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Depends on your gravity, volume of beer, and if you're fermenting at the low end of its temperature range it towards the top. If it's low gravity, small batch, or near the top of the generator range, maybe you can get away without a starter. But I've definitely found when I get close to that...

So does anyone know the science as to why it's recommended to pitch at temps to match your desired fermentation temp (or just below)? It's obviously easier to put in everything before you put the lid on the fermentor, and less likely for accidental contamination if you have to take the lid off...

Answers: - The thermowell was about 1.5" under the level of beer. - Yes, the Tilt was calibrated (to match my calibrated Thermoworks Thermapen) - Both the Tilt floating at the top of the beer, and the probe in the thermowell matched (within a degree of each other) - I bought the yeast from my...

I just got a new chiller and I'm testing it out. Previously I used a cooler filled with 4 gallons of water + five 2-Liter bottles of ice, with a submerged pump. I finally made the change after years of swapping out those 2L bottles in & out of the freezer had worn me down. With that process...

Looks good to me, too.

FG 1.011 OG 1.057 Mash was on the lower temperature end. Big Brew Day event in parking lot of local brewery, so didn't have all my usual electric brewing and was trying to keep things simple. Mashed in at 145f for 80 minutes, and was 130f at that time.

Also, I add heat via an external belt heater. It sounds like a heating element inside is a PITA with a floating dip tube. Not to mention an extra thing to clean after...

I use a filter on the end of my floating dip tubes (either Flotit 2.0 with the offset float, or Kegland little "shark tank" cage). I also cool crash to like 50 degrees for 24-48 hours before transfer. Early on I assumed if I was getting hops clogging the ball lock poppet without a filter...

I recently made a beer with this at a Big Brew Day event, where a local brewery donated yeast slurry to brewers for beers brewed on-site that day. I made a pretty plain American Pale Ale. The flavor is very drying on the palate, almost chalky. I'm not a big fan of it, but it is very distinct...

This seems to be the week where this experiment I did a while back is relevant. This is from a review I did using an Anvil Foundry 6.5 gallon brew unit. In summary, full volume no recirc and full volume with recirc were essentially the same. Sparge added a big uptick in mash efficiency...

This is most of a Blichmann BrewEasy setup that sells for $2000 new. But this does not have a heating element, pump or controller to be a complete functioning BrewEasy setup. However this has a lot of extra add-ons. Altogether: - 7.5G mash tun - 10G boil kettle (or could be a mash tun if...

And here's from my review of the Anvil 6.5-gallon unit... I used a simple mash of 5 lbs of Viking Xtra Pale Malt and 0.3 lbs of Briess 2-row Brewers Malt, along with brewing salts + acid to hit a mash pH of 5.57. The grains were from the same 55 lb sack of each malt. I mashed for 1 hour at...

First I did some experiments while evaluating a 3-roller grain mill. I iterated through a couple different sparge processes using a 2-3 vessel system, utilizing a recirculating mash RIMS system. I did this with multiple batches of grain from the same sack to try to minimize grain variation...

I've done some experiments. I'll dig them up and share. One was Anvil AIO where I mashed: full volume no recirc, full volume with recirc, mash then batch sparge. Sparge made a notable efficiency difference. I also did an experiment in a 3-vessel setup comparing batch sparge and fly sparge...

I've found two things on my hoppy IPAs. 1. Use a LOT of hops. I read this in a brewing magazine, as a comment from a commercial brewer as advice to homebrewers. Copious amounts of hops in my recipe seems to give me hop flavor longer. This comes with headaches from cleaning and special care to...

Your slightly modified process sounds great/logical. As above comments, gravity difference probably not due to the sparge on specialty grains. Could be volume as @mac_1103 said. Could be a more vigorous boil, boiled off more water, could be your gravity reading was somewhat off. But the...

You're asking about dry yeast and White Labs. I'm going to do the classic forum thing and respond with a suggestion that's neither... I always use WY1007. My Alt always turns out just how I remember it from a trip to Dusseldorf. 1007 Was the first yeast I tried for my Alt, and it came out...

You can check your volumes, too. I had a brewing unit with stamped volume markings on it. I just assumed they were right, never occurred to me to check them. I was doing some controlled experiment so I was specific about the volume of water I put in. I found the markings were off by 0.75...

I'm no biologist, but that looks nasty. I wouldn't risk my time brewing something with that. I'd write it off as a loss.

@Broothru I concur with that Fruh location by the Dom as exceptional. That's been my mental target in my frustrating quest to try to recreate my "perfect Kolsch". The biggest divergence from that flavor memory is too much fruitiness, with the apple/white wine description. And I remember that...