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Have you thought about wrapping the carboy with some insulation to decrease the quick swing in temperature when the fridge kicks on?

Sounds like a leaky lid to me, and that you had a successful vigorous ferment. Did the wort in the pitcher look like it was krausen, all yeasty and such?

+1. If it's beyond 4 months of manufacture, I'd definitely use a starter. Fresher than that I would be perfectly confident throwing it right in a reasonable gravity brew. It all comes down to storage temps along the way.

I just made a starter out of smack pack dated Jan 2013. They're still there if stored properly, they just need time. Do a small 500ml starter and keep it going until you see activity. Let it finish, crash, decant and add 1.5L more wort. That should give you plenty of yeast for that brew in my...

Haha, mine always swells if I shake and smack it like that.

I would make a new starter with some of the slurry to make sure, but if it wasn't frozen solid you're probably ok.

Use DrKnow's advice if you want to keep it. Let it completely ferment out, checking by hydrometer for several days. Then bottle as usual. I did this once, didn't care for it but that's my own taste. I would add from personal experience to really clean everything well that touched the beer after...

Better safe than sorry, I would add some fresh yeast at bottling.

I would store the yeast under beer, not washed (personal preference), fermented fully from a low gravity starter that was "sterilized" with a pressure cooker, including the vials (don't cook White Labs vials) and any glassware you might use collecting/growing the yeast. Basically I am restating...

I've done both, and as you said they do equally well at 6-12mo, but longer than that, you'll want to freeze in glycerin. I just thawed my whole stock of yeast over 3 years old just to check viability, and they're all good, very active and give the same flavor profile as they did when I froze...

2 gal Clover honey mead, Belgian Strong Ale yeast, first attempt. 180+2= 182

I built a HERMS using a cooler MLT to recirculate through the HLT, but it turned out as you said, very little temp drop over the mash time. It ended up working very nicely for hands off recirculating during the mash out, coming out crystal clear into the BK, so I would recommend it for this reason.

As long as it's done fermenting, either way should be fine. Better to go with the fermentation temp of the brew you're doing, but let it down slow.

Still not enough info, I'd say. Try asking specifically for Calcium, Magnesium, Sulfate, Carbonate and bicarbonate. These are typical minerals that they should know.

Could the same taste be from too hot of a fermentation? I know all the ones that got away from me ended up tasting the same. If you can get it a bit cooler, maybe in the low 60s, a pilsen/saaz smash should get you a clean taste to hone in on the problem. I just did one that let every little...

The honey will add about 7 points to the 5.5gal post-boil. Is that post-boil measured with the honey or without? and what was your pre-boil volume? I'm guessing that's a typo. With the honey for post-boil, I'm getting an 85% brewhouse efficiency. To calculate the mash eff, just take the honey...

Calcium, Magnesium, Chloride, Chlorine or chloramine (assume this is already there), Sodium (already stated), Sulfate, Carbonate and bicarbonate is a good start. Then you can enter these into Bru'N Water to see where you are re: residual alkalinity and hardness.

Wash it first, then store it is what I'd do. Make a starter and it should be good to go.

Method looks good, though I would start with a smaller amount of wort on the first step, maybe 250ml plus the bottle dregs volume (could use a higher OG starter here since you'll be diluting with beer), on the stir plate. Yeast like to have a nice density to get going.

I'd second that and add that even if you want to fly sparge, a wide ID silicone tube sitting on the top of the grain bed works very well. I've wasted many an hour trying to get various drip sparge devices to work, and come up with the conclusion that all they do is create worry and rapid...