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Ooh, pretty! Thanks, Spike Brewing!

https://byo.com/stories/issue/item/1097-making-a-yeast-starter-techniques Fermenting the Yeast Starter Treat your yeast starter like you would a batch of beer. Keep it away from bright light, even if you didn’t add hops. Avoiding skunking isn’t the reason for shielding a yeast starter from...

What you stated is pretty much it in a nutshell. I usually do mine for 2 days, chill the night before, let it sit out an hour or two at roughly pitching/room temp before I'm ready to pitch (put a clean dish towel or something loosely over the flask to protect it from light) and decant off the...

Best advice I can give other than taking notes is brewing is a patient hobby. Just like any of you home aquarists out there already know, "Nothing good happens fast in an aquarium," nor does anything good happen fast in homebrewing. Take your time and have fun!

Ooooh, pretty! Thanks, Brewer's Hardware!

That's some of the best advice any brewer (new or old) could take to heart: "NOTES, NOTES & MORE NOTES!" I do the same thing in the notes section of my BeerSmith recipes, recording all of the bits of minutia I can throughout the process. I know it has saved me countless headaches with not only...

Hi and welcome! With just a cursory glance around the web I've found mention from a few different sites/forums of a homebrew store started in Shanghai called "My Homebrew Store." ( http://www.hopsmagazine.com/mikes-my-homebrew-store-your-local-homebrew-shop-comes-to-shanghai-by-kathryn-grant/ )...

Hi! It works really well and even better when the braided tubing softens a bit. I've never put a hole in the lid but may do so eventually because the wire hanger setup is a bit unwieldy (it was initially just a jury rig to test the sparge arm, but laziness has kept it around :o ). The sparge...

Good Lord! Heck yeah I'm in!

I can usually get through 3 "normal" 5 gallon batches with this burner before needing to replace the tank. When I did a big beer with a 90 minute boil I was only able to do it and barely made it through a second 60 minute batch before the tank was empty. While I still love it, I liken this...

Pretty gear! Thanks NorCal!

Temperature issues are the most damaging during primary so the fact that you already had the batch in secondary shouldn't have affected it too much. Have you tasted it yet? You may want to take a hydrometer reading and see if it is around your projected final gravity or well below it (which...

I'm not sure if this is what he already does or not, but I find that having the grain in a clean trash bag and cutting a small hole in the end to sprinkle the grain slowly into the mash water versus dumping it all in at once or pouring the mash water into the dry grain helps prevent dough balls...

A mild dose of lemon and tarragon for flavoring could cover up some of the funkiness of the broccoli and add to its depth.

You can use the original gaskets which will hold up to the heat. On my hot liquor tank I also reused the plastic nut inside the cooler's original bulkhead to hold the ball valve in place without any issues. If there is a large bulkhead hole through the wall of the cooler (I think your...

Stuff I do to save myself some time on brew days is to get my equipment out and set up the day before in addition to weighing out the hops separated into sandwich bags with what time they get thrown into the boil written on them. I also weigh out all of my water additives and add them to my mash...

I've read articles/threads that say squeezing is fine and others of the "don't do it" variety, but I agree that pH and mash/sparge temps are the biggest factors in tannin extraction, so that was an err on the side of caution statement.

Your best bet would be to measure the bottom interior of the cooler with a tape measure (like the flexible sewing ones if you have it) and compare it to the interior dimensions of a similar capacity Igloo cooler (Like this one - check the "interior dimensions bottom" on the Specifications tab...

I use a false bottom, but I haven't had any stuck sparge issues with my 20-30% 2-day sour mashes. I use basically the same sour mashing method as you, though I chill the sour mash down to 110-120F and then pitch in a handful of unmilled grain before covering and sealing it instead of letting it...

I had a White Labs vial explode on me when I shook it and left it out for an hour before opening it. Won't make that mistake again, but plenty of the yeast made it into my starter. To ong's point it took an extra day for the starter to populate, so I wouldn't sweat it.