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Here's a rough synopsis of what I've learned about this exact issue in recent days: Homebrewers used to insist on secondary vessels because after the first, briefer and more vigorous fermentation period it was thought that getting the beer off the yeast cake was good for avoiding too many dead...

When are you brewing? Even if the starter only has overnight to do its thing, that has to be better than nothing in terms of getting your washed yeast up and going again. I'd say definitely don't let the cooled wort sit around for any amount of time once it reaches pitching temperatures, so if...

Ha, or just do a spit-take once it's handed to you.

Do some digging and researching to get all the details, but I don't think fermentation is like popping popcorn where you listen for the pops and a certain interval is the indication of completion. Advanced homebrewers seem to measure their gravity after at least a week and if the gravity is...

My guess, there is no way to do it without coming off as a snob. The second you start saying anything about how a beer style should taste, smell, feel, etc., is the same second you'll be perceived as a snob. Heck, you might even be a bit of a snob if you care that much (I admit I have a bit of...

Out of curiosity, what kind of yeast is it, and what kind of beer are you making with it? These variables make a difference, but almost certainly you'll get to where you need to go regardless. Good luck!

I've seen on other posts about this that a starter is still a good idea to "wake up" the yeast that's been sitting around in storage, usually cold in a fridge. It gets them up and ready to get straight to primary fermentation without a long lag time once pitched. I do 2.5 gallon batches and...

These charts are great. I'm such a visual person that it's very nice to see them all displayed next to each other like that. Thank you, thank you, thank you : )

I love the description of this thing's "features" on the Amazon listing: "...helps with fermentation." Definitely, I guess it does help in a way.

The "drink this and think of ____" trick can be done to find almost anything in any beer. This is why beer labels often have long descriptions about what you should taste and smell. This primer for your senses is powerful. It's also why genuine taste tests are blind.

By the way, the souvenir from the tour is a piece of beech wood from their tanks before being used. I'm going to brew something light and throw it in a secondary for a week so I can scream at people when I share it with them, "It's beech wood aged!" I might also triple-hop it.

It was, indeed. And I'm going to keep my shuffle stuff up and try to press it a bit to see if I can at least get it going in my neck of the woods. By the way, the hoppier version of the blonde I brewed and poured onto the 029 yeast cake came out a bit weird after the first taste tonight...

We toured the Budweiser brewhouse in Fairfield a couple weekends back and I walked away with an enormous appreciation for that crew. I know they’re a conglomerated monster of a company and that the brewers are connected to a monstrous corporation with devious marketers and all, but these brewers...

A light-bodied and crisp blonde ale brewed with Kolsch east and low hop character for my wife and her dad.

My first solo homebrew, a pale ale.

A drinkable Belgian-styled blonde with a dash of Special B.

Uh, my brews in photos.

Hey all. Thank you in advance for all of the direction that the knowledgeable folks around here will undoubtedly provide. This seems like a great place absolutely chock full of friendly people with a lot of knowledge. It is all quite inspiring, making me even more impatient for next brew day...

Ah! Yes, the tun deadspace number was 8.0 gallons. Don't know why it changed out of the blue. It's been 0.25 in my prevous batches. Changing it reverted the water volumes back to normal. I'll do some more research on what that number should be. Thanks guys, especially Dan, for your help. And...

It's weird. My batch size definitely reads 2.5 gallons, and it calculates the boil volume at 3.46 gallons. But, for some reason, the sparge water is over 10 gallons.