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"Cavitation is famously damaging. The pressures and temperatures it produces eat away at the hardest steel. Just how this would influence costs isn’t clear but must surely be factored in somehow." Hmmmmm.

Until it all got straightened out a few years back, the UK Sunday trading laws were piecemeal to the point that you could buy carpet by the meter but not by the yard, and pornography but not the bible.

The same principle still applies. Start out simple with a 5lb C02 tank, regulator, 1-2 kegs in your mini-fridge, and picnic taps. If it works for you then you can always expand to a fully-fledged keezer with a stout tap on nitrogen (and keep a look out for keezers for sale in the classifieds...

Historically the English aristocracy would have a batch of strong ale brewed and barrel-aged for a son's 21st birthday; you'll be good.

Not at all - it was subtle enough just to temper the lactose sweetness. Also milk stout floats (with chocolate ice cream) are heavenly.

After my birth, my mother was given a prescription for Guinness on the National Health Service. There's some great history of milk stouts here, including recipes for the 1936 and 1954 versions of Mackeson. Its interesting to see how the lactose addition is timed to avoid gravity-based taxes...

One of the reasons I advocated starting with a straight CO2 set-up - this was simply a side-question about whether beer gas could successfully be used to carb.

If you're carbing with beer gas you have to crank the pressure up to compensate for the fractional CO2, but it can certainly be done - around 36psi with 25% CO2 is equivalent to 9psi on 100% CO2, and you can then serve at that pressure through the stout tap's restrictor plate.

For nitro pours, ideally you want beer gas (typically 75% N2, 25% CO2) which you can seamlessly use to carb and serve. You can certainly carb with CO2 and push with N2, but you'll lose some of the carbonation over time. You'll obviously also need a stout tap. I'd definitely recommend starting...

Post #5 (with all the numbers laid out) says 10G kettle, but I do now see 7.5G mentioned in post #1.

My local just tried to serve me a "session DIPA" at 6.5% ABV, but couldn't explain why it wasn't just an IPA.

Can I ask why you're not just mashing in the 10G kettle, BIAB-style?

Serving on CO2 should be OK - normally it would take a couple of days to reach equilibrium. If the party isn't for a for couple of weeks though I'm not sure why you're carbing like that rather than just holding it at 7-8 PSI at 39 F for the duration, or even warm-carbing at around 12 PSI...

Hell no! Marshall Space Flight Center specializes in rocket propulsion systems (from Saturn V to ISS), but it's certainly not the base.

I'd imagine the biggest problem will be your latitude - so close to the equator, there's just not enough variation in the length of your days for hops to mature properly.

I'll certainly take a look at the RiteBrew prices, though as I've listed them the parts include all fittings - swivel nuts for the QDs (which are per pair), tail-pieces and nuts for the shanks, etc - so I don't think the difference will be as big as it might appear. I also generally rounded up...

Thanks MagicMatt - that's really useful. Our numbers are actually not that different - I'm just including stainless faucets at $40 each and QDs at $15 a set. My spreadsheet splits the jockey box and keg sides since most commercial kits stop at the former, and lists both cold plate and...

I no-chill all the time (California drought), and you should be fine. You'll get some of the flavors associated with first-wort or whirlpool hopping, but that's usually a feature not a bug! And if you're concerned about aroma, just bump up the dry-hopping (though you didn't mention what kind of...

Very nice. But it looks like it only ended up with 3 taps, and taking it to events would still require more room than I've got in my car.

Having moved my keezer more often than is good for either of us, I'm thinking a jockey box is in order for the 2-3 times a year I want to run 4+ taps at an event. I've done some reading and costing and now I'm soliciting the general wisdom of brewkind: buy, build or rent? coil or cold-plate...