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You can probably salvage it if you add more fermentables you need another about 3 lbs of malt extract dissolved in just enough water to dissolve and briefly boiled then cooled if it's 5 gallons. you might use a mix of malts and honey and stuff try to get some interesting flavors going on

the way to think about it is you will never end much below 1.000 no matter what, and usually 1.005-1.015, so if you start at 1.025 you just have way too low an amount of fermentables to ever get over 2% or so. was the original recipe for maybe half the amount of gallons (recipe for 2.5...

depends how far off you don't want to have more than 1/3 or so of your fermentables come from dextrose or you might end up with rocket fuel- not enough nonfermentables to cover flavor of alcohol you can also use light malt extract

I would use a wood barrel only for something stronger like wine or a high strength beer of some kind

it makes little difference but ideally tap water should be boiled then cooled to room temp to drive off any remaining chlorine

You can do this but be aware if you repitch more than one time you can have issues

The problem is you have to stir it thoroughly which has the opposite effect of cold crashing (distributes yeast thoroughly). If you don't stir it you might end up with bottles ranging from zero carbonation to bottle bombs- if the priming solution sinks to the bottom and doesn't mix

As long as your bottling bucket is the right kind of plastic and food grade and has a lid that seals ok it is usable. The main problem is too much head space but if it's only in there a week and actively fermenting this is not an issue as CO2 is pushing out the air

Changing yeasts is sort of a more advanced topic, once you have many batches done. This is why many beginners have a couple of go-to yeasts like safale us-05. The bigger concern on your first batch is using a yeast that is robust and will be forgiving and still give you a decent result if...

oh yeah and don't worry about a secondary. as long as your gravity is stable and you are careful about not disturbing the yeast too much when you bottle it will be good

My guess is you could find a dark beer kit intended to be a non-IPA with a relatively neutral flavor profile and doctor it up with extra hops and some grains and extra extract to make a dark ipa like style or mix a regular IPA kit with some mix of light and dark malt extracts and hops- don't...

I always just pitch straight into the wort or make a starter, never had an issue- but i don't try using specialty strains or lagers or anything, just ale yeast

I was going to say the 8 lbs per gallon trick or 8.3 or whatever but also if it's wort correct for gravity- so if you weigh it at 40 lbs and gravity is 1.05 the gallon measure is 40/8.35/1.05 =4.56 gallon

The secondary myth is a way to increase sales of glass carboys in "everything you need" kits which have a lot of profit margin.

bitterness (if it is excessive hop bitterness) does diminish over time. Probably best bet is to give it a couple months and retaste. If it'

Oh and also a lot of extract kits tell you to add 3 pounds of table sugar, this doesn't give optimal results, just use a second extract kit instead of extra sugar or buy malt extract at the homebrew shop instead of sugar- they can tell you how much to substitute.

I'd take the 2 batches that you aren't happy with and put them in a cool dark place for 4 months then taste one. It might be easier to do an easy style with a forgiving yeast then try for more exotic varieties after you nail it a couple times. Try an american ale style with a yeast like...

it will probably ferment just fine, you just have the problem of removing the sediment later so it might be better to get it out before starting

Do not stir them. The yeast stir it themselves. Stirring adds oxygen and can affect the flavor negatively.

This is completely typical. 1.020 after a week is fine. I haven't had problems getting cider to just go straight down to close to 1.000 most of the sugars are easily fermentable for the yeast. If you have problems with the gravity stalling use Lalvin EC-1118