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My husband doesn't get mad. There's no reason to. We've each got our own finances, he likes beer, and he knows when I'm going to brew so he doesn't plan anything kitchen-related for that time. Works perfectly.

Lots of small breweries started out as "homebrew plus" setups. It can be done! It can be done with bargain basement cobbled-together setups, even. (the guys at Dogfish Head did it and then they wrote a book about how they did it, to help you out.) You're going to need bigger batches, and you're...

More time in the primary. Unless this is a big beer that needs to age, and it doesn't sound like it is, more time in the bottle past the time it takes for the yeast to carbonate it won't be a big deal. One week is really unlikely to make a difference. More time in the primary will give you more...

Jump in and start experimenting, based on pre-proven recipes--I won't repeat the excellent resources already given. Don't fear the beer; the worst it can do is make good plant food. Don't fear the engineer, either. Never be afraid to say "I have no idea". More importantly, never NEVER be...

Make what you like, drink what you like. Simple as that. Your preference is neither superior nor inferior. Beer's been made with all sorts of flavor ingredients in it for a lot longer than it's been made in "standard" beer flavors, so it's not like adjuncts are some sort of newfangled...

A bit late to check back in, but the answers are right in the original post: they're more heat-tolerant, so boiling wort can be poured straight in without softening/deforming the plastic, and they have a handle strong enough to lug it all around by. Handy, even if you're not carrying hot wort...

South Seattleite here, welcome! It's important to realize that you've just moved into one of the most pumpkin-beer-obsessed parts of the country--probably the world. If you don't keep your fermenter full of something else, the pumpkin beer will actually break into your house in the dead of...

I haven't bottled sooner than a month in the primary for a while now. No sense rushing; once the wort is in a nice clean fermenter with some healthy yeast there's not a lot to worry about. Yeast autolysis does happen eventually, and isn't something you want, but it takes a seriously...

There's already yeast in the compost bin. Go nuts.

I open the fermenter maybe once, after the first big ferment has slowed down, just to look and sniff and make sure nothing too bad is floating around in there. That doesn't mean I'm not looking at the bucket. Oh no. I look at the bucket all the time. I spend a few minutes in the morning sitting...

I would have bought a different kind of large fermenter: one or two of these nice things, with their handles and heat tolerance. Plus one or two 1-gallon minis for test batches. I would have gone no-chill right off the bat and saved the money and water I used for my immersion chiller. It always...

Dunno about calculating bitterness, but oak leaves have lots of tannin. That's how you get those leaf-prints on the sidewalk after they fall. The only recipe I've ever seen for brewing with oak called for the bark, not the leaves, and involved 2 oz. per gallon. You could probably dump a few...

She, but thanks for the vote of confidence.

Ia Ia, Pumpkin Fthagn! That's creepy and horrid and I love it. Perfect. It's almost certainly a mold or fungus or similar unwelcome beastie but you know what? Human guts can deal with all sorts of bizarre nonsense. And you've already tasted it and felt fine, so! Time to inflict it on the world...

Giardia's no fun at all. I'm seconding the boiling and careful sanitation recommendations.

Less of a problem for a brew pot than it would be for a fermenter; brass oxidizes. I don't imagine your beer will be spending enough quality time with the brass to make a difference.

Don't downplay the importance of cooking in brewing! It's rad you've got your wife brewing, but I think you're still selling your skills short. Seasoning is an art form! That means spices and adjuncts and definitely the macro-ingredients like wheat and barley and so on. If it turns out that...

This idea is good and you should feel good. See what you can get away with! And it's not as though salt, burnt sugars, and protein aren't everywhere in beer already. I can't wait to hear how it all turns out. If you pull it off and make something nice, it's only a matter of time before there's...

Don't forget that "really soon", as regards the bucket, can still be years away. I've been using my 6-gal bucket steadily for a year and change now and it still works fine; there's not even any appreciable wear and tear. I expect it to keep incubating solid brews for a good long time. It's not...

Good idea adding the anise too. I've never brewed a licorice beer myself but some friends who did were disappointed in the lack of licorice flavor that licorice root alone gave them.