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I am not an expert but after studying boil time data some I have concluded that this isn't something worth spending much time worrying about. I doubt you could tell the difference in your final beer with a 60 vs 90 min boil in the vast majority of your beers (and maybe all of them). For me, it...

Those Thermapens have a very tiny and fragile wire that goes through the folding seam. Eventually it will break with repeated opening and closing of the pen. I have gone through 2 of them so far and don’t really trust long term. I now buy the Inkbird ones instead.

That is exactly what happens when my cold freezer mugs get exposed to humid air - ie. the frosty mug. That is normal with a refrigerator without a defrost mechanism. Just let it warm up and thaw when it builds up too much. That is not a sign of a malfunction.

Setting everything up the night before will even allow me to brew two separate beers the same day and still finish by afternoon. I then mash the second beer as the first one is boiling, etc. etc.. This allows me to brew half as many days every year for the same amount of beer. I also make my...

There is one other simple option. Just give it enough time to ferment and don't even bother with multiple gravity readings. On most of my beers, I just give them 2 weeks or so in the fermenter before I transfer to the keg. I then maybe take a gravity reading just to calculate ABV but often...

I am not sure I understand about needing an output container in the fridge. It only takes a few minutes to push out Star San from a keg with a CO2 tank and only a little longer with fermentation CO2. I just run a small hose to a bucket to collect the Star San which doesn't need to be in the...

I would tweak a couple things. I would fill keg 2 with Star San and then push it out with the fermentation CO2 so there is never any oxygen in Keg 2. To do a pressure transfer from Keg 1 to Keg 2, you will need to maintain a small pressure difference that won't quickly equalize as the beer...

I made myself a whirlpool paddle something like the link below except with just one fin. I attach it to my portable drill and spin it fast in my boil kettle for 20-30 sec. I then let it sit for 10 min or so as I am cleaning up and then transfer to my fermenter from the edge of the boil kettle...

+1. This is almost exactly what I do and it works perfect every time.

Why wouldn’t you pressure ferment from day 1 if you have a spunding valve and a fermenter that holds pressure?

If you really intend to expand to bigger batches, all grain, etc., do yourself a favor and get a decent burner. It is frustrating trying to do this with inadequate equipment. For me, the biggest downside to homebrewing is the amount of time that it takes on brew days. I reduced my time...

I think it will turn out almost exactly as it was designed. I will be about 6.3% alcohol with those gravity readings which will taste a little stronger. I would bottle or keg it. Here is the inexpensive mini refrigerator that I use (with free shipping). It is kind of hard to find a...

You certainly can get an autosiphon for transfers to the keg and you will get faster flow with the bigger hose. Of course, that won't help with oxidation issues. On the other hand, slow transfers aren't the end of the world. If you are serious about preventing oxidation with fermentation and...

You can use a larger diameter hose. The flow rate will be determined by the resistance in the hose (determined by the size of the siphon port and the hose) and the pressure difference from top to bottom (determined by the height if just using gravity). I assume your bucket fermenter and the...

I doubt that is a problem but I wouldn't even know because I would never open my fermenter to look because it would expose it to oxygen. I would quit looking and have a homebrew.

The worst first step in homebrewing is to throw money at it before you have a very good understanding of the whole process. Homebrewing also has nothing to do with "investing." I also wouldn't depend much on what I read on an internet forum although that can be interesting. The best first...

Sorry to hear that. I would be brewing again tomorrow.

I just bought flaked corn at my favorite online brewing store for $1.89 per lb. My last Cream Ale recipe called for 1 lb. It wouldn't be worth it to me to experiment with feed store corn that is made for animal feed (or to cook grits for that matter).

Distilled water is distilled water. Go for it.

I only use the stainless auto siphon to transfer the wort after I have chilled it to room or pitching temperatures so any tubing would work fine including the high quality tubing that it came with. Another advantage to this technique for me is that I place a kitchen type colander filter on top...