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Yeah, I'll revise my opinion IF you are planing lots of Belgians. But still regular 2-row pale if looking at american or british ales or general purpose. If making continental styles (lagers or Belgians), Pilsner is a solid choice. I often forget about Belgians because I don't care for them...

I like Lufthansa, but I wish they offered beer other than Warsteiner.

Generally if you are going to make a broad range of whatevers, standard US or UK 2-row is going to be a safe bet. Pilsner malt has a light, but distinct character best suited for Continental-syle lagers.

I did a recipe once where I accidentally doubled the CaraHell and Acid malt, and it turned out to be a fantastic beer. Let it ride, you might be surprised, since Carapils isn't really a conventional caramalt.

I just made a SMASH German Pils with Barke Pilsner and Mandarina Bavaria. I like it lot, but don't actually love the hops, would probably have been better off with just classic noble hops. But the Barke Pilsner malt stood up well on its own as 100% of the grain bill (okay, minus a few percent...

Concur - hops particles, kreusen, and yeast residue.

Sulfur soda?!?!? That doesn't sound appealing at all! Why would you make something like that?!?!?! ;)

RO is rarely, if ever, zero TDS. If you expect it to be, you will be disappointed 99.99999999% of the time. Whoever told you it should be zero sold you a bad bill of goods. Period. It's close, but not zero. If you want zero TDS, get distilled.

Gelatin is unnecessary unless you are in a real hurry. Good process, cold storage (lagering, yes, even for ales), and a Clear Beer floating dip tube will net you crystal bright beer in only a few weeks. Exhibit A: Spunded German Pilsner lagering for 24 days. Again, this is spunded, so when it...

Put me in, coach!

In Massachusetts, homebrew stores are considered essential - they are food stores (they sell grain and other food products). So my LHBS is still open, but with protective measures in place. But even before all this started, 200+ lb of grain and 5 or 6 lb of hops. I think I'm good to go for...

One vote for a slow ramp down, but only for lagers. Reasoning: Part of the lagering process is that the yeast are able to clean up their byproducts over time because they are active (albeit at a very slow pace) even at lagering temps ( per Kunze). Slowly ramping temps down allows them to adjust...

As far as I know, they only do the Big Buy once a year in September. But, you can get pretty much anything. Last year I bought 4 sacks, including 3 of Weyermann Barke grains and they ended up being less than $70 each for a sack. Its how I buy all of my base grains now: once a year in bulk via...

If you can, get yourself a packet or two of a dry lager yeast like 34/70. Have it on hand in case your fermentation stalls, which is entirely possible if you are lowering your temp that quickly. I'm not saying you shouldn't lower it that quickly (ideally it should have never started that high to...

HB Helles.

Don't add flour just to get haze. Just...don't. That's not from an experience standpoint - that's from an "it's a dumb thing to do" standpoint.

Good call. General rule of thumb: once something falls in your fermenter, leave it there. If it's going to contaminate, it already has, and if not, you only add to the risk of contamination trying to fish it out. Trust me, we've all bee there if we've been doing this for any length of time.

Regarding cooling: the wort will self-insulate if it isn't moving (i.e. being stirred). So an ice bath or IC aren't much good if just sitting there (and ice baths are really inefficient anyway for large volumes). So while the IC is in the wort, gently swirl the IC about every 30 seconds to a...

Kolsch

So as to not further derail the thread, I'll PM you tomorrow.