Recent content by gsmith12

Mine! ;)

Very nice, hopefully I have similar luck with my current meads.

Matrix4b that sounds good, I'll add the vanilla beans and look at adding some oak chips (which I've been interested in doing to previous meads, just never actually did it), smoothing this mead out is going to be important since the cocoa puts a bitter taste on the mead for the first year of bulk...

I do want a sweeter mead, but I'll take Daedolon's advice and give the cocoa to mellow. From what I've read the cocoa is the hardest to mellow out, which is why a year or year and a half bulk aging is recommended. When it comes time I'll decide wether or not I should add some more honey to...

First the recipe: 1/25/11 5 gallon batch 12lbs honey 16oz Unsweetened Hershey Chocolate powder 2 packs of D-47 Yeast 3 Teaspoons of yeast energizer OG-I forgot to take a reading...total brain fart 2/22/11-Transfer to secondary on top of 4lbs of honey. 3/1/11-Used clarifying agent to...

bump...inchrisin, how did this come out. I saw this recipe for an extract brew and I'm looking to try it. The OG was lower in the book however, 1.063 to be exact. Just wondering what you thought of it..a no go or a must brew? Thanks!

Okay so I just picked up some D2 Candi Syrup 1 pound. I want to use it as priming sugar in the Westvleteran 12 Clone I'm brewing. So how much should I use? Whoever has had a Westy 12 knows the head is not really apparent after pour. So I don't want a ton of head, just enough. I used 2 vials of...

Okay so I did the brew...I'm not sure what I did but my OG came out 1.060. I wasn't expecting perfection even after all this help and study from BLAM. The color is 30-34 SRM. I don't know if that's close or not. I thought it was more in the 40 range (black). So my recipe...(basically the one...

That sounds good barrooze man. After I read your post I just decided to pitch the yeast at 1.020. Thanks for the help an reassurance.

Okay so I used 2L of water which I brought to a boil, then added a little less than 1 cup of Briess Golden Light DME. My problem is, I checked the SG level and it's 1.020, way less than I thought it was supposed to be. This is my first real yeast starter so I don't want to mess it up either...

Thanks for the tip caiafa, I wouldn't even think about doing that. Anything that speeds up fermentation in the primary is ideal. Thanks again.

Okay I finally got everything, as well as read BLAM ten times over. $90+ dollars later I'm ready to go. I'll continue to post till I get a chance to taste the brew in a couple of months incase anyone else want to try it. Thanks again everyone who helped me with the Westy clone.

Okay sounds good, I'll use the 3lbs of D2. Thanks guys.

So does it make sense to use 3lbs of D2?

I like the recipe smokinghole, it's simple and I don't want to spend too much right now then possibly screw something up. I'll try the more advanced recipe when I have the ability to do all-grain and a few more brews under my belt. I'll keep everyone updated on how it turns out.