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Carbonation tabs are semi expensive compared to priming sugar which is like 50cents per 5 gallon batch. That and I suppose the priming sugar adds a tiny bit of alcohol to your brew.

The only "flaw" in your plan that I see is that I'm a fan of the .5 gallon and 1 gallon Growler jugs. They just look cool and it's convenient to just carry one over to a friend's party instead of a case of bottles. (that and you dont have to buy a new set of bottles when they inevitably...

And the wal-mart saves the day again! I really want to hate that place but it's just too convienent... All they're missing is a homebrew section :3 (Not that I want them to kill our local hombrew shops, but my nearest shop is 45 min each way fighting through Boston Traffic and playing Frogger...

A current gravity of 1.000 feels off to me, even with great attenuation it should still be somewhat denser than water. Are you sure your reading it right?

I cant believe no-one has mentioned Honey Malt as something to stock up on! It's one of my favorites.

It's a natural High.

IMHO if it is yeast it's not wild, but probably cells leftover from the last time you used the carboy XD

rmcgill with proper sanitation it shouldnt, I do the old turkey baster method for extracting my hydrometer samples. Generally by the time your testing for SG the yeast have consumed pretty much everything fermentable in the beer already, so if a few bacteria get in there they dont have...

I always stir in my yeast gently, the other thing I do is I'll either let the yeast packet reach room temperature or I'll let it hydrate in a lukewarm cup of water. A rapid temperature change from 40*F in your fridge to 80*F in your wort can lower the viability of your yeast significantly. The...

Is it possible during a partial mash?

Probably too late now, but if you think you might have a contamination, an extra packet of yeast will help crowd out any potential bacteria, and overall speed up fermentation.

Just do what I do when I want to smell my beer, tap the top of the bucket and sniff the bubble that passes through the airlock. It satisfies the curiosity without the CO2 poisoning :D

What I would do, is go to my local homebrew store, and literally taste a each of the different grains and actually get a feel for what they will add to your brew. Then, pick your favorite grain and use a pound of it in your next extract brew and enjoy the flavor it adds.

Unfortunately it's probably some form of bacterial/fungal infection. When you sanitize your equipment it's not the same as sterilization. No matter what you do at home, you will always have some form of bacteria/unwanted fungi living on your equipment. Sanitation in brewing is all about...

If the issue is starch conversion, try adding a dose of Amylase Enzyme, you can pick it up pretty cheap from your home-brew shop and if it works it lets your yeast keep working, if it doesn't, your out $3 with no harm done.

That is a metric Crap-ton of hops lol, I think you should be ok without dry hopping. If you aren't sure take a sip a few days before your ready to rack to secondary and decide if you need to add more.

That's a really difficult question to answer, as it's super subjective. I've personally never gone out and personally purchased a microscope, my experiance with them is in relation to the Labwork I do as an Undergrad in Biology. But, to see bacteria as anything more than specs you pretty much...

You can either get another 6.5 Gallon Bucket or a Carboy of the same size, and either will work fine. Each has definite Pros/Cons which I wont type out here as they're currently written in detail in a sticky at the top of the Beginner Forum. Read through it and see which one offers you the...

How long did you leave it in your primary fermenter? A week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 4 weeks? What was the OG and FG? What fermentables did you use, and in what quantities? What type of hops? Did you add any spices? Any adjuncts? How full did you fill your bucket? Was it a normal 5 gal fill in a 6.5...

The thing that jumps out at me reading those specs is that they don't tell you the resolution except to say that it's high (I'm not referring to the pixels, but the minimum distance at which you can distinguish two objects as separate). This is rather concerning because resolution is typically a...