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Yeah, you should get a good whiff of bananna/clove from the hefeweizen.

Chances are, it's fine. I've seen all sorts of variations on fermenting beer appearance, and they all came out fine. There's always a possible infection source - you just hope it's not something like dropping your cell phone into the cooled wort...

Seems about right to me. My yield to the fermentor is around 12 gal. from a 15 gal. boiler, and I estimate that about half of that delta is from boil off. Of course, your actual loss will depend on the setting of your flame, configuration of the kettle, and (I suppose) the relative humidity.

The yeast might tolerate the Campden tablets, but I have found sorbate to be a sure-fire way to prevent re-fermentation. I don't think there is any way to un-do the damage. So the choice is to keg or settle for flat beer. OTOH, in principle, sorbate only prevents re-fermentation, and does not...

Yes - a hazard of summer brewing in Florida. My brew partners (big Lambic fans) loved it, so I donated my share. Dubbed it "FLambic" and stuck to winter brewing.

Ideally, you'd pitch with both the starter and the wort already at the intended fermentation temperature. If it is started warm, you just want to make sure you ramp down the temp slowly.

No problems. I have a huge collection of Fischer & Grolsch swingtops that have been re-used a gazillion times, occasionally getting grossly overcarbonated during my noob days, and never an explosion. My only exploding bottle incident was with the standard 12-oz re-used longnecks (my brew...

I think you are already thinking along the right lines - it really doesn't matter that much. I used to try to match my starter wort as closely as possible to the batch, but from the point of view of what the yeast needs for respiration/propagating, and the affect on the overall batch, the...

There's no single answer to this - experiment, and see what you like! Basically, the longer you steep hot, the more you will tilt toward flavor on the flavor/aroma continuum. To me, dry hopping adds a distinctly different profile, mostly aroma. It's fresher, but has the potential to be grassy if...

Fascinating. I guess on the timescale of wine fermentation/settling, the enzymes have enough time to clear a lot of pectin. Question for both dash14251 and summersolstice: What's the appeal of wine-from-jam? When I'm preserving my backyard bounty, I've always divided the fruit up front for...

If you like the carbonation level with 3/4 c in 5 gal, just scale it down by 10%. If you want lower carbonation, 1/2 to 5/8 would be a reasonable range.

The role of pectin in jam and wine is completely opposite. In wines, you use pectic enzyme to degrade the natural pectins in the fruit, usually a relatively small amount. In jam, OTOH, you actively add pectin to gel the product. My guess is that whole bottles of pectic enzyme will not be enough...

No argument that the hydrometer is the final word. But for most fermenter configurations, opening to take samples should be minimized, and airlock activity is a good indicator of when to check. Obviously, there are a few who do open (or loosly covered) fermentation, but in a sealed fermenter, if...

It's not ideal to re-use yeast from one high-gravity beer to use in another. Better would be to go from a low-gravity to high-gravity. That said, if the yeast was healthy, it will probably work. Not sure what you mean by "step up". Usually, that's something you do with starters - feed them more...

OK, twisted threads. 1.020 -> 1.009 is about a 1.4% beer. Still, I'd try your EFPA over ODouls any day.

On the contrary, airlock activity is a good indicator of fermentation (though not a perfect indicator of the fermentation completeness). In 18 years of making beer, mead, and wine, I have observed a 100% correlation between airlock activity and fermentation. Assuming a well-sealed fermentor, the...

Probably not necessary, but it couldn't hurt...

Go with the aromatic. The result will be different from biscuit/victory (less bready/toasty, more malty), but good for an amber. Spend the $ you save on fuel to invest in a specialty grain inventory next time you're at the shop...

Sure - you can even take a quick swag with Recipator: The Beer Recipator 2.2

I've used Cluster a few times in Classic American Pilsners, and I wouldn't have come up with "grapefruit" as a descriptor. But Cluster is a very old hop variety (at least by US standards), so maybe there is more variation in flavor profile.