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I think a flush with a caustic every once in a while is definitely a good idea. It's also much more important IMO to be pickier about cleaning your CFC/plate chiller than your BK. I bet there's a lot more infections that come from improperly cleaned/sanitized chillers than kettles. ;)

I think soot is probably a lot easier to flush out than sugary, sticky, solid particles.

The FB should be in there the whole time. No worries about scorching, unless you do something stupid like I did once... https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/hopstopper-users-22684-post223796/#post223796

First, let me say, I think any CFC is much easier to make sure it's clean after use. The passage ways in a plate chiller are just so small, and if you get lazy, you might end up with problems. But that's not to say you can't keep a plate chiller clean, just that it may require a little more...

We just moved from there. There's a fairly active brew club going now that we set up a few years ago. They've got a facebook group they use to organize meetings/events if you want to check it out. I can dig up some more specific info for you if you're interested.

I think the Brutus 10 build instructions are publicly available.

Recirculate slowly. I've found this helps greatly. Pumping the mash at full flow will compact a mash and stop the flow in no time. Also, stir every once in a while if you're recirculating throughout the mash rest. That can help, too.

I'm curious to hear why you want all of the redundancy. Not that it's bad, but when I built my rig, I wanted to have things pretty simple and straight forward.

Electric is cheaper, once you have everything built. I think the components cost more, and require a little more work/attention putting everything together, but it also gives you a lot of automation options in the future if you want. With your issues/concerns, it seems like an easy choice, though.

What size ball valve are you using where whole hops won't clog it? 1"?

Yeah, they really work surprisingly well, and I like their more coarse mesh compared to the fine mesh bags, because I think you get better (maybe full) utilization from your hops.

The hot break isn't anything to worry about. You definitely need to filter the hops, though. I use a hanging fine grain nylon (or paint strainer) bag. I haven't had any problems.

I've never done an extract brew, so take this with a grain of salt... From what I understand, a lot of extract brewers add the extract late in the boil, like with 15 mins left in that recipe. I think it allows you to get more hop utilization when you're not doing full boils, and maybe...

You don't have to - I never have. But if you soaked everything in a an ounce or two of bourbon or vodka, you wouldn't taste it in the end.

Yeah, put it all in there. You want the little black dots, the oils, everything.

I think I'd use the challenger for bittering and the golding for finishing. Should be fine with those.

First, welcome! It sounds like maybe you ended up with a porter barleywine. I think it's probably fermented as much as it will. 1.021 is just barely over what I had with 1.078 OG, so I think you're right on. Carbonation may take a little longer, but that's OK because you want this to have...

70% brewhouse efficiency. For some reason it won't let me edit the original post. Says something about a drop-down prefix that isn't there...

If you're using flex gas hoses, you probably do want the flared fitting, along with an orafice that's got the same (which is normal). If you hard plumb everything, then the flared fittings won't work, and you'd need an orafice with pipe threads like the one from morebeer. If that hose has npt...

You know, that hose may actually work IF the male end is NPT. I first read the thread and saw the links on my blackberry, so I couldn't tell. I've built two different manifolds. The first one used flex gas hoses to the jets that came with the burners (flared fittings). The one I built for my...