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Surely, for the 50th brew, it has to be GOLD.

I bet you got better efficiency with a 20 lb. grain bill in the 10 g. cooler than you could have got with the same grain bill in the 5 g. cooler. :D When I changed my mash tun from 5 to 10 gallons, it took me a couple of brews to get used to the difference, but my efficiency improved from about...

Never trust the specific gravity scale on a refractometer. It is not possible to convert the refractive index of a solution to a specific gravity, without knowing the makeup of that solution, Google "wort correction factor" for details on this. You say you had calibrated the refractometer...

If the slurry is a month old, I would definitely make a starter. I might be tempted to omit the starter, if the slurry is just a few days old, but in my case, this never happens. -a.

As far as I'm concerned, the published attenuation figures appear to be a work of fiction. For example, WLP002 has a published attenuation of 63 - 70%, but I regularly get 80% from the first generation, and slightly more for the second and third generations. -a.

Are you using the reading directly from the refractometer to get your FG value, or are you processing the refractometer reading through some sort of calculator to get the FG reading? If you are reading the FG as 1.032 directly from the refractometer scale, then the true FG will be approximately...

Are you using a hydrometer or a refractometer for your gravity readings? If you are using a hydrometer, I cannot help. If you are using a refractometer, you need to apply a correction to get an approximation of the true final gravity. See...

Ye, I am very familiar with the style. It's been my go-to beer for over 50 years. Actually, NB uses ~7 oz corn sugar per cup. I'm also not sure that most Americans don't care for low carbed beer, judging by the number of Americans that have tried my Bitters, and then came back for more...

The priming sugar calculator assumes 1.5 volumes CO2. While this may be reasonable for a draught beer, it is totally inadequate for a bottled beer. For bottling, I would aim for a minimum of 2.2 volumes CO2, but if you keg, I get good results with no priming sugar or forced carbonation at all...

You've got it. I no longer check my temp at the end of the mash, because (when I did) I found that I'd never lost more than 1 or 2 degrees. If you don't stir, the mash out water will be sitting on top of the grain bed, and won't denature the enzymes. By giving it an aggressive stir, you raise...

You can always take a Brix reading, and not bother to convert it to SG. When the Brix reading stays stable for 2 - 3 days, fermentation is finished. You can then use a calculator to get an approximation of the FG, or use a hydrometer just once to get an accurate FG. -a.

I also brew 5g batches in a 10g MLT, do a mash out, and fly sparge, and get a consistent 75% brewhouse efficiency. I don't have a thermopen, and use a 5g cooler as a HLT; but I doubt that makes any difference to efficiency. I add my strike water to the MLT about 10 degrees hotter than my strike...

I did it a few times about 30 years ago, and it worked fine. -a.

I'd spend the whole $200 on your wife. That way, she won't be quite so upset if she ever finds out you refer to her as an "old lady." -a.

If you take 1 lb LME, and mix with sufficient water to make 1 gallon, you will end up with a solution with a SG of 1.036 (according to Beersmith). This means that the weight of the solution will be 8.3378 lbs * 1.036 = 8.638 lbs. As you added 1 lb LME, the weight of water that you added would be...

-a.

I have a spigot on the bottom of my kettle, and use a false bottom and whole hops. I drain into the fermenter through a CFC, and tilt the kettle towards the spigot. When I'm done, I have about 1 cup of trub on the bottom of the kettle, and the hops catch most of the rest (although I do get the...

Technically, this isn't extract plus specialty grains. Wheat malt and Pilsner malt are both base grains which require mashing. As you steeped them at 155 for 45 minutes, you performed a mash. As you took the OG after adding the top-up water, but before mixing, that would probably explain your...

On the other hand, if you want to play around with mash thickness, 1 lb grain occupies a volume of 0.32 qts when mashing, so multiply the weight in lbs of grain by 0.32, add the amount of strike water in qts, and you have the total volume required for the mash. -a.

I usually use 1 US qt water per lb grain for the mash, and fly sparge with up to 5 gallons sparge water. In a 5 gallon cooler, I could get 13.5 lbs grain, and still have a bit of space left over. With this setup, I could make 5.25 gallons of beer with an OG of 1.075. -a.