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I've always been a DIY person. I make archery equipment, roast my own coffee and enjoy working my vegetable garden. Getting into brewing seemed like a natural fit.

I brew outdoors in a single vessel/kettle. I insulate my BIAB kettle (10.5 gallon) with a homemade but well-fit Reflectix coozy and a sleeping bag. If it's breezy which is most everyday, I throw a tarp over the whole thing. I lose a couple of degrees over an hour but I don't uncover it or add...

Does your wife have a sense of humor? I mean, you know, just in case it's not a perfect Hoegaarden :)

Good summary. Thanks.

I'm not a fan of rushing fermentation solely based on gravity. When I first started brewing I listened to John Palmer talk about giving yeast adequate time to "clean up after their work is done" and this cleanup was not reflected in a change in gravity but can definitely affect taste of the...

Priming sugar/water mixtures can be a little voodoo but usually still work great. The calculators are based on the amount of beer bottled but it's added to the bucket before you get the beer transferred so depending on the yeast cake and any hop trub left in the fermenter your bottled amount may...

Hydrometers are calibrated for a certain temperature so be sure it's at that temp when taking the reading. I learned that after taking a reading of wort that was still too warm.

Note: that photo was my first attempt. It worked but I've since adjusted pulleys so bag is more centered.

Google: Alton Brown Turkey Derrick for managing heavy grain bag. Works great

I've done some small 2 gallon test batches where I only added hops at 180 and 140 and bitterness is definitely extracted. Not the same as full boil but definitely there. One batch I used cryo hops at 50% reduced amounts for the batch size and at lower temps (180, 140 only). I got good bitterness...

Mr Wilser is not kidding about this. I no longer put heat to kettle with bag in place. I'm a quick learner after scorching a bag. May be more of a risk with big propane burner than stove top

Do you use an immersion chiller? The reason I ask is I'm trying to improve the logistics of my brewing at flameout thru chilling and hop additions and creating a whirlpool. My IC goes in the kettle with about 10-15 min left in the boil. At flameout I don't immediately start the chiller but just...

When homebrewers and recipes refer to "Whirlpool" hop additions does that imply they are actually using a pump to whirlpool the wort? Is the whirlpool itself important to the hop addition or is it just referring to the time (flameout, post boil) when the addition is made? I understand that...

Well done HopSing!

Do you hang the bag on the side of the kettle or suspend it in the middle during your boil?

I'm probably wrong but I see LME as the culprit no matter when it enters a boiling wort. I've made some small 2 gallon batches with only DME and did not have the twang. The boil was 15 minutes but some I don't boil at all, go to 180. I typically brew BIAB but like doing small stove top extract...

Brew both and compare. I'm a big smash fan and a simpleton with even non-smash recipes.

I just did a small test batch 2.25 gallons doing only hop stand additions. I used Cryo Hops and had much less hop debris go into the fermenter. Probably two reasons: I used 50% less hops by weight per recommendation of YCH. The Cryo has less hop debris/veggie material.

No worries. I cut the batch to 2 1/4 gallons and used a 3 gallon glass carboy. That extra quart of head space may not be needed but I felt better about it.

I'm brewing a 2.5 gallon test batch My only available fermenter is a 6 gallon bucket. Is 3.5 gallons of headspace a problem? I'm thinking it's not a problem. I could probably borrow a 3 gallon carboy and deal with the blowoff but I'm going to be gone during some of the early fermentation...