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Making starters tonight will mean the yeast is at peak activity when you pitch tomorrow evening. The timing should be perfect.

+1000 for oven cooked bacon. I learned the beauty of this approach after being roped into making breakfast for SWMBO's friend's wedding shower. Made bacon, eggs, homefries and french toast for a dozen ladies, all in the oven. Quick and easy!

Rinse well and sanitize well. Repeat before the next use. Replace the tubing yearly even if it looks fine - better to spend the couple bucks on new tubing than dump infected beer...

Once you get significant airlock activity - which could take 6 to 24 hours depending on many factors - the beer will have a heavy CO2 blanket over it. Popping the lid for a quick look won't hurt, just don't drop anything into the beer! :D

Sounds like a good approach. I've tried prepping ice water to pump through the chiller after dropping temp to about 150dF with tap water. Really helps get me to fermentation temps on those 100+ summer days.

How do you use the ice bath? I have friends who talked about moving the kettle into the bath and recirculating water from the bath through the chiller. Seemed to me that this system would stabilize at a pretty high temp unless you added more ice, which would not be an efficient use of the...

Depends on how much of each you have. Anything from a bitter or brown to a British IPA or RIS would be possible with that selection.

Do it! DO IT NOW!!!

Raise the temp gradually to around 70 and swirl it several times to rouse the yeast. If that doesn't do it your LME may have had a lot of unfermentable sugars, but I think you can add some enzymes to break down more of those and get a few more points fermentation. IIRC Beano is a recommended...

Guuuh... Just don't break those 2-year-old eggs while you're racking.

I had the same problem with several batches in a row. They tasted great in the fermenter, going into the bottling bucket and coming out of the bottling bucket. After a week in the bottle they would begin to develop a cider/lemonade flavor that kept getting worse, and the carbonation was...

Lame! 67890

Short answer - brewing software will calculate all this for you, or help you figure it out. Long answer... The amount of water boiled off will depend on the exact geometry of your kettle. I believe 7-9% loss per hour of boiling is typical. You may also lose some wort in the kettle due to...

Seems unlikely that physically removing the plug from the outlet is making a difference. Plug it into a power strip so you can flip it on and off to save a little effort. Unless there's a short in the cord, which should be easy to diagnose and fix.

Sounds like a British Mild Ale would be right up your alley. It's a really tough style to find commercial examples of here in The Colonies, but I think that makes it much more fun to brew! Plus it's low gravity and ready to drink in a few weeks.

So what was the verdict? Been looking around for a Hopslam clone but it seems hard to come by.

California Ale will ferment cooler and with less ester production than other ale yeasts. California Lager tolerates warmer temps than typical lager yeasts. Either is a good choice if you have moderate temp control capabilities and can keep your fermenter in the 56-64 dF range. If you can't...

Be sure to get rid of the carbonation first!

I've used swing-top growlers to bottle condition quite a few of my batches. They work wonderfully and it's nice to take one bottle to a party or game night instead of a six-pack. However you do need to finish them in one sitting, and the best approach is to pour the whole thing into a pitcher...

If your priming sugar went in and was mixed properly, the only other possibilities are your yeast pooping out or the bottles not being sealed properly. How long did it sit in secondary?