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I'm doing a partial mash tomorrow with 4.75 lbs. of grain @ 1.5qt/lb using DeathBrewer's "easy partial mash" method. I've just figured out that the stainless steel pot I was planning to mash in is not big enough. I have one 5-gallon pot I will use for the sparge, but I need something else for...

Thanks for the suggestions. I do have 3/8" tubing, so I think I'll get some 5/16" and see how that works. But where do I get it? LHBS and AHB don't have 5/16". EDIT: Nevermind, I just found it at Northern Brewer.

When will I know if it's not working, and what signs should I look for? Reason I ask is that I will need to make another starter tomorrow if this one doesn't work out.

Brew day is Saturday so today I made my yeast starter. I forgot one pretty important step, which was to take the yeast packet out of the fridge 3 hours beforehand to bring it to room temp. I took it out of the fridge, smacked it, put the pack in the sanitizing solution, boiled & cooled the...

I just got an auto-siphon and figured I'd test it out with water in the carboy before using it on my first batch of beer. It didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped. It took several "pumps" to get the flow going and there was quite a bit of air in the hose. When the water level got down to 2-3...

See this thread for more ideas.

I ordered the Marineland Visi-Therm. Do you have any experience with that one?

Thanks. I imagine 1" is sufficient and probably easier to work with.

Where do you get pieces of styrofoam like this?

That's a great idea. I just remembered I have an Igloo Ice Cube cooler in the basement. My 6.5 gallon carboy does fit in it, but the top 1/5 of the carboy is exposed. I think your cooler is larger than mine. Still, I may be able to fit some kind of top over it to prevent heat loss.

How large does the cooler need to be to fit a 6.5 gallon carboy?

Meaning you don't need ice bottles or a heater?

What is the advantage of the fully submersible model?

Does that one go down to 65F?

Yeah, that's where I thought I'd be putting the heater (in the tote water, not in the fermenter). If this is true, it doesn't matter whether the heater is fully submersible or not, does it?

Here is an aquarium heater that goes down to 65F. Not too expensive. EDIT: Found it for $15 instead of $22 and replaced the link.

Okay, this seems do-able. So I get a large Rubbermaid container and fill it with water, then put the carboy in. During the day, if the temp gets too high (which it probably won't at this time of year, but...) I put in frozen water bottles to bring the temp down. At night, before I go to...

I've read through many of the temperature control threads here and elsewhere. Most of them are focused on how to lower the fermentation temperature of ales in the summer. I live in the SF Bay Area in a poorly insulated house, and as we move into Fall the temps are dropping into the 40sF at...

Right. So the steps might be: 1. After the boil, add 2 gallons of chilled water to the kettle. Check temp. 2. If still above 80F, put in sink with ice bath. 3. Once wort is at @75, pour into carboy vigorously (to aerate). 4. Pour some of the wort into a sanitized container (like a bottling...

I know I've asked a lot of questions over the past week or so and I really appreciate everyone's help. I'm pretty clear on all of the steps at this point, and there's just one area that I haven't totally figured out. I don't have a wort chiller (it's the next thing on my list), and my...