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When you say 5-6 plants, are you planning on getting 2 rhizomes of each? The rhizomes will get bigger each year, so maybe get 4 different varieties and just space them out a little more. If you crowd them together too much, they might intertwine with each other, making it hard to tell which...

Go to a populated area like SF bay area and go into MoreBeer on one of their twice-yearly sale days and you would think the entire world was brewing! It's great (well, not the long lines.) It's cool, some people get started homebrewing because of a lack of beer variety locally, and some...

The suggestions above are great. Another one is to check out the Beer Judge Certification Program's style guide: http://www.bjcp.org/stylecenter.php They have detailed descriptions for all the major styles including popular commercial examples of each style. Also, do you have a good beer...

Even better instructions would be to rehydrate the yeast in a cup of boiled and cooled water. Shake wort to aerate, then pitch the rehydrated yeast into wort. This is better for the yeast health. Also, I've noticed that shaking wort after pitching dry yeast will end you up with a bunch of...

You could easily split the batch. The only thing that might be tricky to split is the yeast packet. You'd have to eyeball it and then use the remainder of the opened pack for the other half. Probably not too big a deal. You could also do this if you want to experiment: Brew the whole thing...

I don't know if it's the same vendor you're thinking of, but Farmhouse Brewing Supply sells expired Wyeast smack packs for $3.50.

I have also had good results with harvesting Pranqster. Does anyone have any experience with the St. Feuillien saison?

I started with all-grain BIAB (brew-in-a-bag), and honestly, it was much easier than I expected. It's a good way to do all-grain without committing to lots of equipment, and I did it when I was in my tiny studio. I've since built up some more equipment, but it was a great way to get my feet...

Does your basic equipment include a bottling bucket with spigot, autosiphon, and bottling wand? If not, those are a few very inexpensive things that will make the bottling a lot easier. If you haven't, check out Revvy's bottling sticky. Lots of good advice in there! I recently split a 5...

funny, because the two hop plants in my garden are Centennial and Willamette!

If I had to guess, I'd say the person who wrote that recipe used an unknown hop variety that was growing at his house. You could always take that 10 minute homegrown addition and split the difference the Centennial and the Willamette to keep with the theme. The tasting notes say the beer is a...

I keep good notes about each batch such as recipes, amounts, temps, efficiency, and dates, but never thought about doing a checklist. The only things I ever seem to forget are aeration and the whirlfloc. I have a rule not to crack a beer until flameout, so fortunately the forgetfulness...

It's because usually, in the context of beer, "girlie" means inferior or lacking quality or taste. Coming on a site like this where people are into craft and high-quality beer and have tastes all over the map and saying you want a "girlie" beer is like saying you want Michelob Fruit Spice or...

I hate it when I forget steps, and aerating wort is one of those things I've forgotten more than once. Never again!

I completely agree with Stauffbier. Have you ever touched the side of your bucket or carboy during active fermentation and felt the heat that emanates from it? It's kind of amazing. Taping and insulating the sensor to the side of the bucket is easy and effective. Also, 70 degrees sounds a...

I brewed the Cottage House Saison last March and let it age a while. We drank the last one on Thanksgiving after it had been in the bottle for seven months and it was great. If you brew it soon I think it could be great on due date. Here's the recipe, from this site...

You should set up a blowoff tube. Those hefe yeasts can be pretty rowdy.

I went with the STC-1000, which a lot of people on here refer to as the Ebay Aquarium Temp. controller. Here's a tutorial on this site for how to wire it up: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/ebay-aquarium-temp-controller-build-163849/ I'd never done any electrical wiring in my life, but...

It looks like it could be beer stone, which is mineral deposits left behind by the wort. Try a 15 minute acid soak with star san. If it is beer stone, it should clean up easily after the acid soak.

I routinely make bread from spent grain. It's only a portion of the whole recipe, only 2 cups for every 6 cups flour, but it really gives body to a loaf. I give the rest to a local guy who picks it up for his chickens.