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When you do a decoction pull, the removed mash portion is strained to let much of the liquid remain behind in the mash. That's the thicker part. You want as little of the liquid to be subjected to boiling because it contains most of the enzyme content in solution. Preserving those enzymes from...

A mashout rest (170F/76C) is designed to denature enzymes. Once the mash has done its job you want it to stop working or longer chain sugars will continue to be broken down. If you do not do a mashout higher temperature sparge water can be used to do a sort of all-in-one mashout/sparge...

Sugar is not a common ingredient but you add it could if you want to. A cream ale is essentially a North American everyday lager fermented with ale yeast. The original versions normally had a mixture of malt and corn adjunct. Some brewers probably used corn syrup so the sugar would be a...

I'd bump the barley malt up to 20%. If you don't want to reduce the rye then you can take that weight out of the corn or reduce each one a bit. Adding some amylase wouldn't hurt, I like to do that as an added measure of conversion security. 7-8.5% ABV is good and I would not add any sugar...

As a matter of fact, I do enjoy the Bushmills product. The original and Black Bush are my standard choices. Of the high end malts I like the 16 best but it's not really in the budget but I do treat myself to a bottle of the 10 on occasion.

Welcome, Wigster. You have somehow prompted me to pour myself some lovely whiskey from Belfast and lift a glass in your general direction.

Understand that it is the pH of the mash, not the pH of the water that is the critical target here. In crude terms the residual alkalinity of the water indicates how much effort will be required to lower the pH. I'm no chemist but soft water usually comes with low residual alkalinity. Low...

"Soft" is way too general of a description to determine what adjustments are needed for your brewing water. Soft water means it's low in Calcium but that alone is not enough information to figure out your problem. Other factors in the water's content and in particular the residual alkalinity...

I didn't say all programs do it. I'm sure the very popular Beersmith is quite accurate. The program the OP mentioned I had never heard of (another poster didn't know it either) and I have to guess that after seeing a number of similar questions asked by several homebrewers there are some less...

True but I'm just assuming everyday practicality on this.

Starch will give you a gravity increase but it's not something you want in the wort. I'll also admit to being a bit confused by the OP's question but my point was that in the long list of specialty/adjunct ingredients there are some that should not be steeped but only mashed. Fully converted...

There's no reason to separate specialty grains from base malt if you're doing an actual mash, partial or full. If anything it saves time and effort. As far as gravity difference my guess is that it's not a big deal either way, however, there are some specialty malts (Weyermann CaraFoam for one)...

I'm used to being the the old SOB so I'll just say it. Cream ales aren't brown or copper. They can call them anything they want but a cream ale is yellow/gold. The color in those beers would not require much in the way of specialty malt. A small amount of darker crystal or a little bit of...

Yes, I think the Von Trapp beers are quite good and are also good examples of the styles. They don't have the sensory impact of the best of the Old World produced brews IMO, but are some of the better attempts of those brews on this side of the Atlantic. From what I know Von Trapp has spent a...

Lots of good suggestions so far. I enjoy the hell out of German beer styles and have made some very good ones over the years. The low oxygen techniques intrigue me although I have not yet brewed with that methodology. With rare exception most of the German style beers I've tried that were made...

But a gallon of white vinegar and dump that in with a gallon of very hot water. Shake it well, let it stand for a few hours (turning it upside down for half the time), then empty it and rinse with clean, hot water. When you empty it I'd suggest blowing some of the vinegar solution through the...

Yes. Assuming like other malted grain it's whole, you will need to mill the spelt berries before adding them to the mash.

Nothing wrong with that but since you called the beer a Bohemian Pils it won't be without the hops of the region. You can put in any hop you want. I'm not partial to Willamette but some older American lagers (CAP, Pre-Prhoibition types) had hop profiles and IBUs in the same range as Old World...

Willamette is closely related to Fuggles, the English noble hop. More earthy/grassy than spicy and I find Willamette slightly metallic. Bohemian pilsner would traditionally use Saaz which is spicy and earthy. I don't quite understand why you are trying to reinvent the wheel here.

Yes, I have a Harbor Freight model to lift my Braumeister 50L up and down. It's also pretty handy for moving carboys and kegs around.