Dry yeast, can leave in the fridge for a year & still works fine . ALWAYS hydrate for a couple of hours before pitching. Safale is my usual brand.
Wyeasts supposed to be better, but../shrug
BEFORE you do this..... I tried the braded hose idea & it was crap.. esp if you use a lot of stick adjuncts in the mash.
What I did was fit a simple lever style tap to an Eskie ( that's an Australian insolated cooler bin ) & on the inside of said cooler, Zip Tie a coarse stainless steel scourer...
You can still hit gravity now, by adding the correct wt. DME to a 2nd keg & racking in from the first. ( Something I do regularly in brewing when I want to tweak the flavours or dry hop etc.)
For Oxygen elimination I'll use a CO2 cylinder to pump the brew from one keg to the other.. just shove...
unboiled honey COULD screw up ya brew.. it contains wild yeasts that can chew thru all the carbs in the beer ( brewing yeast leaves dextrins etc) making it alcoholic but tasteless.
boiling water in Al pots isn't a prob, but I prefer SS for wort boiling... see how well hot wort cleans copper? not sure that Aluminium won't get a bit dissolved.... they say not , but.....( ps the dissolved copper ain't an issue, the yeast gets rid.)
I use the cornelius 19L kegs & condition with 100grams of sugar/keg.Always sit the beer in the fermenter long enough to clear well before kegging ( keeps the yeast down in the keg as conditioning feeds it obviously) Alow the beer to mature for at least a month before putting in the chiller &...
48%? Not even close mate,& here's the reasons why:
The liquid extracted contains disolved water. Alcohol & water form weird mixtures & although you can concentrate them by freeze seperation, the concentration obtainable is dependant entirely on final freeze temp ( a table is there in earlier...