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No. I'm boiling with the lid on. Is this bad? Just kidding :) Some more details. I make 3.2-ish gallon (final volume) batches using a 5.5 gallon stainless pot on an electric ceramic stove top. Recipes are scaled using beersmith. No top up water, full boils. The pot gets filled to somewhere in...

My last two light batches, recipes here, (haus pale ale, centennial blonde) have an off putting DMS/cream corn, burnt corn, bite in the nose and taste. At least this is what I think it is. Yeast bite maybe? The haus pale ale turned out lighter than I thought and actually the two beers taste...

The Feds will confiscate your fermenters if you secondary. You'll be kicked out of the hobby for not following the new new new rules set by John Palmer. They will give them back if homebrew talk again finds it acceptable and the latest version of "How to Brew" reflects the change. Otherwise...

Water.

Denny's Wry IPA. Looking forward to it.

That's too full for a primary but looks good if transferring to a secondary for extended aging/adding fruit/vanilla/etc. Also if you don't follow proper fermentation temps for the yeast strain you'll be blowing out easily. As far as getting oxygen in the carboy, good quality shaking (not...

My advice is to have a look at Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil and John. The book contains all extract recipes first and then the all grain alternative. They address yeast, how to make extract calculations, how to piece together your own extract recipes, fermentation, and so on. After reading...

There's more risk of things like infection from your racking cane and oxidation (although I'd say that's low if handled correctly) than from letting your beer sit on the primary yeast cake. If you're an ale guy, what kind of ales are you making that require such a long time in any fermenter? The...

Put the whole leaf hops loose into the secondary first. Use a sanitized funnel and the end of a long sanitized plastic spoon to get them into the carboy. This is more a precaution than a necessity. Carefully rack the beer from the primary onto the dry hops in the secondary and let sit for 5-7...

+1 to that. Low and slow! NB has all their instructions available by .pdf on the website. It's horrifying when reading them entirely and following them to the "T." I just picked on the fermentation part of it because I've seen so many threads about NB kits that needed blow off hoses both here...

Think about what you'd rather have; A.) A kit sitting on a LHBS shelf for who knows how long at room temperature. Crushed grain, extract, hops, yeast, all sitting for who knows how long before you come along and purchase it. B.) Fresh ingredients, the yeast and hops probably stored in a...

Regarding the use of a blow off for this brew. The reason so many need it is because Northern Brewer produces some of the absolute worst instructions for brewing out there. To be fair, this is typical for virtually all beer kits. In this instance, they state to cool the wort to 78F before...

How is a glass carboy not worth the trouble? Visually knowing what fermentation looks like is HUGE in understanding how the process works. I can look at a carboy and see high krausen. I can look at the carboy and see the krausen drop. I can look at the carboy and see the yeast begin to floc out...

You want 1.030 - 1.040 gravity wort. I use the 10 to 1 ratio as suggested by Jamil on Mr. Malty. So 100 grams for 1 liter. 200 grams for 2 liters... When boiling it can get tricky because you can boil off more water than anticipated pretty easily leading to a larger gravity wort. I typically...

Just like throwing a yeast starter in the fridge to later decant before pitching. Your yeast will need a little swirl to get back into suspension. The last Wyeast smack pack i used included storing instructions, 35-40F in the fridge. Once you get the temp back up keep it stable to reduce the...

I would suggest boiling water for about 30 minutes in any pot you decide to use. Not to sanitize but to build a protective layer on the inside of the pot. You can use PBW/oxyclean on stainless and not aluminum. Stainless is more durable but aluminum is a fine option as well.

Small batch adjustments are best handled in Beersmith. Sure you can divide and do the math yourself but by setting up an equipment profile in Beersmith and then scaling down your recipe you'll be sure you are accounting for the essentials. Things such as boil off rate, loss to trub and chiller...

Get a copy of Beersmith and learn how to use it. It's the best way to master your small recipes. You can design them and scale larger batches down. I do this all the time with great results.

If one can't use a glass carboy correctly how about the hydrometer? They are a whole lot more fragile than a carboy. Airlocks are much more reliable using a carboy. The notorious bucket seal is where people get in trouble the vast majority of time. If we are focusing on "newbies" here they...

Aluminum will heat up and cool down faster than stainless. You also need to pay more attention to aluminum so you do not impart off flavors into the beer. It's very important to be sure to build the protective layer inside the pot. (Boiling water for 30 minutes in a shiny new aluminum turkey...