Recent content by BanginBanjo

You could honestly just leave it in primary for 2-3 weeks and then bottle it from there. Racking to a secondary carboy isn't necessary. Don't worry about the cloudiness or some off flavors, that's normal for a beer this young.

I would crash it now. I typically only let my starters run for 18-24 hours (until about high krausen), although sometimes longer if I haven't noticed any activity. You don't really want your starter fermenting out completely because the yeast will no longer be at it's peak performance.

I'd say go for it, I love using Maris Otter. Expect a little more of a biscuity/bready character in your beer.

I typically have my brew day down to about 5-5.5 hours from start to finish. All grain 2.5gal batches on the stove.

Well according to MrMalty, it's about 1% viable. I would recommend starting with a fresh pack in this case.

For a 5 gallon batch your looking at about 6.5-7 gallons to start your boil, depending on your losses. So you want to have a big enough kettle to handle that plus some extra room to protect against a boil-over.

I believe you have everything you need there for some extract brewing, minus the kettle. As far as the kettle is concerned, the size will depend on the batch size your brewing. If your brewing anything 4gal or less, I would recommend getting a 24QT aluminum pot. Make sure you read the sticky...

Keep in mind that it takes 2-3 weeks for the beer to reach equilibrium in the bottle, as far as co2 absorption is concerned. You may have noticed that despite the huge head, your beer might have felt a little under-carbed. In another week it should be about right.

Seems normal to me. In my experience the beer always looks cloudy during fermentation, as it should since you have billions of yeasties running around in there. Yeast are also more active at higher temperatures, so pitching on the warmer side might be why your noticing faster activity than...

It's all coming from the same place. The water temperature will depend on the ambient temperature outside, more specifically the temperature about 3ft below the ground where the pipe was laid.

As far as the strawberry's are concerned, make sure fermentation is done before adding them, otherwise some of the flavor/aroma will be lost. Depending on how much strawberry character your looking for, you might also want to consider adding more. Strawberry's provide a delicate flavor and you...

Yeah, I would wait a little longer than 27 hours before abandoning hope, give it at least 48. Was the starter showing signs of life? If so, you should be fine. Another possibility is the yeast going into a temperature shock when it was pitched, but if the starter and batch temperatures were...

You don't want to use sugar for a yeast starter. The DME provides the yeast with necessary nutrients from the barley that the sugar does not have. A starter with cane sugar would do more harm than good for your yeasties.

Assuming your doing a 5 gallon batch, the 1lb of lactose is going to add about 1.009 to both your OG and FG. So if your OG is 1.096 without the lactose, your going to need to get about 85% attenuation to get down to around a 1.014 (which is about 11% abv). Then with the lactose added in your FG...

I have mine set to a .019 and have brewed about 25-30 batches at that setting with no problems and no rice hulls.