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First off, why cane sugar and not corn sugar? No problem with either, just wondering. Palmer means that your final beer gravity should be 0.003 higher than the FG by adding the sugar before bottling, regardless of the volume of the beer. If you add 4-5oz (by wt) of dextrose to a 5 gallon batch...

Ha, that's awesome. I'd put the "dry crunch" in a bag though, I bet it would break apart into some nasty sludge. Not sure if you'd get any flavor from the crunch, it's mostly sugar tasting? I say go for it, let us know how it goes.

Yes, you would have another fermentation given more sugars to ferment. That's essentially what you do when conditioning in the bottle. It's also a way to boost the alcohol without shocking the yeast at the start, to add more fermentables after primary has slowed a bit. You typically don't have...

I'd say that's enough time personally, but to be sure, make a huge starter.

I would second aj's advice (listen to him, he knows what he's talking about), and add a caveat about trying to hit a region's water profile. It's hard to tell what the brewery adds/dilutes in their brewing water, so you should try to formulate your water based on understanding of the minerals...

Pitch the whole smack pack into the starter wort. MrMalty is a good place to start. Basically you pitch your smack pack into whatever volume the calculator tells you based on your wort size and starting gravity. YeastCalc is a good one too if you want to do stepped starters, meaning you grow it...

Interesting, I didn't think the boil could be too vigorous. What's the down side? I do see some difference in boil-off, but not much, maybe 0.2-0.3gal more in the summer for 6gal boil.

http://www.homebrewing.org/2-WELD-9-Gallon-Stainless-Steel-Brew-Pot-_p_1684.html This is the cheapest of it's kind that I've seen. Suggested it for a friend and he likes it a lot. Plenty big enough for a 5-6 gallon batch. And I have to agree, my AG beers are much better than my extract, but...

My standard RyePA is 25%, and I've never had a problem with sticky mashes, no protein rest, no rice hulls, crushed at the same mill gap as the rest. I know people here have gone higher, but I like the slight hint of spiciness with the Amarillo/Simcoe dry hop combo. You can definitely tell it's...

In terms of AG, my opinion is that a higher boil-off is better, since you can likely extract more sugar from the sparge starting with a higher volume. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. And yes, typically a larger diameter will give you more boil-off. My BK is 15" and I get a pretty standard...

Yep, good catch, the lactose would account for the difference in pre-post. And it sounds like you've got the volumes and losses all figured out. Can't complain about 85-90%!

Using Beersmith, I'm getting 84% pre-boil and 87% post-boil. Depending on how efficient you were at rinsing the grains and the crush, that's certainly possible with BIAB (well, not a higher percentage of sugars post boil, but we can chalk that up to measuring error, etc). Nice! Do a bunch more...

It's fine, but I would keep it lower than 10% of the total fermentables. Depending on the recipe, the tangy taste may come through, and on very mild recipes you will likely tell it's there even in small amounts. I would use DME instead to bring the OG back up.

I dont think that is very uncommon. Certainly simple enough. I can't comment personally, but I've heard no-sparge will give you a little less efficiency in the kettle, but certainly good conversion. Just some sugars will remain in the grain bed. I like recirculating the mash through the HLT or...

Yep, if you broke the nutrient pack as well, it will start to ferment and probably foam up a little in the bowl. If not, the yeast will just sit there.

I've started adding the really late hops (<5min) after I started cooling. I have the same issue as you, it takes me about 10 mins to get the temp down to 110F, another 15 to 65F (need a bigger IC). I found this lets more of the aroma come through.

That sounds like it will work fine. Just make sure to break up all the dough balls. That's going to be a thick oatmeal. I built a HERMS system right out of the gate for this being one of the reasons, and I've never used it for that, just recirculating and mash out. Thought it was a bigger deal...

A 1.5-2 gal sparge will do something, maybe not as much as a full sparge. Honestly, if your setup works for regular AG without a lot of flaked grain, I would just do it as normal. I don't think I do anything different than most people here, and I've just never worried about it because it's never...

Have you had problems with sticky mashes at that level of flaked oats? Honestly I've been waiting for a stuck sparge using similar recipes, but have never had one doing a single infusion mash, using all kinds of proteiny mess. Maybe it's just a big scare, and the problem lies in overcrushed...

I would build up a mound of good top soil, maybe even in a wide cedar bed above the clay, allowing for good drainage. You're right, nothing grows well in clay, we've got plenty of it down here in NC. The important thing is making sure the water can get out, and water them slowly and frequently.