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This has been my experience as well. For normal gravity beers (up to 1.060ish), I design a recipe assuming 85% efficiency after overshooting so dramatically with batch sparging. For much higher gravity beers, or ones with a lot of adjuncts (torrified wheat, I'm looking at you), I veer toward...

My two cents as a recent batch sparge convert: I used to fly sparge, so I built a 10 gallon MLT round cooler with a false bottom to avoid channeling, and 5 gallon HLT. Switching to batch sparging originally to experiment with reducing brewday length and cleanup hassle. I've stuck with it...

Alpha acid isomerization increases with higher pH. Perhaps you could mash at 5.3 and make a very small pickling lime addition after sparging to reach your ideal pH? Then you can improve starch conversion efficiency, but yield the bitterness you desire?

atjsparty, don't worry about sacrificing a bag of 2-row! Clap, if it's only a matter of weeks for the order, then I'll just reserve my three bags for the next order: 1 - CMC 2-Row 1 - Baird's Maris Otter 1 - Best Malz Pilsner I had more MO leftover than I originally though, so I'll...

Perhaps you could use a decoction technique with a longer boil to reach mashout. Would darken your beer some, and add some extra character.

Most of what I've read about SRM/Lovibond was in Daniels's book. I didn't feel like I knew enough on the subject to unilaterally claim the measure's perfection, but I am happy to learn. As for IBU's intent vs my criticism: I respect the measure's repeatability, but ultimately bitterness is...

Indeed, I liked the position enough to bestow my first forum 'like'! I hope to keg the LSS clone soon to see how far off the mark it is. But my next beer will be a MO/Cascade SMaSH, and I will use it to calibrate many things. Added to the list will now be an IBU formula preference.

I'm especially interested where the formulae fail in underestimation. I recently brewed a Lil Sumpin Sumpin (Lagunitas) clone where Rager estimated 40s, and Tinseth 30s, but Lagunitas claims 65, and Jamil translated hop additions straight from their brewers. Beer color can be decently...

Thank you! Most people wouldn't let a CO2 tank go unused like I did, but alas... I will indeed observe careful sanitation, but do people regularly sanitize gas-specific components?

I took a hiatus from kegging because I wanted to dedicate my chest freezer to controlled fermentation, and focus on bottling and honing my brewcraft. Now I'm returning to kegging, and I have an aluminum CO2 tank last filled two years ago. (Got it from an exchange system, lucky that it's in...

Please put me down for: 1 - CMC 2-Row 1 - Baird's Maris Otter 1 - Best Malz Pilsner I'll pick it up when ready, fortunately we both live near Beltway exits.

Brilliant! Passive temperature control.

Does anybody have a controlled experiment (like Kaiser's) where fermentation blowoff is inside and outside an insulated fermentation chamber? I would suspect that since fermentation is exothermic, the escaping CO2 in a blowoff tube going outside the bag could carry substantial heat away like a...

I'll try external blowoff first; I'm presuming more heat will escape through the tube than enter the bag at peak fermentation, and less potential for excessive moisture accumulating in there. Not that I know what's ideal, but looking forward to experimenting! Cool brewing, you should consider...

I kegged for awhile, but took a hiatus so my chest freezer could instead act as fermentation chamber. Now that I've learned the value of temperature control, I'm returning the freezer to kegging because I'm sick of bottling. I know most people have the space for a kegerator and a ferm chamber...

The order doesn't matter, only the ideal temperature to try and add to liquor. I personally don't use baking soda, and only use canning salt for my sodium source. Epsom salt provides my magnesium, so I tend to compute those first, and balance CaCl and Gypsum to get my desired calcium...

Just measured after about 5 days in primary. Refractometer went from 17 to 9 brix, or 1.07 to 1.014 according to NB's calculator. That's 80% apparent attenuation, so perhaps my mash cooled well below 150 F...

This looks spectacular! If I had the space, I'd attempt the same. In the meantime, I try to just store my goods. Space in proportional to distance to DC on an affordable budget. :)

For the NES stir plate, don't blow in the sanitized flask this time; it would yield the opposite effect.

That's a good point because alkaline sparge water can lead to a reliably harsh beer. However, a very alkaline mash will extract sugars, but end up with an unpredictable flavor domain, and in my experience, with weird off flavors that are hard to isolate. Inland water has minerals, but places...