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Yes there is a loss when doing full volume, no sparge but it is in the range of 5-10%, hardly worth adding much time to the brew day. With that said, I always sparge but not for the efficiency. I sparge because my brew kettle is too small for a full volume mash.

I'd suggest you use cold water from the tap instead of heating it. As you sparge the pH tends to increase. If you get the sparge pH higher than 6.0 and the temperature over 170 (approximately) you extract excess tannins. By using cold water you don't have to worry about tannin extraction...

Patience is a brewers friend. My beers often do not show much activity for the first 24 to 30 hours.

if you had used all the water your beer would have half the alcohol and half the flavor.

Take a look at the grain prices at Ritebrew. Less than $2/lb in one pound increments. Discount for bigger orders too. www.ritebrew.com

Quit adding heat and don't recirculate for one batch. I suspect your heating is denaturing the enzymes.

What you are describing is how new recipes get developed but....you can make beer that doesn't taste very good doing that too. Find a recipe and make small changes until you get to a beer you really like. I often look at the recipes in the database here. These are tested and modified a bit...

No you are not being too picky. The sellers of milled grain have to try to satisfy a range of expectations, If they mill too fine, people get upset because they get a stuck mash or stuck sparge. If they mill too coarse, mash efficiency goes down and people are not real happy about that...

How long does it have yet until full conversion? That's the whole point of the mash, to get conversion of starches to sugars. Depending on the milling of the grain, it might be complete already or it might need another hour.

Not just good, better. Wait another year and it will likely be better yet.

Where will I store my 15 cases of beer that I make in my "brewing season" when the ground is frozen and I can't farm. Some of that beer has to last from March to Ocrober or November when I get time to brew again.

I find this to be incorrect as my bottled beers are all stored at room temp for months if not years. While my pale ales lose their aroma within about 3 months, the beer is still good to drink until it is all gone, probably at the end or a year. Some beers improve with age, not go stale. A...

A stir plate will get you the increased amount of yeast the fastest but shaking witl get you to approximately the same increase.

i too like a variety of beers but most people do not so the breweries are forced to conform to the demand or die. The competition is fierce. Even brew pubs have to limit what is on tap as a beer that isn't selling enough quantity ties up an otherwise profitable tap. With that in mind, I will...

Now you should ask about oat hulls which also stay attached to the grain until the oats are ready to be made into rolled oats (oatmeal). I've never seen them for sale either.

Firstly, nobody knows how much grain you should use because when doing all grain the mash efficiency is not guaranteed. After you have done half a dozen batches you will have an idea of what efficiency to expect. Use a calculator to see how much of which hop to use. If you use 1 oz of a hop...

As long as the plastic nub is touching the fermenter and there is a good amount of insulation over it, that will work fine. One person tested that setup against a thermowell and discovered the difference to be less than half a degree.

1.5 oz of Warrior hops in a 5 gallon batch will bring you to about 97 IBU's. I don't care for my beers when the IBU's go over about 30. Try cutting down on the amount of hops or choose a different hop with lower Alpha Acid.

Have you changed you cleaning regimen? Different cleaner, different amount, different rinsing? Even a tiny amount of detergent will completely kill the heading on your beer. BTDT

Fasten the probe of the Inkbird to the side of the fermenter and put some insulation over the probe. You want to control the temperature of the beer, not the air in the freezer. At times the air might be 5 to 10 degrees colder than the beer as the freezer tries to keep the beer temperature in...