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It's only beer. Anyone who thinks drinking one of their own hand-crafted beers (green or otherwise) is a "waste" takes themself, and homebrewing in general, far too seriously.

I have to agree here. You said the StarSan was 2 months old. But do you know what its pH level was? StarSan's pH needs to stay at or below 3 for it to be an effective sanitizer.

Put it towards your student loan. (sorry...I just couldn't resist)

How about the obligatory "It depends". What's your expectation? There aren't any recipes in Designing Great Beers, just tons of info to help you understand how to create great recipes to style. I don't consider that a drawback, but someone else might.

1) I brewed in a cramped apartment kitchen on the stovetop for over a year. It sucked, but it's completely managable. 2) Most kits are pretty comparable. A number of people on this forum recommend a long primary and foregoing a secondary. The $75 kit from Northern Brewer accomodates this...

If the $3,600 you send each month is more than 2x your minimum payments, it sounds like you're already on a very aggressive debt reduction plan with a nice "debt snowball". A one-time $300 principle payment compared to doubling-down on your minimum payment every month is virtually negligible...

I believe there are 80 recipes.

I don't know anyone that consistently makes bad beer as a result of following Charlie's advice. :mug:

Ethanol is a phasodilator and dehydrates your body. Not only that, the enzyme produced by the liver that metabolizes ethanol is pretty toxic. So you've got a bunch of toxic, dehydrated blood being pumped through dilated blood vessels. That's why you're head is pounding. Aspirin is a...

Mythbusters covered this as well. Season 1, Episode 4: Microwave Madness

That dip tube is genius! I'm going to make one tonight. :rockin:

The carb tabs work well enough, but they're relatively expensive compared to using corn sugar. I usually use about 3/4 cup of corn sugar dissolved in 2 cups of boiled water. I let that cool, dump it into my bottling bucket and then rack the beer on top of it. I've never tried to individually...

For my first all-grain batch, I brewed an extract recipe that I was familiar with and really liked. I just substituted an appropriate amount of 2-row for the extract. It was a good learning experience because I really got an idea of how all-grain versus extract compares. Since you'll be...

Yeah, I think 2 and 5 are probably the biggest contributors. Get yourself a bottling wand and a longer length of vinyl racking tube and you should be in good shape.

Cornflakes is not the same thing as "flaked corn". Flaked corn is whole grain corn that's been pre-geletinized and run through a roller. Cornflakes (Kellogg's or otherwise) are a processed food that uses milled corn as its primary ingredient, but certainly is not the brewing equivalent of...

There's an episode of Mythbusters that explains this phenomenon. Season 1, Episode 4 -- Microwave Madness

If the worst thing I had to say about my beer is that it turned out tasting just like Newcastle Brown, I'd be pretty ok with the world. :D

Exactly. The lid to a plastic fermenter is probably sealed on much tighter than the stopper in a glass carboy. Nobody seems to be worried about exploding buckets -- just the lids blasting off of them. :rockin:

That's why I think it isn't a chilling issue. He described a pour with no head at all.

What's your method for priming your bottles? Neglecting to chill fully carbonated beer doesn't render flat beer. Assuming these are regular 12 oz bottles and not some sort of resealable bottle that you've previously opened, it sounds like the beer just hasn't carbonated yet. If that's the...