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If your goal is a low final gravity, than the advice given to you by the brewmaster is not relevant. He was telling you to mash higher because red ales are styled to have a higher final gravity.

+1 on roasted barley. Some people even say it's not a stout unless you use roasted barley.

Glad it turned out well, but I think something is seriously wrong if you're getting 30% efficiency on a batch. With those kind of numbers I would expect that your grains went in completely uncrushed, or your temperature was like 20 degrees too low. I'd buy yourself a mill and a high quality...

This is interesting. The more pronounced spice character is kind of what I'm after, but I don't want it to overpower the other elements. Maybe I'll use 1.5 times as much in the boil.

It seems pretty standard to throw the corriander and orange peel additions in towards the end of the boil. Is there any reason you can't add them during secondary fermentation? Would it be the same flavor, better, or worse?

Blackberry is kind of a delicate flavor, so it seems like it would go great with a wit, but it is also a strong color. To add enough blackberries to be able to taste it, say 5 lbs minimum, you're going to be effecting your color in a way that is very uncharacteristic of a wit. I would try find a...

No, I have never tried it. It's just sort of what my home brewers noggin tells me would happen. The one difference with ajf's process that might be a factor is that he has a Polarware. The Blichmann false bottom has a lot of solid metal, so I feel like it would constrict heat flow more. It seems...

It would really mess with the temperature consistency of your boil to have the mash screen in there. You'll get excessive carmelization below the screen, and not enough of a rolling boil above the screen to fully optimize protein coagulation.

You're good on that front then. In fact, it looks like you did a lot right where it could have gone wrong. I don't know if this is your specific problem, but they say that you should do a more complex mashing process with home malted grain. I don't know if a simply protein rest would do it...

Could it be hop particles floating on the krausen of your IPA, like a greenish sludge from the remains of hop pellets mixed with yeast? If it tastes fine it is fine.

My suggestion is that you call the blonde "barely legal" rather than "illegal". It evokes a certain kind of image. ;)

That will work only if you have an air stone to pump oxygen into the water. Seeds needs oxygen just like people do. If you leave them soaked indefinitely with no way for them to get oxygen, then they might drown. You'll know you did this if only a few of the seeds have chits after a few days...

Oh yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if it was the coffee, specifically the oils from the bean.

I know exactly what happened, or rather the exact same thing that happened to you happened to me also, and I have been able to fix it in future batches. Literally the exact same thing happened to me - the vomit smell, the white gluey stuff (I assume it was a kind of mold). I think we over-soaked...

Regarding oats, everything I've seen says it would enhance head retention in the same way wheat or rye would. If by chance it does kill head retention, then at least you make up what you lose in terms of mouthfeel, right? I've used 1084, and while it didn't produce a huge krausen for me, there...

I was under the impression that flaked oats aided in head retention, not hindered it. Are you talking about regular oat malt or steel cut oats? I would think they would help head retention as well. Also, I'm not sure no krausen translates directly to no head. I mean, krausen is mostly yeast and...

For one thing you should be using more water in order to collect more wort. If you're doing a 5 gallon batch then you want to collect at minimum 6-6.5 gallons. Keep your initial mash infusion at whatever ratio you were using (looks like about 1.2 quarts per lb which is fine) and use more sparge...

I have read that it's better to pitch the yeast when it's at the peak of fermentation. If you wait until it finishes, put the starter in the fridge, and then decant the liquid off, then the yeast have to wake up before they can start on your main batch. Plus they are further along in their life...

You're completely screwed.

I think you've more or less made a braggot instead of a beer because you got a low efficiency from the malt and the efficiency from the sugar in the honey was unaffected. It's not simply a beer with honey as an adjunct, and because of that it will take longer to ferment.