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I brew 2.5 gallon biab batches. I now do a yeast starter for each batch, targeting enough cells for a 5 gallon batch so I can save half for the starter for my next brew. But before I did starters, I always pitched the full packet of liquid yeast. I found it too tough to measure the slurry in...

This looks like a great solution! I'm all about repurposing stuff I already have. I have a 3-gallon fermonster, and I use a Brew Hauler that I used to have on a glass carboy. It slide around a bit, but it's still very secure and the two handles are nice. I'd bet on a 6-gallon fermonster, it...

I wouldn't mess with it. As mentioned earlier, most lacto is very hop sensitive. The Omega 605 in particular is known to be totally inactive in the presence of even a few ibus. There are a lot of tales on here about people not getting any ph drop at all if they added hops prior to pitching the...

I assume they want you to cool the beer to help encourage the hops to drop to the bottom. I have never seen a kit have you do it two degrees a day over two weeks, though maybe they're trying to avoid oxygen ingress by crashing slowly. Just crash it quickly or don't crash it at all. A slow vs...

I have found this to also be the case, the one or two times I measured before pulling the bag and then after. I didn't necessarily attribute it to water outside the bag versus inside. I had assumed that I probably had stratification within my mash, since high gravity wort should be heavier than...

I get a lot of fusel alcohols with us05 at room temperature. I would try kveik instead. Lutra is a great option if you're going for a clean ale profile. It will ferment clean at almost any temp. It's extremely forgiving.

OP, if you have the time, I find a slow drop in temperature can be done without suck back because the beer will still be off gassing a bit of Co2. If you can lower the temp slow enough that the temperature contraction is offset by the Co2 that the wort is producing, you're fine. Just keep an eye...

It definitely is! I will second the recommendation a few people have made to try smaller BIAB batches. If you're making 2.5 to 3 gallon batches, that's typically very easy to do on a stove at home. You get a little bit less beer, but it's much less of a headache than trying to babysit a mash for...

I think everything on your list is worth doing at some point. But if you're going to move to all grain, getting a refractometer and learning more about water will be huge. Water chemistry matters a lot to your mash, and you don't need fancy or expensive equipment to do it. Just buy some gypsum...

I'm hoping I see some improvements with oxygenation. After getting a handle on temp control last year, I'm focusing more on yeast health now. I've been doing starters but still feel like I have room to improve and make the yeast happier. So far, I've dosed one batch with the oxygen, and the...

I haven't seen one, but it's a good idea! If someone starts a list like that, I vote for Bell's house yeast to be on it. I almost never need blowoff tubes, but Bell's yeast blows through my head space every single time. It has the fluffiest krausen I've ever seen.

Thanks all, that's very helpful. I'm indeed using a little gold regulator with the red tank. That's very good to know that I shouldn't go full bore with the flow. Since I just bought it, I'll stick with it for a bit before getting a more exact one, though it does seem like a much better option...

For those who brew less than 5 gallons, how long do you oxygenate your wort? I brew 2.5 gal batches and recently got an oxygen wand. I see the recommendations to oxygenate for 60 seconds to two minutes, but that seems geared toward a 5 gal batch. Should I halve that and go with 30 seconds to 60...

Since you're using extract, it's unlikely that you actually overshot your gravity that much, unless you aren't actually at 5 gallons. And if you boiled for an hour, I would expect you'd have to add a little bit more water than you did to get to 5 gallons. Are you going off of the marks on the...

The only way to know for sure is to check the gravity of the starter. I often have starters ferment out completely with very little visible krausen, for whatever reason. So it's certainly possible it's finished, but just check the gravity so you know for sure.

I am not sure you could necessarily rule out water entirely with this method of half spring/half distilled. It's still an indeterminate water profile. Even though it might not be perfect, it's definitely not going to cause any major astringency issues like you're having now. So if it's still...

Is the taste bitter like hops or more astringent like overbrewed tea? They are very easy to confuse, but it's important to distinguish because they have different causes. Astringency results from tannin extraction from your grains. It could be your ph is off due to the baking soda, or the higher...

Can you give more info on the recipe? What type of beer, what type of yeast? OG? When you say no activity, are you judging by bubbles in the airlock? Are you using a bucket, stainless, or something clear? Has any krausen or bubbles appeared? If you're just going by bubbles, I would bet that...

I was just reading some of Lars Garshol's writings about carbonation in traditional farmhouse ales earlier today. Historically, they were served with very little carbonation because most farmers didn't have anything solid enough to hold pressure, and even if they did, they wouldn't have a way to...

Out of curiosity, are you doing a starsan co2 purge and purging with fermentation co2?