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I'm too wimpy to brew outside.

There isn't that much O2 in the inch of the bottle neck above your beer. However, you can buy oxygen absorbing caps as insurance. I use them for high gravity Belgians that I store for a year or more.

I've done Munich and Victory with good results. I like to occasionally throw in a non-traditional grain in my IPAs. Variety is the spice of life!

Metabisulfite is what you want. I use Potassium Metabisulfite (K-meta) but people also use the sodium version, too. Both are OK. I prefer K-meta since it doesn't add any sodium to the brew water.

My magic number seems to be about 10%. When I go over that, I will add yeast at bottling. A few times (but not every time) I've had brews that had carb issues once it got over 10%. I had an 11.5% BDSA (OG 1109) that still hadn't carbed at 5 months and I ended up adding 1ml of champagne yeast to...

For my really big beers (>1.100) I aerate when I pitch and then give it another shot after 12-18 hours. The yeast love it.

I've had some Belgian yeasts and Wyeast 1010 (wheat) that routinely give me big starters. A single drop of Fermcap does wonders. Highly recommend.

I brew 5.5 gal batches AG BIAB in a 9 gal BK and it can get tight with high gravity brews. I would go for a 10 gal if I were you.

I don't use the containers to ferment mainly because of the molded handle. It would be a pain to clean. I just save the bottles for refills. Hard to beat $.37/gal.

Looks like Primo water at Walmart. Yes, it's RO. I use it frequently. Makes a great blank slate to build your own water.

If this was a 5 gal brew and you pitched a single packet of yeast, that's the likely source of your underattenuation. At 1.083 you need 2 packets at least. That said, 5 points high osn't that bad. You're fine to keg and carb.

Along with the time in the fermenter, you may also want to look at different fermentation temp profiles, especially with a Belgian. Example: fermenting for a few days at 66F and then ramping up to 76F for a while will give you a different flavor than fermenting at 64F for the full time. That's...

I don't believe there is any difference. When you're steeping grains you're just extracting color and a little flavor. Typically, steeping grains aren't even mashable so you don't have to worry about temp control. Either way is fine.

I don't keg but I like the idea of using lower attenuating yeast. I hadn't thought of that. Next time I will try it with Windsor and mash at 154F. I do have a ferm chamber and usually ferment in the lower third of the yeast's temp range so that won't change. Pipeline is full right now so t will...

Thanks for the tips. I did the extract with this batch because I had tried using pineapple concentrate and pureed whole pineapple with previous brews, both of which resulted in no pineapple flavor at all. I've tried adding during the boil and adding in the fermenter with no luck. The only flavor...

Quick update. So it has been about 5 months since I bottled my "pineapple infused" lager. What started as more of a pineapple cough syrup lager is finally starting to mellow. I've been trying about a bottle a month and it has just about reached the point of being enjoyable. It is still just a...

A great way to kill two birds with one stone is to shake the $#it out of your (sealed) fermenter after you top off and cool to pitching temp. This mixes and aerates your wort, both of which you should do before pitching. Once you've done this, take your OG measurement and pitch your yeast.

If your decide to stick with your partial mash plan, you don't have to break the bank. When I moved to partial mash I just used a small 16 qt cooler I already had. I actually did BIAB in that cooler. I would preheat the cooler with hot water first. Then I heated my mash water in my BK a few...

+1^ Extract kits are usually pretty much spot on as long as all your measurements were accurate. Almost every time, with extract kits suspect OG measurements are caused by inadequate mixing.

Grains not vacuum packed are too stale. Dry yeast would be OK. Liquid likely not. LME would be shot but DME could be OK. Hops sealed in nitrogen could still be salvageable but assume about 1/3 less potency. If not sealed, they are probably useless.