I've had really good success with the hop stopper. Before that mine plugged every time. I do blast mine out with a high pressure water house in both ends then soak overnight in my brew kettle with Pbw. No problems yet and I've had my shirron for 1 1/2 years. Doesn't quite work as well in the So...
I've had 3 kegs blow in a brew session with maybe 2 pints out of each. Its a good reason to limit the friends pours though " easy, keg is getting low gotta do small pours." That's the only reason why I have any of my Trippel left.:)
Over off of 9 th street and 10th Ave its pretty easy digging few rock but very sandy like it use to be a wash. Campus has probably flooded pretty good in its past.
I've done a lot of digging at my parents house off of 9th and campus and the soil seems very rich great for growing hops. I just moved to fontucky and that soil is full of rocks! I'm still gonna try to grow hops though, probably gonna use pots.
You could always first wort hop with them. Probably pull some good flavor without the harsh bitterness. You could always steep some hops in hot water and see about the flavolr together. Just an idea.
I've been using beertools for 2 1/2 years now and I like it. I recently tried the new beersmith and was kind of impressed but the trial version didn't have malts and hops that I use. I'm happy with beertools and will stick with it. I aslo just print the recipes in PDF and email them to my stupid...
I use 6' of 1/4" I.d. tubing and get great pours at 12 psi. I used to not pay attention to beer line lengths and was getting bad pours, especially when I would let a guest pour their own. Don't half throttle the faucet either.