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Well done with the volumes on your first batch. Going forward you can adjust the efficiency of your recipe down to match what you see or you can try to troubleshoot to raise it. What efficiency were you using that you were hoping for a higher OG?

Congratulations, very exciting! How big of a batch did you end up doing and what was your starting gravity?

We were evicted from our hole in the ground; we had to go live in the lake. :ban: Seriously though, not cheating. There's plenty to tweak if you want to, plus the whole cold side process you can obsess about. :D

Ok, so the beer tastes too bitter. That can smooth out over time. The hops were not so fresh, but this is not a hop forward beer, and they were boiled for 60 minutes, so they shouldn't be a big flavor contribution anyway. If anything I would think the improperly stored hops should be less...

What kind of medicine tablet are you referring to? Any other way you can describe the flavor? Since this is the beginner forum, do you know what Hefeweizen is supposed to taste like (clove and banana), and you know that you like it? Did you add anything else to your mash besides the water and...

You could also put a liquid ball lock on the top with a floating dip tube attached, then you could easily transfer without opening. A PRV would also be good for safety. Something like this: https://www.morebeer.com/products/4-triclamp-lid-58-29-kegmenter.html Edit: I missed the bottom drain...

The Wayback Machine has it: https://web.archive.org/web/20230131032956/http://www.laundrybrewing.com/2017/05/blow-off-set-up.html

I much preferred the ClearBeer to the cheaper bare floating balls. I have never had issues with it getting hung up. Did you follow the installation instructions about which way the tubing should hang and how to attach to the float? Anyway it seems like this Floatit functions better than the...

When I had covid I lost smell, but not taste, well into having the illness: the worst was over, I was feeling much better several days on, ate dinner, all was good. A bit later I had some Doritos and they tasted really bland. I hunted around for one of the ones that has extra seasoning on it...

Have you considered using a BIAB bag in the cooler?

As long as you use a calculator correctly, you are unlikely to be catastrophically off. Since you use the same mash for many of your brews, dialing it in over time should work well for you. If you really need to know beforehand, you could carefully scale your mash back to tiny (mash in a...

You can also try taking several pH readings over the course of the mash. This will show you how mash pH behaves over time in your system. The you can pick a time point to use consistently going forward. I like to wait to measure until near the end of the mash so I know that it is at equilibrium...

Taking pH at mash temperature presents some challenges. Not all probes can handle that heat, and there's some sort of temperature correction that they can do to adjust for the probe reading issues at higher temperatures. Check if your probe is OK for those temps - it might read off or it might...

I use a canner rack for keeping a Wilser bag off the bottom of the pot when I use it to make soup stock. They come in different sizes, here's an example 14" one: https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-14-Inch-Pressure-Canning-Steaming/dp/B0CJR1HT78

You said you don't check pH at the end, so you don't know how your actual mash pH compares to the spreadsheet. Granted, spreadsheets are estimators so I wouldn't expect them to be dead on all the time, but decent enough. To reduce mash pH, lactic or phosphoric acid or acidulated malt are...

How are you measuring? A pale beer generally requires a little bit of acid for the mash. In any case, it takes a while for the pH to come to equilibrium. Generally, you would predict what you need to add and add it all to the mash at the start. Then measure when the mash is well...

This doesn't seem right. You start with RO water. NEIPAs shouldn't need baking soda to raise the mash pH. If anything, they might need acid to lower it. What is the purpose of adding the baking soda after mash in?

Those are the basics. If you are just getting started that'll work great. It also works pretty good if you've been doing it a while. Sodium and magnesium are other flavor ions you can play with if you want. The British do water chemistry a bit differently, so if you decide you want to go down...

If it was alive, it was unlikely to have been in the fermenter, so no need to worry.

The purpose of the bicarbonate is to get the pH up, so I don't see a problem. The bicarbonate shouldn't really be a target on its own, you add it for a purpose. I usually just add gypsum and calcium chloride to get Cl and sulfate about where I want them, the add acid or baking soda to adjust the...