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Bottle away - longer fermentation is rarely a bad thing, and is often a good thing.

I started using the paint-mixer/cordless drill approach to stirring (as opposed to hand stirring) and my cooling times went down dramatically. Easily 50% decrease in time.

I think run time is a huge "pro" for the chest freezer...seems like the insulation is so much better... I swear we can hear the Vissani from two rooms away, and the buzz is very annoying.

We have a small house, and the only place I can really fit a kegerator is in the room right next to our bedroom. Now, beer next to a bedroom may seem like a bi-winning situation, but it's not really going to work out unless I can get the unit nearly silent. I was at Home Depot this weekend...

A trick I use for a bubbling auto-siphon is to pour some of whatever you are transferring between the outer and inner tubes of the siphon. It's never failed me.

I also add liquid (starsan) between the two tubes when I have issues with the seal. It's fixed every problem so far.

I just received a pound from fresh hops. Arrived in about 3 days, across the entire country. Impressive! I have no idea what to do with them now though.

When I went to BIAB, I went to 2.5g batches (from 5g) and I'm very happy with the decision. I get to brew more often, and try a lot of different recipes while I'm still learning. I usually get sick of a beer after a case or so, 2.5g is my personal sweet spot.

I lucked out and found a used thermocouple on ebay for $1 + $5 shipping. It was a liquidator, and it was in the industrial equipment section, not listed as thermocouple. I totally lucked out, but now I can use any k-type probe with fairly accurate measurements.

I'd get the bayou pot kit with the steamer basket included, in case you want to switch to a BIAB setup at some later point. Small premium if you buy the pot+basket, but can be a bigger ticket if you buy the basket alone.

Went to BIAB all-grain after 4 extracts, and the only thing that really changed was my brew day got 45 minutes longer. BIAB is an amazing way to get 95% of the flexibility of an MLT all-grain setup, with 5% of the cost and complexity. I would definitely start there, and then decide if you need...

Be aware if you buy the barbed stone, it's a 1/4" fitting, and the tubing coming off the oxygen tank is 3/16". The reduction barb is impossible to find outside of a kit. I ended up buying 2 brass barbed fittings, one male and one female NPT.

I have a 7.5g pot and I have done a 4g batch before. It was tight, but the only part where it's close is the mashing, before you boil. Once you remove the grains, you get a ton of headspace back for the boil.

That wasnt a complete answer. Biab is a brewing process that boils (ha!) down the mashing process to as little as one step, done in the brew kettle.

Yep, thats correct. I've done 12 brews ever, and five have been biab. If you can steep grains, you can biab. Its that easy.

The stone will run you about 20, tubing another 5-8, filter 5-10, plus the pump. You also need a tricky reduction fitting if you use a s/s stone, that ran me 7 in brass fitting workaround. I piecemealed it trying to save in i think it cost me more and was a lot of trouble. If i could rewind 7...

I've read people getting north of 80% efficiency without a sparge on BIAB. A fine grain crush seems to make a much bigger difference than anything else you can do. I have zero brewing talent, and I got north of 70% efficiency on my second BIAB with a regular grain crush, no sparge, and a...

I just ordered the ingredients for a similar beer. Going Maris Otter / Wheat with Amarillo / Citra on the hopping.

you have to put the grain bag inside the basket.

IR is convenient, but you probably want to know more than just the surface temp. I ended up buying a digital thermocouple off ebay, after a series of useless thermometers.