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How many valves are you using total and are any of them 3-way valves?

My first two batches of this I only used one packet of US-05 and both times I had less than 12 hours lag time, no stuck fermentations, and no off flavors from underpitching. I'll be making my third batch this weekend and adding some oats at Reno_eNVy's suggestion just to see if it'll thicken it...

In my experience, none of the sizes catch much if any of the hot break but I've also not had any problems with it flocculating out in the primary leaving clear beer.

I've never used oats before. Do you just use instant oats and add them to the mash?

He's referring to the 0.2mm screen that is sold as an optional accessory for the filter from brewershardware. The pore size for the filter as it comes is 0.5mm.

So I've made this beer twice now. The first time just like the recipe said and it was very good, but a little too much spice, even after aging. The second time I made it I used only 1 tablespoon of the pumpkin pie spice and I used biscuit instead of victory and it turned out amazing. I think...

Well that's definitely an interesting setup. I say give it a go and let us know how it turns out!

If you use only gravity to drain the brew kettle then you will have a lot of wort and trub left in the kettle if you're not whirlpooling. Why do you need a grant for the brew kettle before the pump anyway? The juicer sounds like a pretty smart idea but I know some people are going to pipe in...

You are correct that the numbers do vary constantly and to different degrees, but unless you have complex and expensive equipment at home, there's really no way to tell at that exact moment what exactly is in your water. The water reports give you an average amount so that really just helps you...

You are correct, your water isn't hard, but carbonate causes temporary hardness which is not what makes water "hard." Calcium and magnesium are mainly what contribute to permanent hardness. You can have a lot of carbonate and still have soft water.

This what all the books say and I can't disagree with that, I have just noticed a difference but that's with my setup and everyone's is different. There may be no difference at all and maybe I just think there is, who knows. I have had good luck doing both so even though I usually fly sparge, I...

I gotta say that is pretty bad ass. Best apartment setup I think I have ever seen. I live in a house so I brew in my garage and/or driveway but friends ask "How can I get into doing this? I live in an apartment" and I just don't know what to tell them other than stove-top extract batches.

Well, my guess is that when you add the sparge water after laudering, it stirs up the grain quite a bit, rinsing almost all of the color off as compared to fly sparging where the grain bed stays static through laudering and sparging. Of course, recirculation greatly helps to remedy this.

I am out of town so no pics but the filters have garden hose threading on both ends and I use a brass garden hose thread-to-1/2" NPT female on the outlet side, which gets split off from there.

Wow, that's crazy! I retract that statement for sure! This is why I don't use a standard garden hose! I guess the important thing to remember here is to just be safe and not use a garden hose at all and remember that (almost) all brass has lead in it.

Wow, that's a weird water profile. That's a LOT of magnesium, very low sulfate and chlorides. You need to increase your chloride to sulfate ratio first off. Secondly, you need to boost your calcium. Less magnesium would be ideal. Your pH is really high but that's because of all the carbonate...

99 IBUs? Really?

You can really go crazy with water chemistry as it is a very complex issue. If you want to stay basic and effective, just run your tap through an activated carbon block filter. Your "salts" may not be ideal for the style and your pH might not be ideal but you will make good beer from that water...

I've always fly sparged but recently I did two beers doing batch sparging and I got really good efficiency and all, and it was easier and quicker, but my beer was a LOT darker than it should have been. There's a lot of debate on this subject but that's really the biggest difference I can tell...