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Check gravity of starter wort. 1.008 or less (80% apparent attenuation of 1.040 starter) and you are about as good as you’ll get. Best way to determine if your starter has developed.

This is my first season harvesting hops (2nd growing season). I have read lots of articles and posts on when to harvest and have an academic idea. However I am a bit visual and was hoping someone could share picture of ripe cones. The picture below is a couple Cascade cones. Is the amount...

I’d probably just drink the scotch and forget that I meant to add oak😂

I’ll tell you how it ended up. Dropped two spirals in 6.5 gal Sat and won’t be home to test until Fri. Hoping it wasn’t too much.

Any tips on cooling my first wet hop beer? I use a single pass through a D36 plate chiller. I use muslin bags and/or a hop spider for pellets but plan to let the wet hops swim free. I was going to strain out most of the whole hops and then whirlpool but am concerned about a lot of hop material...

I got frustrated with 5L minis almost as much as bottles. The following suggestion requires a bit of investment but might be what you are looking for. 1 - Get a standard 5 gal corny set up 2 - buy a 1 gal mini with corny ball lovk fittings. 3 - make a jumper with a piece of 3/16 liquid...

I found this Russian River Harvest Ale clone recipe which I am about to try with a few modifications. Will be a first attempt after starting hop growing last season. Russian River HopTime Harvest Ale Clone

Trying to bottle condition a growler would be ugly, assuming the cap held. 💥 I was suggesting filling from keg to growler for transport which sounds like the OPs concern about switching to a keg and not washing/filling bottles.

Use growlers. Easy for a few folks to polish off 64oz and fits great in a fridge or cooler.

I have picked up noticeable tannins if left on oak chips for too long, anyone else notice this? Obviously this is not an issue with true barrel aging. Limiting chips to 7-10 days or cubes to 2-3 weeks seems to be about right for my taste. Going to try oak spirals for the first time, anyone...

Agree with most of this thread, not a Pumpkin beer fan but tried a batch last year when I got a free extract kit from LHBS for spending a bunch of cash on other things. Here's what worked to make a beer I actually enjoyed. 5 gal batch. Immediately threw away the spice packet and made my own...

Following with same concern. So far I have read other sources that say to just let them go. My plants have each have been pruned to 3 main bines about 18” apart. I am hoping the inner side shoots will grab on the the adjacent supports but the outer side shoots look like might break under...

https://www.brewersfriend.com/refractometer-calculator/

Are you using the 4% correction factor for the refractometer reading? That could explain 2-4 points. The remaining couple points could just be small differences in how you’re reading the hydrometer. I did a side by side from 1.100 down to 1.010 and with the 4% correction factor learned to...

Thanks, totally agree that this as another variable that we typically roll up in the efficiency percentage. If relatively consistent, it doesn't make much of a difference, i.e. you're getting 75% of "wet" weight or 79% of "dry" weight, both give you the target gravity. I was looking at this...

If you got 10 gal of 1.053 beer out of this, and it ferments well, perhaps you let this go and keep doing what your doing.

Now that I think about it, channeling the sparge water would likely result in both low gravity runnings, low efficeincy, and low OG. But you sound like your overall efficiency is pretty good. If you are getting 10+ gal to the fermenter at an OG of 1.053 from 20 pounds of malt sounds your dong...

Have you investigated channeling through the MLT? Seems to be the most likely issue as the rest of the data and procedures look good, assuming grain crush is consistent from prior batches on the old set up that yielded better efficiency. When you're done and drain out the MLT, can you see any...

I have reviewed most of what is available from articles and books on calculating PPG from malt quality reports and see one inconsistency on how this typically done. Not all sources reduce the PPG to account for moisture, and appear to be on a dry basis. I am also curious how others look at...

I just added GOP in the fermentor to a summer ale and took a chance at a direct addition of the seed (crushed in a mortar) without any additional sanitation steps, added after beer was at about 5.5% ABV. Also added citrus zest (lemon, lime, and orange). Kegged 6 days later, and all good.