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JonnyRotten, I think one of us has miscalculated. If, according to your figures, 1/2 gallon of BL = 15 gallons, and it costs $100, then you are paying $6.67 per gallon. If your homebrew pale ale costs $50 for a 3-5 gallon batch then you are paying $10-16.67 per gallon. In this case it's...

yep, so far it looks good!

autolysis is generally not considered a problem at all on the small scale of homebrewing, as I believe that one of the factors contributing to autolysis is the massive weight pushing down on the yeast cake from the volume of liquid you'd get in a professional brewery setting. It's generally...

You're fine to age them in the bottles so long as fermentation is completely finished - otherwise you risk bottle bombs. In fact, as some of the users above have pointed out, you decrease the chance of oxidation by bottling them. However, you do risk drinking them fast and possibly before...

If I'm not mistaken, the higher pitch rate amount is required for the colder fermentation temperatures typically required of a lager. I'd guess that the colder temperatures have a tendency to stress or make dormant a much higher amount of the yeast, so the higher pitch rate would allow you to...

Actually IPAs are a style that you want to drink fresh. Quite often (but not always) they peak at around 3 weeks in the bottles. After only one week in the bottles its malt character won't have come to the fore yet, leaving it tasting a little thin. By 3 weeks the flavors will blend...

You can probably get one at any LHBS, or order it online from any one. They're really cheap and very heplful. I must have done 15-20 batches without and you're standing there holding the thing while you could be doing something else. I guess you could call it the 'hands free' method of...

In the graveyard, it's a smash!

Another advantages to kegging is that you don't have to clean up a bunch of bottles whenever you host some friends. Each person gets one glass and then you can pop them in the dishwasher. Since kegging I've not looked back. But to each his own.

My set-up is such that I have to move the fermenter some distance (including up a flight of stairs) before racking and this inevitably stirs up some of the trub. Indeed as you state, it also means that I stir some of it up when I rack from the secondary. However, you are leaving out one...

I'm going to offer some opinions different than what others are suggesting: 1) Being even the slightest bit careful when racking beer will significatly mitigate any chances of oxygenating your beer while racking. In the primary fermenter you will get a lot of trub in the bottom, and...

If you want this beer to have higher bitterness then by all means you should boil some hops in water (a little extract won't hurt either) and add it to the fermenter. I've done it and it works well.

I like to secondary. I'm obviously in a minority. I tried not doing it for a while but I liked the results a lot better when i do, and since it adds very little to my clean up, I went back to doing them. As long as you're making yourself happy, do whatever you want.

I was going to use a similar system, but was (overparanoid?) about using a poisonous marker/sharpy to make the marks on the stick knowing that it would be submerged in the beer. Are my fears exaggerated or well founded?

That's a very good idea. I was going to suggest letting it bottle condition upright in a bucket of water to see if you get any bubbles occasionally coming up, but for obvious reasons - your idea is far better. To be honest though, I'd probably forgo the whole exercise in favor of new bottles -...

Ha! it's good you're not married to this batch. But who knows - it may give you an idea of that type of hop in isolation. 1.002 is really far the other way, but given that you don't have any specialty grains in the mix, perhaps it's reasonable. Ride it out and see what happens.

strong alcohol smell/taste... and now vinegar? These are not desirable smells/tastes. And a gravity of 1.020 is higher than normal too, although I haven't plugged numbers into an actual calculator. Your large head space is also far from ideal. Seems like there's a lot of this not quite right...

What else do you need for a first batch? Well honey, I can think of lots of things: About 7-8 fermenter buckets A Keezer about 6 ball lock kegs a 30 gallon kettle 2 Blichmann Burners A brewing stand A Stir plate a fermentation chamber a beer gun just in case you want to take this first batch...

Hi Ben, I'm possibly in the market for a 30 gallon kettle. My current and first kettle is 15 gallons, but I've found that brewing 10 gallon batches in it requires constant attention and effort. A 30 gallon kettle would therefore give me easy room for 10 and room to grow to 15 and possibly...

Vigorous fermentation for a short period - such as a day or two, followed by what appears to be almost dropping off a cliff is perfectly normal. However, fermentation is not yet done. Most of the sugars have been converted, and your gravity will have dropped by the bulk but it'll take a while...