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I use one step exclusively, which i believe is not marketed as a sanitizer, with very good results. I use oxi clean for all cleaning before using 1 step, and its very effective in cleaning plastic parts such as a hose that is all gunked up with krausen. One thing I am not sure about, what is the...

I typically mash between 148-150. Perhaps reducing temp to 144 may help. Otherwise the 50/50 mix sounds like the way to go.

Oxi works well. Let them soak and the labels float away in a couple of hours. Only one of my british beer bottles with a foil label did not come off.

The beauty is you can make it as complicated or simple as you want. Your call. Currently I am in the middle.

I like the taste of the ales I have brewed with Windsor dry yeast, but I am less than thrilled with attenuation which is in the mid 60%, which seems to be typical for this yeast. For my upcoming Irish Red, I would like to get the flavor of Windsor, but have a drier ale. I have seen posts here...

If you don't mind.. what is the purpose of adding invert syrup?

I measure volumes using a ruler dipstick so it does have impact, though very minor. But I feel like I am just a little smarter now..

I have one of those $20 cheapos from Amazon. Works good for me, accurate to .1 which does not give the best precision, but is good for my current brewing process. I do make sure I calibrate before testing, using the 4.01 and 7.0 Ph solution I purchased from my LHBS. They comes in mini packs...

Good to know.

I use the mini, have been using it for a year, with no issues. Seems like the bigger one would be overkill. I am pretty good now doing the one hand priming, hold the bottling wand steady in a bottle, while priming the pump 2 - 3 times.

That's great!

We are truly in a renaissance period of locally brewed beer, and I am loving the experience. Being in my late 50's I grew up in a period where breweries were in a steady decline, and where the idea of going to a local brewery was not even remotely possible. Now the choices in my area are going...

I can fit two jugs tightly in a minifrig, though there is not enough vertical room with the "freezer" for both to have a airlock, so the one with the blow off tube goes under the "freezer". I have found my beer has improved significantly and is more consistent since I moved to a frig, vs the ups...

I rotate three gallon jugs, which are always in some state of fermentation.

Keystone Homebrew is not the closest to you, but well worth the trip if you are in the area of Bethlehem. They have a second location which may be a little closer to you.

I find it to be an interesting read. All those what if... that I don't have time to do, they do.

From this thread I picked up Randy Mosher's book. So far its very good, very readable. How to Brew reads more like a text book, Mosher's book is nicely laid out, and interesting to read.

You can estimate yourself with a measuring tape. Measure the inside diameter of the kettle, measure the height of the kettle. Multiply 3.14 times the diameter in inches squared times the height in inches divided by 4 times 231. That will give you the volume in gallons of the kettle.

Yes I do a test at bottling so i know what the FG is. I just don't sample during the fermentation. If I was doing bigger batches I would definitely sample to see when fermentation has ended.

How to Brew is the one I have grown into. A bit intimidating at first, but a reference I keep going back to. That being said I have several books. I do like Home Brew Beyond the Basics by Michael Karnowski which is about all grain brewing. Its concise and well written.