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Made 2L of apple purée and racked my apple beer on top of it. Taking stock on grains and other materials next. Might bottle my kölsch tomorrow if I have enough bottles. If not, it can wait until next weekend.

Look at what comes in each kit, and then price out each ingredient. That will tell you if the kit is cheaper or not. Hops are, for me, still my most expensive ingredient in brewing ($10 per 100g for most varieties). If you like hoppy beers, it's worth shopping around and seeing where you can...

Yeast rafts. Nothing to worry about.

Bleach bomb the fermenters for 24 hours, make sure the bleach-water mixture reaches the top of the fermenter otherwise you might not reach all the bacteria. Then just give them a good hot water rinse. Dump all the O-rings, grommets, and other possibly infected plastics in, as well. Proceed as...

Apples are cheap this week so I decided to brew up my Apple Ale. Just mashed it in 10 minutes ago. After the boil I'll go for a run and order some supplies - more pale malt, some more hops and other goodies.

Love Lubelski hops. I might brew something like this up next.

8° is low. Warm it back up and jostle up the yeast cake. If you have a space heater, leave the fermenter next to it for an hour or so and wrap it in blankets. That will help retain the warmth. You can also buy heat pads from your LHBS, but I can't tell you how effective they are. If, after...

Two questions: did you take several gravity readings before determining 1.020 is your FG? Also, is the beer still on the yeast cake or did you transfer it? If it's still on the yeast, give the fermenter a light jostle. That may help the yeast come back and drop your Alt those final few gravity...

Looks like proteins all coagulated together. Nothing at all to worry about.

Ultimately, it depends on your tastes. I hate hoppy beers, so I don't mind if my hop profile suffers. And like I mentioned in my original post, I just can't justify using another vast amount of water given how much I already pay Sydney Water per quarter. So if my hop flavor suffers a bit, I'm OK...

The chill-vs-no-chill debate is rather fun. Ultimately, I think it depends on where you are and your situation. For me, utilities are expensive so I couldn't justify wasting another 30+ liters of water just on cooling. I'm also the only one in my family who really drinks, so I don't need to do...

I usually wait 10 days before taking a gravity reading. That way, I'm sure fermentation is done (or nearly done) and I've given the yeast some time to begin cleaning up any unwanted tastes like sulphur. If you're fermenting in a bucket, you'll need a turkey baster or wine thief to get your...

What temperature is your beer fermenting at? A high temp may cause rapid fermentation, among other issues (off-flavors). Also, try to limit sticking anything into your wort. Even if you sanitize, you unnecessarily raise the risk of infection this way.

This. That's definiately a starch layer. I cook a lot of barley (it makes a great mushroom risotto) and the first step is to rinse the barley. You get that same viscous run-off after the rinse. You had or are still having fermentation. Rouse the yeast, I bet the gravity will drop more.

If you have a good LHBS nearby that has a knowledgeable staff, talk to them. That's where I got most of my grain knowledge from. You can always search and ask here, too.

My main malts are Pilsner, Wheat, and 2-row. I usually have 12.5kgs of each on hand so that I can brew at anytime. I keep 2-3kgs of other things I need, like Melanoidin and Carapils.

Did a Hefe yesterday. Pitched the yeast this morning and she's just starting to form a kräusen.

Note: Mostly everything's in metric. It's too early in the morning for conversions for me. Brewing a lager (or any beer for that matter) from grain is fairly simple. Temperature is your biggest concern, here. As far as grain, you can buy it pre-milled from any LHBS. The amount you need is...

Sounds like your beer's going fine. It may take a bit longer to ferment, given the lower temperature. Give it at least 10 days before you play with it. Take a hydrometer reading, if the beer's a few points above your expected FG, pull it out of the fridge and let the temperature rise a bit...

Judging by your signature, I'm going to assume you used Munich malt in this beer. Munich is more on the malty-side of the taste spectrum, so it's safe to assume you'll have a malty beer. I don't know anything about Mosaic hops, though. I never use them. How long has it been bottle...