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Well, the recipe is a little nuts, but that's the kinda beers I make. This'll be my first all-grain! I would appreciate comments greatly. Please note: I couldn't figure out how to add pumpkin, sweet potato, and maple syrup to BeerSmith, so those are not accounted for in the IBUs, the color...

Apparently Germans are not up to the heroic drinking tasks required to be awesome runners?

Don't know if this has hit the board yet, but if not, check out the story here: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/24/nonalcoholic-beer-aids-marathon-recovery/ Granted, there's a lot of conditions attached to this, and we'll have to see whether alcoholic beer has the same effect, and...

Yeah, their Punkin is tasty! I just polished off a bottle of my Spiced Amber. I swear it's better than it was 2 weeks ago! Real crisp, clean and tasty.

Ha ha, must be a lot of folks brewing pumpkin ales right now... the Giant by me is totally sold out of Libby's. Anyway, between deck and stovetop I can probably fit 4 simultaneous brewers here if people bring their own burners and stuff. I'm doing a brew day with 5-6 friends on Saturday...

Ah. So the cidery thing is not true?

Did the beer turn out ok?

That's true, sometimes the fresh-boiled hops can taste chemical-y and bitter. If all your stuff was clean and well-rinsed, and the hops were not rancid, it's probably OK and will be better after it ferments and sits for a while.

That's my plan as well (grain bag for the pumpkin). I've done it several times in partial-match situations and the beer never seemed to suffer for it. I don't really know how critical it is, there may not even be that much (if any) starch in a pumpkin anyway.

I've been told regular sugar leaves a cidery flavor, but now that I think about it it probably doesn't matter given the small amount used for bottling, right?

Do you have a particular budget in mind? Regardless of budget it may not make sense to go nuts on a kit until you've tried a few brews, but you can definitely piece together a 5-gallon all-grain setup for not THAT much money.

Columbia, MD. Doing a big brew on Saturday, actually, and I live 5 minutes from MDHB (which I <3). I am now brewing regularly after a little time off.

Was there maybe some sanitizer left in something?

Ugh, looks like I'm going to have to build my own. LHBS wants like $90 for the $25-foot one. For that much I can get 50 feet, plus the spring-tube-bender. Not sure what other hardware is involved, but I'll figure it out.

I'm awesome, man! Just happy to be brewing regularly again. As far as the ball valve, that's true, I've been worrying about the sparging issue. I'll pick up the ball valve tomorrow and see if I can get it in easy.

Both good ideas! Thanks much, I think it'll go really well.

Ya, I wouldn't worry about it. I get the occasional ring-looking thing in some of my bottles (carbing with priming sugar, not DME), but have not had an infection yet.

I think for now my plan is to schlep the cooler onto a table (and eventually put together a brewing stand), and then just let it drain from the spout thing down into the kettle. Also, a question on heat retention: I tested it out today, by putting in about 7 gallons of water at 165*F. I...

Haha! I'm such a liar! I didn't bottle until today... sigh. But! It tastes pretty fun, it'll be nice to see what it's like carbed and chilled. So... give it 2 weeks! FG was 1016, so that makes ABV somewhere around 5%. Not too bad!

Dammit... and I just got done shuddering from the first time I came across that. You are now my nemesis, sir.