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If the wort is turning over due to the boil, you've met that "bare minimum" mark. There might be reasons to achieve a more vigorous boil, but they probably fall into the "want" category more than the "need." Does that help establish priorities?

Really? Alcohol, in sufficient concentration, is a sanitizer. So is heat. Why are you down on "sanitizers" as a category? Surely you must realize this is something of an odd question, to say the least. There's no rule that says you have to sanitize anything. But even hundreds of years ago...

Mine always complains, too. Weird, as I love the small of a mash. Good stuff. Plus, she's always complaining about dry air in the winter. What's better to fix that than a nice kettle of wort boiling on the stove? Women. :confused:

If you're moving water through the hose and chiller, it's not going to freeze, especially since you're going to be heating that water in the wort. Immersion chillers will work just fine in temperatures well below 20F.

I'm still learning, too. Only been brewing 6 years, but I've never seen one of those before.

I see. There are some new kinds of products out now. You have this one, I take it? Fancy. A classical wine thief looks like this. Just one piece. As you can see, it operates differently. The one you have might be more designed to reduce exposure, hence return wort to the fermentor with...

Bit too much homebrew while brewing, huh? Happens to the best of us. :mug:

Wait, is this the "mess" you referenced above? Looks delicious.

Like most anything else, it's the quantity that determines how healthy or unhealthy eating a food is. You have to think of it in the context of your diet in general, any health conditions or problems you might have, and so forth. For most people, a moderate amount of cured sausage most days is...

No problem. Hope I didn't come off as criticizing you. :mug: What video? It sounds like it might have been old, or not made with optimum quality in mind. Would it help to have experienced brewers around here find good videos to watch, rather than try to separate the good from the bad and...

Interesting. First thoughts are, there's a whole lot of crystal malt and just a little smoked malt in there. Also the directions for adding the hops are unclear...is it 1/3 with 40 min remaining in the boil, 1/3 at 25 minutes, and 1/3 at 20 min (this isn't necessarily wrong, it's just a...

Let me get this straight...you're concerned about opening the lid for a few seconds while grabbing a sample, but you're not concerned about pulling a sample, using it to test gravity (outside the fermentor), then returning it? Hmmm... KageBrew is right, in that for beer returning a gravity...

Panthers 48

I wouldn't sweat it too much. The fact that it happened on day 5, and not day 1, makes all the difference in the world in how this plays out. While this situation is obviously not ideal, I'd wager your beer will still taste good.

With chocolate malt, you've got enough to make a porter. I'd just do that.

I use a lot of crystal hops. I get some lemon citrus notes from them, but nothing approaching sourness. Definitely look elsewhere.

Time, tannins, acid, other flavors. There isn't likely to be much, if any, sugar in a wine over 12%, unless it's something of a special case (icewine, sparkling, or alco-pop), if that's what you meant.

Have you tried treating tap water with the Campden and then tasting? As long as it tastes OK after that, it's probably good enough to brew with.

Dunno, but I'd be careful about permanently attaching something to a joist. Make sure it's wife approved, and sturdy enough to hold what you want it to hold.

Regardless of the surprise organisms in there (brett, lacto, something else?), it's extremely difficult to bottle condition and sweeten. With the surprise, it's perhaps risky to even try a champagne method of carbonating, disgorging, and adding dosage. You could use kmeta and sorbate, as in...