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Good, you did your homework and you will make a great lager. You will find that the lager yeast does not look like ale yeast as it stays on the bottom but it is still working at a slower pace.

In order to keep the carbonation at about 2.5 volumes of CO2 you need to have the pressure at the correct level for the temperature. Say you have the refrigerator at 36F the CO2 pressure needs to be at 10 LBS per sq in. You need a chart to look up the proper pressure for your temperature...

If you bottle too early you will have over carbonated beer because the yeast has not finished eating all the sugar. You are then adding carbonating sugar to that and that equals too much sugar in the capped bottle. Solution: Ferment all beer for at least 14 days and take a hydro reading. If...

Yes you can get yeast from bottles. You should sanitize the tops of the bottles before you start to uncap and just after and then decant off the beer so just a tablespoon is left. Swirl the bottle and pour the contents into a sanitized mason jar. Do this with 2 more bottles so you now have 3...

Not really, you need an externally temperature regulated refrigerator or freezer. The controls in the existing refrigerator are hard to keep at the proper temperature for lagers. Freezers make better fermenters because they are all open inside and you just take out the trays and shelves. People...

An inverted brass or stainless sprinkler head works great. Just keep the sparge water 1 to 2 inches above the grain bed and it does not disturb the grain bed at all.

I would put on an air lock then because after the first few days the CO2 will slow down and so it should be properly sealed to prevent any drafts of air from blowing particles under the loose lid. If you were to seal the lid without any air lock it would blow off the bucket during middle of the...

I would not worry about it as it is most likely yeast or trub. If it becomes infected you will know because it will not taste right after proper aging. During fermentation the yeast are multiplied and somewhat prevents infections because there are so many yeast already active in the wort along...

For now just put the lid on loose and the CO2 produced will keep the air out. You can rig a blow off hose tomorrow. Make sure that everything that touches the beer is sanitized. If it has a hole in the lid just cover it with something that will not move. The beer will turn out fine.

thanks to everyone for posting European faucet sales links in the US. :mug:

Unless your beer is at least 4 weeks old from boiler to faucet, it has room for improvement from aging. Foam: At 36F it takes 10 lbs co2 to have 2.5 volumes. If your beer line is not long enough (you need 4 feet @ 3/16 ID) then it will foam when the beer expands coming out of the tap which...

I am talking about saving any wort from DME, LME, or from grain. It needs to be boiled at 240 F for at least 15 minutes and the only way you can get it that hot is to use a pressure cooker or pressure canner (more room). If you freeze wort it can be used before it takes on the taste of the...

No secondary for me. I ferment 10 days add hops to the primary and let it finish for 10 days. Rack to kegs.

I would like one of those Kompensatorzapfhahn faucets. It's too bad that no one here in the US sells them.

If you do not carefully align the tap when re-chasing threads you can be at a slight angle (cross-threaded) and ruin the existing thread. It is not repairable without replacing the material the existing thread was in.

Caution While some may get away with saving wort there is always the chance that it can kill you unless you boil it in a canning pressure cooker to kill any bacteria in the wort. A temperature of 240 F for 15 minutes is necessary to kill Botulism spores. Ref: Starters Ref: Bodensatz Brewing -...

I just drop the hops in, no bag. After 10 days they are on the bottom. Rack as usual.

Yes, dry hop in the secondary. You kept shaking it up and it may be still fermenting. When it's done it will drop out unless the yeast has less flocculation characteristics.

Stop the bleach as it leaves a residual behind and is hard to rinse off. I suggest Starsan as it gets eaten by the yeast and has no flavors and you do not rinse at all. It keeps working while wet to kill bacteria.

Todays maltsters produce fully converted malts and you only need to do a single temperature infusion. Be sure to boil mashed pilsner wort for 90 minutes to drive off DMS. Morebeer has under modified pilsner malt for sale that is like early European malts which needed decoction mashing. I...