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That's the kind of answer I was hoping for. Thanks.

Filthy McNasty

Longtime beer brewer, new Kombucha brewer. I brewed up a couple batches of Kombucha using Earl Grey tea before reading that this is a no no and may cause my SCOBY to stop functioning as it should (both batches tasted great, by the way). My next batch will use the same Earl Grey tainted SCOBY...

Except for when you pitch the yeast.

To me, the real advantage of the HE mash is that it reduces the grain bill enough to, in most cases, increase the batch size to 3.25 gallons or so. I've found that I can increase the batch size of the recipe until the starting volume of water in the brewing keg is around 4 gallons. I haven't...

I use two 7lb bags of ice and about 2 gallons of water in a bucket while recirculating in the chill cycle. This gets me into the 80s in 20-25 minutes. Once foam appears, I stop the chill cycle, put the keg in the ferm chamber, and in a few hours I'm ready to pitch.

I've brewed close to 30 batches on the Zymatic and never had an error message. So, your experience is not my experience. I love it. Awesome machine that has revolutionized my brew day.

Sick. I'm sure that's not even legal in Georgia.

Hmmm....I've never left the gelatin in the water prior to heating. I follow the Brulosophy method of adding the gelatin and then heating it to 150 in 7 second bursts in the microwave. Stirring in between. That's always worked for me.

My understanding of this lagering technique is that if you use an appropriately large yeast pitch, a controlled fermentation which includes lager ferm temp through 50% of attenuation followed by a ramped high temp D-rest to finish out the ferment, you will have a really good lager in a much...

I'd say that this technique is based on the belief that the main reason that lagers are traditionally lagered for so long is to clear them. But clearing the beer on a homebrew scale can much more quickly be achieved by fining with gelatin. Thus rendering lagering for a month or more unnecessary...

Unfortunately, I don't think you'll get much aroma at all from the Hallertau. I would consider adding the Cascade, as well. How much Hallertau did you drop in?

I've had this issue with big double IPAs that have no crystal and finish at around 1.010. It's been with citrusy hops like Amarillo and Mosaic where the vast majority of hops are whirlpool. Perhaps it is about needing to balance late additions with bittering charges, but I fully believe that the...

38 batches since April - wow, that's impressive!

I've been completely won over by Brulosophy's assertion that most beers can be turned around a lot more quickly than the current conventional wisdom states so long as the yeast pitch is large, and fermentation temps can be controlled and used in a way to finish up fermentation quickly without...

This is what I do, as well. I then build my water up from there. It's made a really positive difference in my beers and is super easy.

Might be time for some more taps on that bad boy!

Efficiency is low - somewhere between 50-60% because it is a no-sparge system. But no stuck sparges, obviously. I've never tried to mill as finely as I do for BIAB (flour, basically) because the recipes are formulated based on a much more course crush.

I back up all that is said here. My favorite thing about the PB is the major upgrade in ease of cleaning. I hate the amount of time it takes to clean my traditional set-up; the fact that I will finish brewing at 3pm but won't finish cleaning until 5pm. I hate that. Pico brew clean up will take...

The entire Picobrew system is based around hot wort in a keg, so no, no problem. It uses it as the HLT and as the boil kettle.