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If you clean the board with bleach, rinse it really well, then rinse it some more. When bleach gets into wood it turns it into a cotton-like fiber board. I had some outdoor bleach which may have splashed a little on a wooden shelf. Totally destroyed it.

P.S. I always boil my starter DME in a metal pot, cool it, then pour it into an Erlenmeyer glass flask. The metal pot will cool faster than boiling in the pyrex flask, besides I have an induction cooktop so I must use a ferrous metal pot.

I've been making starters for a couple of years now and have had great success in doing so. It's not only economical but fun, too. I usually use Homebrew Dad's yeast calculator which is great if you save off a little of the starter for another brew; it's usually in the ballpark with some of the...

if it's fermented already, there may be enough alcohol to keep it from freezing but this continued cold spell could even freeze beer. I would move it indoors until it passes.

I'd like one of those, please.

I got my inspiration for yeast starters from Brulosophy, see http://brulosophy.com/methods/yeast-harvesting/ This is the easiest way I know to save off a bit of yeast to use again.

Is it dry or liquid yeast? If it's dry yeast you can save the yeast from the primary when fermentation is over, lookup threads for washing yeast, there's a lot of them. If it's liquid yeast, make a yeast starter and overbuild 100 billion cells. Pour off about a half liter of the starter and save...

Ok, there won't be much left if the dip tube is in order. However, I have trimmed about a half inch off my dip tubes so I wouldn't do the fill and purge thing, but your system is sound and seems to work for you just fine. It does sound like a lot of heavy lifting though, something I try to avoid...

Lately I've been filling my corny kegs from the fermenter (primary and secondary) through the liquid post, the fermenter airlock is replaced with a hose to the gas post to equalize the pressure. I have read several posts where some brewers fill the receiving keg with StarSan and force it out...

IslandLizard is giving good advice, at least it's what I usually do and I've made dozens of starters and haven't gone wrong yet. When making starters, I usually use HomebrewDads.com and make an extra 100B cells which I pour 500ml into a small jar to start another batch some day. I allow 24 hours...

Light colored DME is best, so I've heard and read but nowhere do I find out why. I say use what you've got, if it's not more than a 2L starter, I wouldn't think it makes much of a difference since you need to decant the starter before pitching.

I start with the probe in the center, then slowly move it around and up and down. After mashing in with a good stir, the temps are pretty much equal all around, only varying by 0.1 or 0.2 degrees which is close enough for me.

+1 on the lower attenuating yeast, that should be an easy mod. Experiment, split the batch and use two different yeasts and see if either solves your problem.

I've made a Citra Pale Ale several times with a similar recipe. I prefer a lighter body and would mash at 150*F, higher temps leave medium to full body which leaves a little sweeter taste and would not be appropriate for this beer IMO. Citra will give a grapefruit taste, combined with either...

I wouldn't necessarily define off-flavor as spicy/citrusy, it may just be unexpected flavor. If it's like green apples then your beer didn't finish and could be due to under-attenuation. Since you are fermenting at the cool end you may need to either raise the temperature or give it more time to...

I have a 15G Spike Mash Tun w/false bottom. Today I brewed a 10G batch with 20# of grain in 6.5G water. I nailed the strike temperature of 152*F and put the cover on. I checked back in 45 minutes and it was still 152*F.

if you can smell chlorine in your brewing water, I would recommend you switch to bottled water or invest in a water filter. I have a filter and had the filtered water tested, see https://www.wardlab.com/ for more info. If you are tasting a medicine/band-aid flavor, the campden tablets aren't...

I have a similar setup, here's a diagram of how I plumbed it.

I've had this happen when I was a using a stir bar that was too long. The stir bar should not be longer than the distance between the two magnets that make it spin. Also, Konadog sez to use a ridged stir bar if the bottom is not really flat, this does indeed work but it is very noisy. I have had...

I cannot stand people who start off their sentences with "So,...". It's like, ya know, the valley girls from like, the 80's, who like, start everything with "like...". Also, avoid words like "Alright, ...." and "Alright so...". It shows a lack of education and makes the writer sound like an...