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My refractometer doesn't care if there are solids suspended in the wort. It measures the refraction of the sample, not the clarity.

At 170F you have denatured the enzyme. It needs cooler mash to work. From BSG: "In mashing, Fungal α-amylase is active up to 60°-65°C(140°-149°F) and has optimal activity in the range of 52°-62°C (125°-144°F). The enzyme is completely deactivated above 70°C (158°F)."

Extra protein to ensure a tall head on your beer? Instead of rice hulls? I took time to screen my grain and used a fan to blow the straw and chaff away. I still got some bug parts.

Most feed grain is simply grain that hasn't had weed seeds removed from it. I have taken wheat and rye from my bins and used them to make beer. 2 row malted barley has sufficient enzymes to convert the starches in unmalted grain up to or over 50%.

My first few batches were bottled on day 7 and I let them ferment at room temperature. The point of having more buckets is that you can fill your time with brewing another batch instead of having to bottle to free up a fermenter. My beer went up in quality when I learned to ferment at a lower...

I have 5 buckets and sometimes have them all full. The smell never completely goes away but doesn't affect the next batch. I usually leave the beer in the fermenter for at least 3 weeks and start sampling at a week in the bottle, knowing that the beer won't b ready for at least 3 weeks in the...

How long do you intend to leave the beer in the fermenter determines whether you need to worry about oxygen permeability. These people didn't think it to be a big deal.

If your beer splashed as it filled the bottle, you have introduced more oxygen to the beer. That oxygen reacts with the aromatic hop oils that make a pale ale taste the way it does and will destroy it fairly quickly. Your beer will be best if drunk within a month or 2. Bottling wands let your...

I think the time for gelatinization may be much shorter than the 15 minutes, depending on the size of the grain particles. I have seen, based on iodine test and readings from my refractometer, full conversion in less than 5 minutes. Time for more testing by someone else who can mill their...

Unfortunately, no. I exceed it most of the time.

This is true if your grains are crushed fairly coarse but as you get a finer crush you lose this control as the conversion is complete before there is time to denature the beta amylase.

How vigorous of a fermentation you get is a factor of OG, the amount of yeast pitched, and temperature. I try to control the temperature in the lower limits of it preferred range and that seems to work well as the yeast are slowed by the cool temperature.

When you brew all grain beer you have a lot of control or lack of control during the brewing process. Getting an OG substantially lower than expected can be from adding too much water thus diluting the wort or it can be a poor crush of the grain which gives you a lower mash efficiency. Getting...

The first batch is costly. The second batch can be way less costly as you have already paid (in dollars for new bottles or time cleaning used) plus you do not need to use new yeast for each batch. When you brew a batch of beer the yeast multiply and you end up with about 4 times as much as you...

The refractometer is your problem. The alcohol in the beer skews the reading to the high side. When your beer has started fermentation you switch to a hydrometer for accurate readings. There are calculators to adjust the reading of the refractometer to closer to accurate but the hydrometer is...

Most people mash for 60 minutes because they have been taught that that is the standard mash period. The actual mash period depends on the quality of the grain milling and for a poor milling, a 90 to 120 minute mash may be proper and sometimes even that does not result in complete conversion...

I think so. I might keg it and leave it at room temp for a couple weeks or more before chilling it. That time also should promote better head retention.

This is the place to use a refractometer for the OG reading. I have a cheap one that reads the gravity directly and it matches the hydrometer when the wort is cooled. One or 2 drops of wort gets you the reading without needing to cool the wort. Mine is like this one...

If your beer has other malts besides the base malt and you dilute the wort because it is substantially higher in OG than planned, you are also diluting the flavor from the other malts. Leave this batch alone and adjust the recipe to account for the higher brewhouse efficiency so you don't need...

This is likely your problem. "Reading the SG with a refractometer" Refractometers are great for getting the OG but the alcohol in the finished beer makes them read high. Use a hydrometer on your finished beer and see if that fixes the problem. The recipe you used probably assumes a 70%...