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I mostly brew 2.5-3 gallon batches via BIAB. Right now I use a hydrometer to measure my OG/FG but I don't like how much beer it wastes. I'd like to buy a refractometer and start using that. I have a couple questions regarding refractometers: 1. Can you take a drop of wort right after the mash...

I brewed the Northern Brewery Kama Citra AG (https://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/allgrain/AG-KamaCitra.pdf) and bottled 2 weeks ago. I tried the first bottle and the head was big, aroma strong, and had a good hoppy forward taste. However, the backend taste was a little watery and body...

Huh? Why would I lose carbonation? All I'm doing is racking 1/2 of my beer to a bottling bucket, adding priming sugar, and bottling. Then a few weeks later, racking the other 1/2 of my beer to a bottling bucket, adding priming sugar, and bottling.

Due to some complications, I can only bottle half of my beer now and, in about 3 weeks, bottle the remaining half. I expect this to be OK but other than oxidation risks, is there anything I need to worry about?

Fermentation is (likely) finished with a FG of 1.012 - OG was 1.060. I did taste it, see my previous post. I did not splash when adding the spice though I do not see why it would be an "advantage" to add it at bottling. Either I add it to the fermenter now or the bottling bucket later. Either...

I added another 1/2 tsp (boiled for 5 minutes in 1 cup of water) to the primary fermenter. I tasted it before and didn't get a strong spice flavor. Tasting after I get more spice but not too strong so I think it was a good idea to add a bit more. Thanks for the advice!

Why do I have to let it sit a week? I'm thinking of taking a sample today and adding another 1/2 tsp by adding Pumpkin Pie spice and boiling it in water for a few minutes. Would this work? I don't have vodka available right now.

Still wondering about this. I'm afraid I did not add enough spice during the boil. I'm leaning towards adding another 1/2 tsp about 1 week before bottling. Thoughts?

I never said fruit flies do not carry bacteria. I said I would be surprised if they caused an infection especially after fermentation.

I would be really surprised if fruit flies cause any type of infection...

Sorry, first post was done in a hurry. I made my pumpkin ale with 1/2 tsp of Pumpkin Pie spice at flameout for a 3 gallon batch. Will this give a noticable spice flavor? Should I add more spice after it's finished fermenting or to the bottling bucket at bottle time? If so, how much?

I don't have a bottling tree but I do have a vitner. I just shoot 3-4 sprays in a bottle then dump out the starsan and then bottle. Works well and doesn't take too long.

This doesn't prove a whole lot - at most only that it won't make you sick immediately. I'm more interested in long term effects. I doubt there has been a study on how small dosages, e.g., the amount in homebrew, affects a person over, say, 30 years.

Does one have to worry about consuming too much diluted starsan? In particular, any long term side effects?

I'm going to make a Pumpkin Ale today. If I just use Pumpkin Pie spice, say 1/2-3/4 tap, is that enough or do I need other spices? I believe Pumpkin Pie spice is a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and allspice.

My tap water has a lot of chlorine / chloramines so I've been using campden tablets to treat it for my partial mashes. Now that I'm moving to all-grain, I've been told I need to treat my water more so I plan on using distilled water and building the profile. For the mash water I understand why...

It seems like I may only need to treat the mash water since the sparge is only for rinsing the sugars off the grain. Thoughts?

Revisiting this thread... I'm considering getting distilled water and building up the profile from there as suggested by several people. One question I have is if I plan on brewing a 3 gallon batch using ~2.5 gallons for the mash and ~1.5 gallons sparge, do I need to treat the sparge water or...

From my experience, they package the grain all together in a plastic bag. What I do when I split kits is to mix up the grain as best as I can then just measure out the amount I need. The mix isn't perfect but I've never noticed any difference in flavor or appearance.

I'm hoping to do a 3 gallon batch in a 5 gallon kettle. I estimated I'll need about 4.75 gallons of water to end with 3 gallons after boil. I'm planning on doing 3 gallons for mash then 1.75 for sparge. Think this will work?