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So I've made a few yeast starters, but it's time for a big beer. I need to step this one and I've never done that before. I've run the numbers through a pitching calculator and need two 1 liter starters. Would one of you folks who are more experienced than me verify that my process is correct...

Have you considered the two roller Monster? It would fit nicely between the two. When I was looking, I was scared away from the BC by the large number of complaints on here, coupled with the manufacturer's unresponsiveness. Your mileage may vary. After some emailing with Monster, I decided on...

I spoke with 5 star in person about this at the AHA conference. They said that cloudiness means it is reacting with the contents of the water, which has a negative impact on its sanitizing ability. If it clouds immediately in your water, it should be good for the brew day, but should be...

For your first attempt, you won't know for sure. In my opinion, you should determine your boil off rate with water (if you don't already know) and measure your mash tun deadspace with water. This will get you pretty close on volume. If it's not perfect, don't sweat it. Take good notes so you...

I use Brewer's Friend and am really satisfied! It is constantly developed with a set of new features each month.

Mine has always been good after 20 to 30 minutes of soaking in PBW and hot water. I always have a backup tube ready to go just in case, though.

I have a 10 gallon Boilermaker. I only use it as my boil kettle but I can't see brewing without it. The pre-calibrated sight glass rocks. The thermometer is a nice-to-have, but I find it handy to know what temperature things are at while chilling. If I had the money, I'd pick up another...

I actually haven't bothered trying it yet, but I've heard everything from within a point or two to wildly inaccurate. I have two batches to bottle soon, so maybe I'll give it a whirl. Even so, they're still handy if you need to check fermentation status. The reading may not be accurate...

Once alcohol is present, it skews the reading. There are calculations that will get you close, but I just measure FG with a hydrometer since I want a taste anyway. More info on the calculations can be found at http://seanterrill.com

It goes on sale (deal of the day) from time-to-time. I wanted to get one for a brew, so I just spent the $60. For what it's worth, while I ignore it, the SG scale has basically been pretty accurate for the two brews that did in the mid-50 point range. I actually had originally purchased the...

Yes! I was initially puzzled why there was a large discrepancy. I threw my hydrometer in distilled water and temp corrected, it read four points high! That's frustrating, but now I know, and the readings are agreeing so far.

You would be wise to ignore the SG scale on the refractometer. It serves well to give you an idea, but you can't really count on it to give you accurate results. The manufacturers would do well to stop putting SG scales on at all. I really don't fully understand why some refractometers need a...

Here's a link to a spreadsheet that will help determine your wort correction factor: http://www.brewersfriend.com/how-to-determine-your-refractometers-wort-correction-factor/

It's possible that none of the conversions (alone) are correct given your refractometer. Read up on wort correction factors. If you want accuracy, you need to take comparative readings with your hydrometer to determine what your wort correction factor is. Once you know that, you can plug brix...

I've only used mine twice but am really satisfied. You have to read up on them. I was concerned after reading about a lot of negative experiences, but so far it has led me to discover that my hydrometer was off by 4 points, and after accounting for that, agrees. The tiny sample size is great...

Mine did too, which led me to actually check my hydrometer in distilled water. With temp correction my hydrometer read +4 points and confirmed that my refractometer was correct. This explained why my gravities were on the high side...by four points!

Update...I re-read the instructions and couldn't find any reason my plan wouldn't work. I changed it electronically and it appears to work fine. The hardest part was peeling the now incorrect heating and cooling labels off!

So I got a dual stage Ranco temp controller that is pre-wired with the two outlets on the bottom. The top outlet is labeled cooling and the bottom heating. Since most fridges and freezers have plugs that will render the lower outlet useless, I've been trying to figure out the best solution. Is...

Did anyone else purchase this yet? The performance can be a bit on the slow side at times, but otherwise it looks pretty good. Hopefully a future update will improve performance.

I'm guessing that there are at least some folks that have been waiting for this. I happened to check BeerSmith's site for an update and came across this: http://beersmith.com/blog/2013/04/22/beersmith-mobile-brewing-app-preview-for-iphone-ipad-android-and-kindle/ I'm definitely excited as I...