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I always do a secondary for dry hopping and have had great success with gently swirling the fermentor every other day (keeps the pellets in suspension and allows them to sink). Within a week, they're all at the bottom and very easy to avoid. Haven't had oxidation issues or any particles in bottles.

I may be the minority, but I like C120 in darker ales. I used about the same proportion as your stout recipe in my Cascadian Dark (black IPA), and it gave a nice sweet contrast to the 75IBU of hops. That beer was gone faster than any batch I've made yet!

It is possible the garage environment could have killed your yeast - especially if the garage reached triple digits. Although it can be tough to do during the summertime, it's best to keep active fermenters and bottles at a stable temp below 80 degrees if at all possible (reduces off-flavors and...

I wouldn't see an issue in doing a separate boil and adding before flameout. Only trouble with cocoa powder is that it gets lost in the mix IME - not very detectable. I'd taste it after primary and see how you like it. If you want more chocolate kick, do a secondary fermentation with 4-6oz of...

Definitely sounds like an something in your primary and or secondary fermenter. What do you use to sanitize them? I had the same issues using Star-San, which led me to switch to idophor. Like everyone else suggested, I'd replace all tubing and soak the hell out of your buckets with a strong...

If you hit your gravity the first time AG brewing, then you did much better than I did (I was WAY under). If you're batch sparging, draining speed is a non-issue, but fly sparging is a different story. Personally, I just stick with batch sparging since it's quicker and I get good enough...

Sanitation is absolutely key in producing a good quality beer. I've tried bleach, star-san, and idophor, and idophor works the best. As an added bonus, you don't even need to rinse it. I just use an once per 5 gallons of tap water and let all equipment marinate in the solution for about 20-30...

Looks like a solid recipe to me. I don't see anything that would taste bad (at least to me anyway). I dig the maple syrup idea - along with your grain choices and the British ale yeast, you're going to end up with some very complementary flavors. One thing for sure, that beer will have head for...

Definitely true. I've brewed stouts that finished high, but tasted slightly bitter (most likely from black patent), and had a wee heavy scotch ale that finished extremely low (1.008 from 1.085!) but had a sweet finish. Hops, roasted grains, and to some degree, water chemistry (sulfate to...

Once again, you have totally schooled me! Looks like I'm going to need to experiment with this myself - after all, no one wants to wait for their tun to drain any longer than it needs to. It's another example of bad advice I believed to be true, since it helped me in the beginning.

You're probably right. I suppose I took the other school of thought after the result of my first AG brew (ended up with under 50% efficiency with an extremely thin mash). I was told by a fellow brewer that a thin mash was the cause. Looking back on it, I probably didn't dough in properly, and...

It may be a big no no, but I just gently swirl my carboy every other day to get the hop pellets into suspension. After a few days, they pretty much sink to the bottom. Even dry hopping with 2oz in a 5gal batch hasn't caused any siphon clogging. I occasionally get a tiny bit of hop sediment in...

@ Marshall2 That is insanely low gravity. I'm assuming you mashed the grains in the entire 2.5 gallons of water and didn't sparge. A mash that thin would prevent much enzyme conversion from happening. Next time, I'd mash with about 3.5 or 3.75 quarts of water, strain it, then sparge with enough...

IME, you want a slow flow to improve efficiency. I use a rectangular cooler with stainless steel braid, which flows like crazy if I let it. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 quart per minute is what I typically do. This would result in 8-10 minutes to drain 2 galions. Does your system take longer?

Their Irish cream flavor is similar to Baileys (at least close enough for the purpose of flavoring beer). They also sell a couple of different whiskey flavorings, which should approximate the Jameson. I just add the amount I want directly into my boiled priming sugar prior to bottling - no need...

Instead of buying Bailey's and Jameson, you might try using Still Spirits flavorings. Although they're intended to be used in vodka to make various liquors and other spirits, they work quite well in beer and they're fairly cheap. My local homebrew shop sells them for about $5 a bottle, and each...