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I wouldn't worry too much about a scale for pounds. Most of the countertop scales will be fine with that weight. It's the ounce and smaller increment scales that need great accuracy. I do a lot of small batches and adjust my water so I need to get down to tenths of grams. I had a small scale...

It's variety, storage and use dependent. If you're using them for bittering at some point you'll need to account for alpha loss if you care whether you are some IBUs off. For flavor/aroma/dry hopping if they smell fine they will taste fine. Sunday I brewed a beer with late additions of hops I...

Yeah it looks infected. At first I thought the brown floaters was coagulated protein but the bubble eliminates any question there. I've seen wild yeast make those kind of blobs that float. If you tried to pull one out and it breaks up and sinks, it's likely protein. If you can pull the whole...

I think it's fine. You may find over time you miss the mouthfeel of more beta-glucans and rotate between which recipe you add with each pull from the carboy. For headspace I would only fill the carboy up to where it turns to a slope towards the neck. You shouldn't need a blowoff tube if you're...

Pretty much any clone recipe from a reputable source is going to give you a good "authentic" recipe. Virtually all wit recipes you'll find are derived from Hoegaarden and that style of white beer. Coriander and orange peel are the typical spicing for that reason. Those recipes will produce what...

I make hopped seltzer water by loading hops into a fine mesh bag and adding it to the keg to carb up. I usually do around half to a full ounce of hops per gallon. I leave the hops in the keg until I empty it out. Sometimes I'll refill with water and get a second round out of the hops. Whole leaf...

Very likely a pellicle from an infection. Looking at the pellicle won't tell you what it is. Could be lactic acid bacteria, could be wild yeast, could be a combination of yeast and bacteria. You can roll with it and take your chances that you will like the end result. You can package it and try...

The ongoing research is focused on how mash hops can increase thiol content which in turn can increase hop flavor and unlock different flavors in a beer. The unanswered question today is the same as it was last time everybody thought mash hopping was an interesting idea: how much does it take...

There are lots of reasons. Life gets in the way. People move on to other hobbies or quit drinking. Not everybody loves a hobby that involves a lot of cooking or cleaning--especially if they have limited free time. I know a lot of people who homebrewed in the early to mid 2010s at the height of...

Agreed--adding more sugar but not restraining the yeast is more likely to give you bottle bombs. Yeast don't have hard limits on what they will consume despite the ranges set on packaging. Even if fermentation slows to the point you have a stable FG reading, over months in the bottle there may...

A ten gallon cooler will satisfy most five gallon batches. I bought a ten gallon cooler because people told me I'd want to go bigger over time. I ended up going smaller.

I would be concerned about drying them after freezing. Seems like they would break down into mush as they warm up and it would be hard to dry them well. I could be wrong. I've heard of people using frozen wet hops and don't see why that would be much of an issue. Might be messier but should...

I would not worry about contamination unless the fruit looks terrible and you're dumping mold into the beer that will give it a lousy taste. Sour beer is already low ph and alcoholic which are two barriers to most wild yeast and bacteria. If anything, you might get some extra lactic acid...

Sterling are notoriously difficult to grow. I have a five year old plant that is just this year starting to produce a crop of usable hops. It's the most and most watered of my four plants. Unless you really, really like sterling, definitely better to replace it. If you're looking for something...

Often florists get roses that are good for durability after cut but have very little aroma. Very likely to have been sprayed with non-food safe pesticides. You'll have a hard time finding fresh rose petals elsewhere unless you're taking them right off the bush. Rose petals don't have much of a...

You're just describing the sour mash process more common to homebrewers (and some pro brewers) in the 90s and 2000s before we figured out it was way easier to just sour lautered wort. Why do it that way? It had been done that way for a long time, the same way acid rests were more common before...

Either wild strawberry or mock strawberry. Both are edible but mock strawberries have zero flavor. You can tell the difference in a few ways. Mock strawberries grow yellow flowers and the fruit grow upright. The fruit is also bumpy and more round. Wild strawberries grow white or pink flowers and...

Whether you should keep separate equipment depends on your cleaning and sanitation process. There's no harm to keeping separate equipment (except to your pocketbook and storage space) but it's not required. Oxyclean or PBW will break down biofilms but really outside of kegging equipment...

I haven't heard of it but it's an interesting idea. You would need to test out different types of corn and how to prepare it for roasting. Popcorn varieties will pop before they roast. Field corn may be hard and burn on the outside before developing color or roast internally. They may also be a...

No serious issues with diluting it. Unless you modify the water profile it's going to affect ph and mineral content but that may not be a huge issue. Use a good water source and I would add before kegging so you know the quality of beer every time. If he's adding tap water that tastes like...