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Sounds wise to me. Without knowing which recommendations you've seen, I'd be willing to bet that some of the no-boil-before-souring recipes relied on bacteria present on the malted grain. These can be good or bad bacteria, but if you are pitching a lacto blend yourself, you might as well at...

I have never used a schedule quite like the one you describe, but I also suspect that 5 days is just too soon, especially for a recipe that is new to you. It's good that you checked the gravity, but often the yeast need time to clean up some of the flavors they produced during fermentation for a...

I'm not sure if you normally do this, but stirring the wort with a sanitized spoon while the immersion chiller is running really helps the efficiency. The last 20 degrees or so still happen slowly, but with groundwater in the 50s you shouldn't struggle to get down to proper pitching temps (even...

+1 for 1/2" ID silicon tube with high-flow camlocks. I feel much better using silicon for high heat transfers, and the cam locks are convenient as I use them on my pump, chiller, etc. as well

It takes a strong person to recognize a problem and take whatever steps necessary to correct it. I have a great deal of respect for you making this decision. I'll echo what others have said and suggest getting a bbq. The Weber smoky mountain is a great choice! I love sitting out by the smoker...

One advantage of slow carbing (setting to serving pressure from the start) is that there is essentially no risk of overcarbonating the beer. As you'll find out, it's not hard to increase the carbonation, but it's a real pain to decrease it if you overshoot. FWIW, I personally set pressure to...

Are you thinking of lambics? I believe they often use aged hops for the low AA% because the acids in fresh hops can inhibit the growth of microbes desirable for souring.

Awesome, thanks for following up!

The solubility of CO2 decreases as the temperature increases. Fermentation produces a lot of CO2 and some of that is inevitably trapped in the beer(this is why gravity samples can have a little fizz). If the beer ferments cooler it will retain more of this CO2, but if the beer gets warm near the...

I don't have an answer about lagering, but if you want to search the site, go to google and type your search terms and "site:homebrewtalk.com" It's a little out of the way but then you can use google's search algorithms to search the forums instead of the built-in search

I used some in a hefewizen but the yeast obviously covered them up so I'm afraid I can't help you there. If you really want to get a feel for them you could always do a smash.

Typically on a hefewizen I don't use whirlfloc and don't fine at all after fermentation. I'd be willing to guess that a combination of whirlfloc and a gelatin cold crash would clear things up significantly.

How'd it turn out?

+1 for brew 3. Brew 2 looks tasty as is.

If you do decide to add more wort to your boil, I would do it as early as possible, especially if you have Pilsner malt as a base. DMS can only be driven off during boiling and takes some time. Wort sitting at high temperature doesn't volatize DMS and actually leads to more formation of it if...

I usually do. They won't absorb much water, but the sponginess of 1/2 pound of rice hulls can make your mash feel pretty thick.

Instead of doing two batches in parallel, you can also do one batch immediately following the other with only one set of equipment. Once you runoff the first batch, start the second mash to happen during the boil of the first. It takes a bit of multitasking and some extra buckets, but with this...

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When you cleaned your fermenters after batches you knew were contaminated, did you replace everything else plastic that had touched the beer like racking canes etc.?

Often the yeast will hang out at the top right after you pitch them. Once fermentation gets rocking, there will be so much convection going on that everything will be definitely get thoroughly mixed. Cheers!