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I bought the Voodoo and I hated it. I gave it to 5 other people to try and it was unanimous. Blech. It inspired my thread on the worst commercial craft brews. To each his own, though. :)

For me, I can't tell the difference with bittering hops, but some people have more sensitive palates. For the most part, the flavor and aroma will boil out on the bittering hops, but it does depend on type and amount.

Considering my experiences when going there, I wouldn't be surprised. The "brewpub" portion, even with the expansion, is horribly inadequate. And the first DLD I went to could only be described as a cluster****. The 2012 DLD was great, so maybe after 15 years they've figured it out.

As others have noted, with something as sticky as pumpkin you gotta use rice hulls, so I don't think you're that off overall. What process did you follow? Batch or fly sparge? With more detail, we can help improve your efficiency or see if you're fine where you are.

Don't add any non-fermentables unless you don't care for the flavor, and specifically the sweetness level. If it tastes good, then don't mess with it.

That's where I've been. And since I live in Indiana and they don't come here anymore, I only miss the 60 minute and 90 minute IPAs. All the other stuff? Not so much.

I'll take a big mea culpa on this due to my complete brain fart and ignoring pH. I saw the original post and just had a kinda freak out and lost my head a bit. Anyway, to amend, I don't think the OP will end up with anything terrible. Since it's a stout, he'll want to let it sit and anything...

My only lid pop-offs have come from clogged airlocks, so kudos to you for popping the lid w/o that. :) 75 is on the high end, and will give faster fermentation and more esters than a lower temp. Since you have a fridge for fermentation, lower your set temp to 60-65 and let it sit for a month...

Most likely your problem there. You don't know for sure what esters you'll get at high fermentation temps, but you'll get them. The lemon zest probably helped to accentuate the esters the yeast produced, and thus a big lemon flavor. What yeast did you use?

The last few pints of a keg can be bad. Some of my kegs have exhibited this, some haven't. I have no good explanation as to why some would and some wouldn't. Oxidation shouldn't be coming into effect since you've had it on CO2 the whole time. You could be getting yeast/trub/other settlers...

The less oxygen they're exposed to the better. A vacuum sealed bag is good, a bucket with a very tight lid is ok, a paper bag is poor, generally. With grains, you'll not see the deterioration to anywhere near the effect hops see. I've brewed with crushed grains as old as the other poster here...

YMMV, but I've had three blowoffs in the last year and none were contaminated. Two occurred in a basement that's unfinished and both times were under the stairs. The other happened in a closet. The one that happened in the closet scared my dog quite a bit. She was in her crate when I got home...

Try calling them to ask what yeast they use. Most small breweries won't hesitate to tell you. However, I think kaips1 is right that they use a neutral English yeast for their brews and it just may be Saf-04. They may use 1056/US-05 in some as well, but I seem to remember hearing that it's...

Well, if it's Saturday you're brewing, then toss in all three packs. The old one will provide nutrients for the other two and you'll at least not waste any money.

Agreed. Take one or two of the 45 minute additions, double the amount, and then FWH or add at 20 min left. Centennial works really well in FWH, along with Amarillo, Chinook (at least the batch I got, which was not as piney and very grapefruity), and Cascade, in my experiences. I bet Simcoe...

Agreed. Give it a try. You should still get the mouthfeel from the oats with that method and the sugar that they're gonna offer is pretty low in any case, and overall it should be really close. Good idea! Take good notes on your process and then tasting. Then next time you brew it and use a...

blasphemy! :)

You're right, I completely forgot about the pH factor. Doh!

See How To Brew, Brewing Better Beer, and many other books on the subject of brewing. Along with food science... Higher roast means more astringent tannins. So, with grains like chocolate malt and black barley, there is more astringency/bitterness potential from too high of extraction temp.

I'm up in Lafayette and if you're willing to travel I could help, but I recommend just buying an angle grinder and go with weldless fittings. The weldless can be converted to welded in the future if you want that option. I bought an angle grinder and cutting wheels at Lowe's to do some...