, and Viking incorporates the honey during the whirlpool stage (after the boil).

The Ale Apothecary’s version is a blend of 49 % Oregon mesquite honey and 51 % malts from Mecca Grade Estate Malt from Madras. As with all of the brewery’s beers, it was fermented and aged entirely in barrels. I picked up a bottle from the tasting room and reached out to the brewery for more information.

“We were starting to amass a number of second and third use spirit barrels we’d used for previous projects and I was looking for a project to fill them with,” said owner and brewmaster Paul Arney via email. “Connor Currie, one of our brewers, found some Oregon mesquite honey that our honey supplier was selling at a discount because it had ‘started fermenting.’ The fermentation wasn’t evident to us, so we purchased an entire 55-gallon drum and began brewing beer to blend with the diluted honey in these … spirit barrels.”

This Braggot was further aged on two different types of grape pomace: Pinot noir, and white Müller-Thurgau. It’s pretty good and worth checking out if you’re curious about the style. Plus it’s a good deal for an Ale Apothecary brew!