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it's not a Pilsner unless it's brewed in Pilsn, Czech Republic.

has it been cleaned with bleach? bleach can pit stainless, thought it could be that.

those hops are all wrong for a Bavarian wheat. use classic German hops, like hallertau. also, you need a Bavarian wheat yeast. You're going to end up with an American wheat beer f you use the recipe shown there. Columbus usually has a fairly high AA%, so it could very well put the ibus well...

you may want to check your temp controller to see if the temp is actually where it is set to. that would be a good idea for everyone, actually. I've never gotten a banana smell with that yeast, but I usually try to keep it in the low 60s.

it's definitely a trend. a few years ago, almost nobody knew what an ipa was. now they are everywhere. it's good for people who like hoppy beers, but if stores are stocking so many of them there is no room on the shelf for other beers, it's bad for people who like other styles besides the...

I ordered the parts to build my cooler mash tun from them, and it's been working well for several years now.

you need to mash the grains at a temp suitable for it. between 148-160, for an hour. this is called all grain brewing, and there is much info about it, online and in books. check out howtobrew.com for some info on it.

I had a stainless braid set up. didn't like it. the braid got all stretched out making the holes in some spots super big, and other spots completely sealed up. so I got the bazooka tube. its worked well for me, been using it for probably 3 years now.

I could see adding some type of fruit to a kolsh turning out well. maybe peach or apricot, or strawberry. I'd probably use real fruit, as a lot of the extract flavorings taste weird, at least to me they do.

I did probably 5-6 batches that came out sub par before finally nailing it. biggest reason was temp control. after I got a fridge with a temp controller, the beers have been much better. the important thing is to learn from each batch, and try to do better each time.

are you asking what the 530 L means? that is the Lovibond color rating of the grain. the higher the number, the darker it is. some maltsters black malt will have a higher number than other malt companies black malt, so some recipes will specify what color you need to more accurately reproduce...

if you can't find a 10 gallon round cooler at the store, a lot of the stores websites will let you order one and pick it up in a week or so at the local store. I know Ace hardware will do this. I almost went that route when I made my mash tun, but then decided on a rectangular picnic cooler...

you can add it to the boil as yeast nutrient, if it doesn't have enough viability to ferment. you could make a small batch and pitch a couple grams in just to test if it works, which I would do as a first step.

for pouring into the fermenter, I sanitize a pitcher, and scoop up the wort with it and pour in. a lot easier to do than pick the whole kettle up and pour.

you did pretty good, especially for your first comp. yeah, you didn't win, but who knows how good the winning beer was. it coulda been one incredible beer. the thing to do now is get a better score with your next batch. do that a couple times, and you will have the winning entry.

some yeasts form a more compacted cake then others. I haven't used Munton's yeast much, so I'm not too familiar with it's flocculation properties. Fermentis s-04 and Danstar Nottingham both clump up pretty good, and form a nice solid cake. Also, if you cool the fermenter to fridge temp after...

just don't have them listen to psychedelic rock, or you could end up with lsd in your beer....

nice calculator. has more sugars than the one I have been using, even though I never use anything but the corn sugar that comes with the kits, it's nice to know if I ever do decide to use something else. And it looks like you have every style of beer's carb level to choose, another plus. I...

get a cheap one and try. if it works, you can get a more expensive one to do it on. if it doesn't, you only screwed up a cheap one and didn't waste too much money...

I wouldn't add water now. this is why a lot of people like to brew 5.25 or 5.5 gallons instead of 5. after transfer and trub losses, they end up with 5 gallons of finished beer. Just take into account that you have less than 5 gallons when you prime, and you'll be fine.