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My thoughts on a barrel are, you paid for the oak flavor so don't waste it. I would have ran enough clean beer through the barrel to have the favor faded out before going sour. Hot water will take the flavor out, but it seems like such a waste!

Here is what I use. It is a 75 lb max. My only complaint is it does not do .1 ounce increments, it is in .2 increments, so I use a smaller scale for hops. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002TWEXXM/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Ah man, I was expecting a laughable thread about someone who put their 15 minute hops in at 10 minutes, "IS MY BEER RUINED?!?!" but alas. That looks horrible. I wouldn't use the kettle, even if the welds looked nice, since you said it leaks. Sounds like your friend is a little overconfident.

The hops should have been sealed and flushed with nitrogen, so the degradation shouldn't been too bad. Where did you get the estimate of half the AA content?

I am not sure how you would use a plastic IC that would not involve it being placed in boiling wort. You could get high temperature tubing but it is expensive and probably wouldnt transfer the temperature as well as the metal would. Can you please explain the setup you envision with this...

I see your train of thought, and idea to save some money with an electric setup. It's an interesting idea, but I would be afraid of the probe and/or wire melting. I think that you're better off installing a recommended temperature probe that wouldn't melt...

I am sorry to say this, but your beer looks like it's been infected with YEAST. Yes! Something like an Abbey Ale Yeast! The beer will inevidably end up tasting....BELGIAN! Looks like krausen, not an infection. EDIT to say, Oops, guess I should have clicked to enlarge the pic. Does look...

Are you planning on batch of fly sparging?

You have a point on the boil over possibility. As fas as the chilling, a shorter probe might not give you a 100% accurate temperature but it should be close enough (if kept calibrated) to pitch, even if it is 3-4* off

Will you be heating spargue/strike water in your BK? If you have a HLT for that, I think youre fine. In your BK, you dont really need a thermometer to tell you it's boiling, do you?

Sour is not a good flavor. BUT you've gone this far. Finish up the process and see how it is once bottled and carbonated. It's difficult to judge a beer before it's finished.

I found a Coleman 70 quart Extreme Cooler at Walmart for $35.99 and put in an order to Bargain Fittings. I should have a new, bigger (Ive wanted something bigger for awhile) and super insulated MLT built in a few days time!

Just an update for anyone who was curious. I used the contactors screw to clamp down the wire. Since then I have done two brews and have not had a single issue. I believe the crimp for my connector must have been bad, as was suggested. Thank you everyone.

I use a 10 gallon round cooler for my mash tun. I always preheated it with about a gallon of boiling or near boiling water. I have been using it like this for a little over 4 years. WIth my boiling water pre-heating method, I have warped the cooler slightly and the (screw on) lid is not...

What kind of temperature are you talking about? Even at 100*, your measured SG will only be 4 points lower than actual. Sure, this may be part of your issue you but had said: "Quite a bit" is more than what I would attribute to a hydrometer misreading, unless you are checking it at a...

Did you rig up some sort of airlock or are you using that large lid to access the beer? O2 in an oak barrel is definitely a big concern with smaller barrels, so a lot of people will wax their barrel to slow the process.

Find and join a local homebrew club.

The white stuff is call pith and it is bitter. If you were carefully and only had the zest in there, you should get a sweeter flavor than if pith was included. Either way, adding pith will not make your beer add a ton of bitterness. Since it's an IPA recipe, I bet that's the bitterness you...

Once properly pre-heated, stainless steel will hold heat surprisingly well. It will hold heat BETTER when filled almost to capacity for a 10 gallon mash.