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First off, if you're going for a standard 1/2" NPT bulkhead, you want a 3/4" holesaw rather than 7/8". Holesaws tend to rip a slightly bigger hole than they're rated for, and also leave rough edges. Once you clean up the rough edges with a dremel or similar, it'll be just about right for the...

You can comfortably do 5-gallon batches in a 7.5 gallon turkey fryer kettle if you use foam control drops. You can still definitely do it without foam control if you watch it like a hawk when it comes to boil, drop the heat, and be ready with a spray bottle of water. IMO, foam control is worth...

Only the temperature of the wort when you pitch the yeast matters. If you use cooler top-off water and can get your wort to an appropriate pitching temp without cooling the post-boil wort as much, then that's okay. However, 80 degrees is too high of a target - it's low enough to not kill the...

Molasses is largely sugar, it should ferment just fine. If anything, I'd be worried about harshness - molasses, minus the sweetness, has a tarry flavor. But that will depend on whether you used the real dark 'blackstrap' molasses, or a lighter version. When I brewed a molasses oatmeal stout...

When making a starter you want oxygen - that's part of the point of using a stirrer. bacteria and other bugs are not an issue as long as the cap and neck of the bottle are clean. See Louis Pasteur's famous swan neck experiment - in short, bacteria rides on dust, and dust can't go UP to get...

+1, fermcap is incredible. No more boilovers, no more krausen explosions during fermentation - it's nice to be able to relax while you wait for your wort to come to a boil, and never need to clean a blowoff tube, airlock, floor, walls, or ceiling ;) I have fermented about 5.75 to 6 gallons in...

That's how I got started with partial mashing and it was a great way to get going. It's a convenient system, works great, and as a huge added bonus, the bulkhead/valve setup can be swapped directly into a larger rubbermaid cooler if you decide to go all-grain, albeit with a longer braid. I...

On the contrary, it can be a very significant difference. Going from a 2 gallon partial boil to a full boil will typically DOUBLE your IBU's, which is not insignificant! The first few batches where I did a very large (~4 gal) or full boil, using ingredient kits and not adjusting the hops, did...

Yeah, really... The first time I bought 1lb of whole hops I was shocked to see the huge bag (the size of a throw pillow) get condensed down to a few 1-gallon bags flattened to like a half inch thick when I vacuum sealed them. When you take them out of the bag again, they're still much more...

Usually hops that are old/oxidized are described as smelling "cheesy"... And I think they may turn yellowish also...

My pick-up tube is a straight piece from the bulkhead, then a 90 degree elbow and another straight piece going down to about 1/4" off the bottom in the dead center of the keg. It will pick up just about all the wort, leaving no more than a few ounces of wort. I picked this arrangement because...

I have two, one is even wireless. I consider them invaluable. I have waterproofed the probe wire of one with silicone tubing (there's a DIY kicking around somewhere) so it's fully waterproof, and that one gets used in the mash. I use the wireless one for heating strike/sparge water or...

Considering the pump is $120 right now at austin homebrew, WITH a bracket, it sounds like either he didn't get you such a great deal, or the AHB deal is even better than it seems :p

When CO2 escapes from the tank, it gets very cold. Dump it fast enough and you can easily sheet the tank in ice in a matter of a minute or two. If your regulator is freezing up my first guess would be to look for a huge leak, which would also explain the noises.

I think you're both right in some way. I would define efficiency as the amount of heat removed per unit volume of cooling water. By my definition, I think your view is wrong unless you replace the word 'efficiency' with 'speed'. I think your dad's opinion is close to the truth - lower flow...

Every JW Dundee beer I have had tastes like roughly the same thing, with a little bit of flavor and color nudging it toward a particular style from some common, bland center point. I think it's definitely in the "fake" craft beer category. IMO, the only thing it had going for it was that it...

If you are starting from a recipe that already uses a full boil, then everything scales up uniformly. To go from 5 gallon to 10 gallon, double everything.

It seems when you mention home brewing, a lot of people have an old relative or friend who homebrewed way back when, and they always seem to remember the beer being pretty terrible. Nowadays, pretty much all home brewers who use the internet or have a halfway decent LHBS should at least know...

OG=1.039 FG=1.008 IBU=26 SRM=40 ABV=4.0% 5.88lb 2-row 8oz wheat malt 6oz cane sugar 4oz crystal 60L 6oz chocolate malt 4.5oz roasted barley (500L) 1.5oz black patent (500L) 3.5AAU Challenger hops (60 min) 3.0AAU Kent Goldings hops (60 min) 1AAU hallertau hersbrucker hops (15 mins)...

I use a banjo burner, and its overall footprint could be considered square as well - and in fact, in those pictures, I was using my old cheap burner, which was the typical square-frame type - but the round shield is fine for both as it doesn't need to tightly surround the burner.