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Potentially controversial claim - amount of head space is irrelevant. Also, no good can come from putting marbles (sanitized or otherwise) in your finished cider.

Has anybody looked into how flushing the grain and brewing vessels with Nitrogen might impact the process? Could that eliminate the need to add the campden? Never tried it but, if effective, it would seem like nitrogen would be a relatively easy lever to pull.

Raising the temperature could be worth a shot - up to 70 F maybe. I would give it at least a couple more weeks for the S04 to finish up if it were my beer.

Could too cool a seving temperature and/or carbonation levels could be an explanation for the crispness?

How are you measuring SG and alcohol? A drop from 1.115 to 1.065 is 6.56% ABV per Abv calculator (https://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/)

I've never cultured dregs from those beers but I would think their composition and vitality would be a bigger factor than any choices you'd make with the starter. It is always an experiment to see what, if anything, the dregs will bring to the table. A starter should help the dregs out a bit...

Wow! That looks great!

Do judges typically take any action to cleanse their palate between beers? Is there some standard operating procedure for this that judges are expected to follow?

How did this beer turn out?

How young is the beer you're getting this from? A few weeks of age can help a lot with smoothing out the rough edges in a beer in my experience. Have you sought out a second opinion? I've found there were times where I'd become fixated on a particular aspect of a beer (like the flavor...

Wouldn't bet the house on this but I could see mixing in flavorings at serving becoming in vogue. Not unusual to see this in Germany - coke or lemonade in a lager or fruit syrup in a Berliner Weisse

I think the most likely explanation for the pellicle is from something in the keg rather than the glass or just the air. I would think you'll see little flavor influence in the keg if you keep it at serving temps though.

Nice!

Giving the Lambic blend time to develop is really the long pole for the fermentation. I would put the timetable at a year or more for that (longer is better on the first pitch). This long aging period is why fruit is usually added as the final step as a lot of the character of the fruit will...

I've had the same thing happen multiple times and never noticed an ill effect. That is even in beer that has aged a year or more. I believe the yeast doing the bottle conditioning provide a bit of a security blanket against oxygen.

Interesting idea. Could be a useful trick - let us know how it goes. I'd be cautious during the re-heat. Will you use a stovetop or burner? Seems like you could be at risk of scortching as gummy as corn grits get.

Have you brewed this one yet? What did you decide?

Sounds like you are well prepared with the ability to make a starter and O2 injection. I would think stepping up the starter a couple times at 1.25 L each would give a sufficient cell count (might try a pitch calculator to dial that in). Brewing a small beer first and then pitching onto the...

Cold crashing can stop a fermentation but doesn't kill the yeast. You'll likely find that fermentaion will start back up once the beer warms up a bit. If this is after you bottle you could end up with over carbonated beer or bottle bombs. You could also try campden tablets to shock the yeast...

Response to some over carbonated bottles that are fine if you pour them into a glass: "I can drink Lagunitas from the bottle"