Recent content by tims5377

I bought a brewers best Belgian IPA kit and whipped it up the other day. I am looking to get it into secondary and dry hopping very soon (as per directions) and am contemplating going to tertiary later and hopping again (because why not?). I plan on bottling this in 750ml Belgian bottles with...

1. Empty garage 2. Add rustic (homemade?) wooden table 3. Decorate to preference 4. Brew beer 5. Invite friends over 6. Imbibe 7. ??? 8. Repeat and never leave that magical place

Wow, after spending lots of time on car forums recently the helpfulness is astounding! Usually I would be chastised for an ambiguous question like that and not cheerfully answered! Anyways, thanks! What do you mean by "add 3/4 at flameout for lighter color"? Is this necessary for the...

Can you break this down a wee bit more for me? I would really like to make this but am a bit of a newb.

I am making an arrogant bastard clone and I would like to use different size bottles (really, just to be fancy). If I am batch priming can I still do this or will some bottles be over carbonated while others are under carbonated?

If I rack to a large carboy and leave headspace and then purge with CO2 will that take care of this problem too?

So based on what im hearing, if I leave 2in at the top of a carboy (6gal to the top) I will have issues? Also I should add potassium sorbate to make sure fermentation does not restart. Is there any other way to raise the level without marbles or diluting that anyone has used?

So what kind of marbles are good to use? and where do you get them? lol Also do I need to stabilize at all before botling?

My first mead has been in primary for just about 2 weeks now and I am going to start taking SG readings to see if it is time to rack just yet. I was poking around and I just stumbled upon a thread that said when racking to secondary, I want to leave as little head space as possible. I...

When i did it i boiled the honey amd some water, added the hops and let them go for aboit a half hour. Then i added my fruit. No idea how it turned put yet but it smells good!

Ok great. The gravity reafibgs above are not my readings. They came with the recipe. I actually forgot to take an initial reading which is where my question stems from.

So I initially was planning on using D47 yeast, but my guy at the HBS told me that K1 is better for mead. So as it was my first time I didnt question. I was just looking on the Lalvin site, and the D47 alcohol tolerance is 14% while the K1 is 18%. If I did use the D47 would it have made a semi...

So how long till I should start taking readings? And is there anything I can do to not have it come out super dry?

So I have my first batch in the fermenter right now and it is bubbling along quite rapidly. The recipe I followed noted to bottle when the gravity hit 0.980. I forgot to take a reading initially, so I am not really sure what to look for and when to act. Also, should I rack to a secondary at any...

Should be a few months before it is ready to drink, but if I remember I will! Also dont know how to classify this mead. Based on the brief descriptions on gotmead.com it can be a Cyser, a Melomel, or a T'ej. I prefer the latter because it sounds cool! Any thoughts on what this can be classified as?