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It's not strictly necessary to use a wort chiller, but the main reason you want it room temp ASAP, is that while it's cooling you risk infection from bacteria/yeast in the air. More than an hour is probably pushing it on the chance of infection risk.

Brewers Best, and True Brew do good kits in my experience.

I just put together a variation on your recipe with 1/2lb of honey, a large Rhubarb (pureed) and few teaspoons of ground Pink Peppercorn. We also changed the hops around a bit to account for the added sweetness of the Rhubarb. Thanks for the baseline, I think we're going to name it The...

I"m not 100% sure if yeast can metabolize oils, but that still wont give them any proteins (oils are lipids aka fats). Normally this isnt an issue in beer because enough proteins from the grain makes it's way into your extract/wort, but if your using only sugar/juice you need to add something.

Treat it like you would hops, a dry hop addition as you move it to secondary fermentation will give that crisp/fresh taste, whereas adding it during the boil will give you a more mellow-cooked quality. Use sage in a dish when you cook it, and in another fresh as a garnish and you'll know what I...

If your activity hasnt picked up by now I'd sterilize and throw some nutrients in. The issue with starters and some exotic styles is that if you dont have a malt of some sort (or added nutrients) not do your yeast not have anything to repair/build cell bodies with as they consume the sugar, the...

Take a sample three days in a row, if the gravity remains unchanged your done. When you expect 10.5%abv is that factoring in that the yeast will usually only use up about 80% of the available sugar? It's possible you may fall slightly short of 10%

As long as you did everything else right with your sanitation it wont be an issue. Sanitation is not the same as Sterilization so there is already a small amount of bacteria in your wort just from the air. As long as your tapwater is teated/safe to drink your fine, though I'm not 100% sure...

To be fair the book isnt that out of date, the origional book was published in the 80s but the newest edition was about 2003 and it mentions extended primary as a new trend in homebrewing. :D just thought I'd share that with you.

The actual fermentation finishes within a week or two on average, longer for some really high gravity beers. The reason people say to leave it in longer is because something called conditioning occurs when a whole number of chemical changes (that take a 2 course sequence in organic chemistry to...

Did you aerate your wort well? (more oxygen at the start = more yeast activity? Did your second batch cool down much faster than your first batch after you pitched your yeast? Microbe activity increases exponentially with temperature, which is why the colder your wort the longer it takes to...

Did you check to see if your hydrometer is working right? if you put it in a glass of water and it doesnt read 1.00 you know the issue. The only other thing I can think of is that your having a LOT of water evaporate from your cider making the gravity go up... That or someone's playing a prank...

+5gallons of Breakfast Stout =18,775

You've probably brewed a whole lot more than me, but remember the golden rule of homebrewing... Relax, Dont Worry, and Have A Home Brew.

Update # 2 Bottled it 2 weeks ago, very light mouth-feel with a pleasant ginger aroma. For taste, it has a slight spicy/alcohol tingle as you drink it, with a floral/sweet after-taste. I'm overall very happy with it, and the only change I might make is slightly less ginger root. Cheers!

You might benefit from going to a beer tasting event where you can sample dozens of beers (potentially all within the same general style). I went to the ACBF in Boston last weekend and even though I only got a chance to sample about 65 of the 550 beers there, I did get a chance to talk to about...

Don't forget about/count out a German weizenbier either! Brewers Best does a good weizenbier, it's a simple kit that you can easily modify with a favored spice or two.

Looks fine thought it'll probably taste fairly simple, but if that's what your going for right on! I'd personally add a favorite spice or two that's appropriate for the style but that's just my food-for-thought (:

Well if your doing only a pound or two of specialty grains dont use a large cooler that's capable of handling 10-15lbs of grains as it's probably more hassle than using an extra pot, only because the cooler itself will cool the small volume of liquid faster than the pot because of the large...

+5gallons of Hefeweizen +5 gallons of Ginger Ale =17726