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Without seeing the calculated specs I'd guess it will drink more like a blonde. Depending on the AA of the cascade I don't think you'll be able to hit the IBU range for a pale ale and still get enough hop character. Plus it's not unusual to use a fair amount of wheat in a blonde. Red wheat is...

Well the brix of the watermelon juice isn't that high, 10 or under when I've measured it (so under 1.040). 8 cups is a half gallon so you'd be adding like 0.4 cups of sugar to the whole batch at most. The other option is to not let it ferment out either by keeping it cold or adding...

I'm actually not a big fruit beer person unless it's in a sour but I like this recipe, possibly because it does drink fairly dry. Fresh watermelon is pretty subtle but it comes through with just the base malt, as I recall the crystal seemed to detract from that. I tasted a beer one time with...

I do a watermelon wheat every summer and it's always a big hit, here's a summary of basic recipe: OG 1.052 FG 1.010 Grainbill: 50% american 2 row 50% white wheat (sometimes sub in 10% flaked wheat) Hops: Perle (or can sub in Hallertau or other noble-like hop) 60 min additon to get about 20 IBU...

If you add fermentables like fruit, then yes you will see fermentation = more CO2 production. Some people use the term "secondary fermentation" to mean they are transferring to a secondary vessel for aging but there is really no fermentation going on, in which case there should be no new CO2...

I don't think it matters if you go 1 wk vs 2 wks primary as you're going to be restarting fermentation with the fruit anyway. IME American wheat fruit beers are at their best fresh. With whole fruit I've added directly to primary about a week in. These days though I've mostly been using...

That's what I was thinking, if your brewdays are taking 6-9 hrs seems like you should look at your process and see where you can streamline. Plus you'll be adding time bringing the wort from 35* to boiling vs. mash temp to boiling. Souring/infection of the wort would be the main concern as...

My husband used to brew with me when we first started but he lost interest a while ago, focusing now on the consuming end. I've had a few people over on a brew day for them to see what it's like but I sort of prefer brewing alone. Except for the trusty brew dog of course! She's responsible...

I find beersmith is usually pretty close on color, I get 4.0 for Canadian Munich 10 that you originally planned on, 5.8 if you swap that lb out for 28 L, and 3.0 if you swap it out for another lb of pilsner. So light gold to dark gold range. Hard to say with the lighting in your pic but I get...

I guess we must have completely different jobs. I would call very few of my coworkers close personal friends, but I do spend many more waking hours per week with them than I do my own family. We don't have to all be chummy, but we do need to function as a team and depend on each other when the...

Get or make a grain bag for BIAB style. Then you can either no sparge or do a dunk style batch sparge.

Yep, I top off with tap water routinely when doing concentrated batches, but I add campden as mentioned.

Sounds like the bag is too small, get one that will line your whole pot.

In Beersmith make sure the Not Fermentable box is checked for lactose (shows in the pop up window when you double click on the grain in your recipe). I think the default was that it is not checked, as this option was added in a later update. May be fixed in BS3, I haven't downloaded it yet.

You just need to be careful about oversparging so you don't get tannins. With the big grainbill you're probably okay, or you could batch sparge the next time. The number people usually target is keeping the end runnings above 1.010. The reason I top off with water is that I don't want to mess...

You can just add a few oz in addition to the recipe. Shouldn't have any other side effects besides adding lactic acid.

Don't know if you want solids in the keg though as it might clog, unless you're bagging it. Adding juice to the keg works well, I often use the juice to carbonate. I've never added fruit without letting it ferment out so no advice there.

Agreed, sounds like a likely culprit if this happened only with your all grain batches. That wheat beer I assume was all base malt, which would likely mean a high pH without a little acid especially if you did a thin BIAB mash.

Great water. The reason you can't treat all brews the same is that different grainbills will lead to differnt pH levels in the mash. If you want a very simple guide to get you close enough without getting too into water calculators then you can follow the water primer instructions as someone...

Are you letting the fruit ferment out or are you keeping it cold enough that you hope to keep it from fermenting? That would be the only issue I see, if it's still sealed and you ferment the fruit it will increase your carbonation.