Greeting and salutations from South Carolina

[abrew4me]

I've been popping in and out of this site for nearly as long as it's been around, but I just became a bonafide paying member as of today. (cheers and roars)

Originally from Pittsburgh, Pa, I've been living in the Hilton Head area for just over a decade, but I'm lookin' to get back to the 'burgh in the near future. Go Pens!

I've been brewing off-and-on since the early '90s and consider homebrewing my number one obsession, apart from my family. Currently, I've been concentrating heavily on Belgian, Northern French and "Old" German ales, especially the Flanders and Saisons of Belgium. ...love anything sour, yeasty and with significant esters.

I've hand-built nearly all of my brewing gadgets including: a 10 gallon system using kegs for my keggle and HLT (which I'm most proud of), an immersion chiller (working on the counter flow), stir plate, 5 and 10 gallon mash tuns, cooling/lagering units, and kegorators. I've participated as a judge at two of the local homebrew competitions and will be taking the course be become certified as judge with the BJCP beginning next month.

I'm sure I'll be asking for advice as much as I'm willing to offer it in the future.

I'm happy to finally be part of a great forum comprised of an amazing group of people.

 

[DragonTail]

Welcome

 

[abrew4me]

Thanks, Dragontail. I'm impressed with your wide variety of "brews". I've been accumulating a collection of local and commercial honeys in order to try my hand at making a mead. I harvested some yeast from a number of bottles of Belgian Abbey that I've considered using to ferment a mead. Being known for having a rather moderate to high attenuation, I thought using a Belgian yeast for making a mead would be an interesting experiment.

 

[DragonTail]

Thanks, Dragontail. I'm impressed with your wide variety of "brews". I've been accumulating a collection of local and commercial honeys in order to try my hand at making a mead. I harvested some yeast from a number of bottles of Belgian Abbey that I've considered using to ferment a mead. Being known for having a rather moderate to high attenuation, I thought using a Belgian yeast for making a mead would be an interesting experiment.

I say give it a shot. You'll need to age it for a while to get the best results. You will be able to sample, but stash a bottle away and "forget" about it for a few years, and you'll be surprised how much better it gets.
Start with a 1 gal batch using about 3# of honey. Grow up a good size starter and be sure to add nutrient and O2 to the mead before you pitch. Let us know how it goes.