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Indeed. I've forgotten so many things over the years on random batches. Pitching and priming sugar are by far the most common. Fortunately I keg now so no more priming sugar mistakes.

Not much. It only gives a very limited number of contaminants. For brewing you want to know the hardness, alkalinity, sulfates, and chlorides at a minimum. Try giving your water folks a call and see if they can tell you the above or provide a detailed lab analysis from their last test.

Hmmm...since I don't have a LHBS in Lafayette, I usually do dry yeast. Either US-05 or Saf-04. Any English style, it's been Saf-04 and I've also used it for all stouts and the occasional brew where I ran out of US-05 and haven't ever had problems with it as you describe. It does lend an English...

It's dependent on the SG of your starter and what type of yeast. However, in any case... You'll be actively fermenting but your cell count won't be as high as you were aiming for. If you pitch your entire starter, you'll be better off than if you'd just pitched the smack pack or vial. If you...

Yup. Friday night was a Belgian Strong Ale. Saturday afternoon may be my KBS clone, but much more likely Sunday. Just made a starter for a trippel with extra wort from the strong ale, so that may end up being next weekend.

Yeah, a mixer on a variable speed drill. *drool* I just need to get around to it. I could cool my wort in 10 minutes or less with it, but I never remember to actually buy it. Plus, in those situations where I boil off too much wort I'd be able to stir it so much easier.

Yeah, I should probably read all the posts... So, make a big starter to make sure you get the yeast character, and you're good. However, as other posters mentioned your grain bill is lacking for a true Belgian. The Special B and candi sugar are the only Belgian things in the mash/boil. Yeast...

There you go, that's the spirit! As for style, you're more in the American Amber area than Belgian Specialty, as stated. But unless you're entering in a competition, who cares? You've got the right idea of taking left over ingredients and just making something that will be good, regardless...

Concur. I rarely use secondary fermenters anymore and my standard brew is 2-3 weeks in primary followed by kegging. After 4 weeks you begin risking autolysis, according to literature, but there's some leeway. Keg it ASAP and you'll likely be just fine.

A house IPA that will be transferred to keg very soon. A Belgian strong ale that just got brewed. A pilsner that was brewed 5 days ago. A Trippel and KBS will be joining those in the next 5 days.

Let's face it, not all craft brews are winners. We've all made at least one undrinkable homebrew and we've all had at least one craft brew that was so turrble we misspell terrible. So, for me, I tried Rogue's Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale tonight and it is an absolutely atrocious beer. I...

Interesting. I've had it in a couple kits but have never used it since going all-grain but wouldn't say I got that character from it, assuming IRC. Did you add during boil or as a body builder afterwards?

Mash your grains as the recipe calls for. Then sprinkle 2ish ounces of black barley onto the mash at sparging. If you batch sparge, put it in for the second round. If you fly sparge, sprinkle on the bed when you start draining to the boil kettle and then proceed as usual with your sparge.

When I do my milk stout, I aim for a medium body mash. So 152 to 154 F will do you nicely. If it comes out too dry, you can add some lactose or malto-dextrine in addition to your adjuncts to bring it up. You can water down a too sweet beer, but in my opinion it is far easier to sweeten to taste...

Oh man would I love some NYC tap water. You guys got a great aquifer up there!

When I first started brewing, I did so with store bought drinking water. Then I switched to local tap water when I got really into it again in a different city than where I started. Lafayette, IN has pretty good brewing water and the straight tap water (w/o campden to take out chloramines) did...

From what you have given, I get 127 IBU with BeerSmith using the Tinseth method. My assumptions: 1 gallon beginning volume 0.86 final volume 1.026 BG 1.030 FG Your designated hop additions

In short, yes, the pros will do it as accurately as they can, but that's because their costs are much more significant than ours. The fast answer is 5.57 gallons of water weighs 46.4358 lbs. However, you're asking about a boil volume. Take the SG of the wort and multiply that by the weight...

Need to know the hops used and the amounts. Amarillo, Simcoe, and Cascade are known for their grapefruit and citrusy characters. Other hops can also provide citrusy flavors or complement those that do. For example, I got 1 lb of Chinook last year and have used it quite a bit in my IPAs and it...

I've only done room temp gelatin additions followed by cold crashing. You'll be fine. Oh, and most of the time I don't cold crash. So, again, it's all good. RDWHAHB.